![Tracy Palandjian, Deval Patrick, and Aneesh Raman smile on their individual screens at the start of the virtual conversation](https://socialfinance.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/08/linkedinlive-e1690987158425-1000x565.png")
Impact Investments, Workforce & Economic Mobility
Key Takeaway
New education and training models are filling labor shortages and creating economic opportunities for more people.
Social Finance Board Member Gov. Deval Patrick joined CEO Tracy Palandjian for a LinkedIn Live conversation exploring new education and training approaches that fill critical labor shortages and create economic opportunities for more people. LinkedIn’s Aneesh Raman moderated the discussion, which expanded on Tracy and Governor Patrick’s Boston Globe opinion piece.
Listen to key moments from the conversation below:
1. “LinkedIn has real-time, granular data on the labor market. Here’s what we’re seeing.” — Aneesh Raman
2. “We have a real opportunity to ensure that this new injection of funding results in tangible outcomes. That’s going to mean shared prosperity for both workers and businesses alike.” — Tracy Palandjian
3. “I had grit, I had determination . . . but I also had housing we could afford and food assistance when we were hungry. We had an emphasis in our household on education. And even in our broken public schools, we had great teachers who were well prepared, who cared about us and paid attention to us, and helped us raise our expectations of ourselves.” — Gov. Deval Patrick
4. “There is a total lack of transparency around the labor market. Just knowing what the rules are is very difficult for people who aren’t born into that knowledge. And so, in this moment, we need radical transparency to make more objective and true what it takes to get ahead, and then we need to make that accessible to people so that everyone’s got that same shot. That’s why I’m so bullish on skills-first thinking.” — Aneesh Raman
5. “The New Jersey Pay It Forward Program is focused on outcomes, so students only repay the cost of the program if they get a good job that meets a particular salary floor. Whatever students pay back is interest-and fee-free—just the principle alone. If a student doesn’t get a good job after graduating, they don’t owe anything. The fund is designed so that as people pay back more money, we’ll be able to serve more workers. This mechanism extends the impact of each public dollar.” — Tracy Palandjian
6. “We engaged with the business community, labor, and policymakers to reimagine what the State’s future economic ecosystem might be. The question was, how can government fill the gaps to help drive cross-sector strategies and turn things around?” — Gov. Deval Patrick
7. “Rather than being passive recipients of what the public system might deliver for them in terms of talent, employers are becoming active investors in the training and education system.” — Tracy Palandjian
Related Insight
![Headshots of Deval Patrick and Tracy Palandjian on a teal background](https://socialfinance.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/05/EVENT-Version-2-2-1000x673.png")
Social Finance in The Boston Globe: An Overhaul of How Workers are Trained and Educated
Job training may sound dull, but getting it right is a key part of creating opportunity for people and places that have been left behind—and ultimately strengthening our economy and democracy.
![A group of people sitting on stage at an event.](https://socialfinance.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/06/52185397356_3d675df51d_o-scaled-1-e1668712662608-1000x778.jpeg")
Aspen Ideas Festival 2022: Innovations in Workforce Development: New Models to Finance the Future of Work
![Workforce Realigned: How new partnerships are advancing economic mobility. Partnership between impact investment groups and banks depicted using white text and circles with orange and green lines splitting them in half.](https://socialfinance.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/Untitled-design-5-1000x571.png")