We are pleased to open our nomination process for a new cohort of the Aspen Institute Economic Opportunities Program’s Job Quality Fellows. Selected Fellows will participate in a year-long experience intended to engage Fellows in a process of peer learning and support, strengthen their capacities and expand their networks, and center the importance of job quality in our narratives about work. The Fellowship provides an opportunity to elevate attention to the work of leaders who are exemplars of job quality work, and lessons from the Fellows’ experience will be distilled and broadly shared. Please consider nominating individuals who are innovative, forward-thinking, passionate about addressing the challenge of equity and inclusion in the US economy, and committed to improving the quality of jobs in the U.S.
Who are we looking for?
With this class of Fellows, we will be focusing on the intersection between workforce development and worker organizing/advocacy. The Fellowship will select leaders of organizations working to improve the quality of jobs and who have an interest in helping workers to understand and defend their rights at work.
We plan to select ten Fellows and expect that about half will be from workforce development and training organizations and others will join from labor unions, workers’ centers, and other worker rights advocacy organizations. Building workers’ understanding of and capacity to defend their rights and protections in the workplace and workforce development and training are complementary. We seek leaders of initiatives that intentionally connect efforts in these two areas.
Nomination process
The form to nominate one or more leaders for this program is found here. Based on information from the nomination form, eligible nominees will receive additional information and an application for the fellowship.
- Job Quality Fellowship nominations deadline is December 17, 2021 at 10:00pm EST.
- Job Quality Fellowship application deadline — forms are completed by nominees — is Tuesday, January 4, 2022 at 11:59pm EST.
Informational webinar
On Tuesday, November 30, we hosted an informational webinar about the Job Quality Fellowship. In addition to providing an overview of the nomination and application process, we were pleased to welcome two Job Quality Fellows to this conversation—Amanda Cage, president and CEO of the National Fund for Workforce Solutions, and Jess Kutch, co-founder and co-executive director of Coworker.org—who shared their experience as members of the Fellowship. We also left plenty of time for your questions at the end.
Why this focus now?
Improving job quality improves livelihoods and often transforms lives. Low-wage work in the US economy is far too pervasive. According to a Brookings Institution 2019 report, 53 million workers (44% of all 18-64 working adults) earn low hourly wages. While the economy has expanded, too few workers share in the benefits. The time is now to address the challenge directly and focus on improving job quality for millions who work hard and contribute to our economy. We can no longer afford to have hard working people excluded from the abundance of our economy and marginalized by our society. We need to focus in this moment on the opportunities we have to improve the quality of jobs, and the lives and livelihoods of millions of individuals and families. And that is the theme for the 2022/2023 Job Quality Fellowship.
Nominate a Leader
For more information about the Job Quality Fellowship, we invite you to visit our website, as.pn/jobquality. Please let us know if you have any questions or thoughts by emailing us at eop.program@aspeninstitute.org.
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Tweet Open for nominations! We must focus on fixing jobs and strengthening workers’ rights and protections. The @AspenInstitute #JobQuality Fellowship aims to do that. Nominate a leader (which could be yourself) who is committed to this work.
Tweet The @AspenInstitute Economic Opportunities Program is looking for a new cohort of #JobQuality Fellows! If you know a leader working to improve #jobquality who is committed to #workersrights and #equity, nominate them today.
Tweet Do you know a leader of an organization working to improve #jobquality in the US? Are they committed to #equity, #inclusion, and #workersrights? Nominate them for the next class of #JobQuality Fellows.
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