Watch: A conversation on pathways for the future of work

On Thursday, May 27, Axios future correspondent Bryan Walsh and business reporter Erica Pandey unpacked how institutions are preparing students and workers of all ages for a post-pandemic job landscape, featuring Handshake CEO and co-founder Garrett Lord and Ford Foundation Future of Work(ers) director Sarita Gupta.

Garrett Lord described how the pandemic has changed the ways companies recruit recent graduates and the long-term impact of normalizing education outside of the four-year undergraduate model.

• How companies have evolved in their approach to recruitment: "Companies are proactively reaching out at scale to students based on skills and capabilities and looking at more inclusive measures of what talent is other than just what school we go to."
• On online recruitment fairs for students: "We're really proving that going virtual is more inclusive, is more effective and more cost-efficient. We think that this category will never look the same."

Sarita Gupta discussed how the pandemic has impacted the future for workers, the job landscape, and the importance of having stronger care infrastructure.

• On how the pandemic is an opportunity to rethink how we understand and value work: "There's been a disproportionate toll on workers and low wage jobs, mostly impacting black and brown communities, women, poor urban and rural communities and people with disabilities...Are we as a society going to create opportunities for working people or are we going to continue to have working people live with tremendous insecurity?"
• How this moment presents an opportunity for policymakers and workers alike: "[Essential workers] have reflected on these really important questions: Is this job worth it being provided an adequate salary or wages? This is coupled with policymakers who are trying to figure out how to build the economy back stronger, which means they're considering pathways to create good jobs and more opportunities and to address the broader set of needs that working people face."

Axios Chief People Officer Dominique Taylor hosted a View from the Top Segment with University of Phoenix president Peter Cohen on the impact of social capital in helping recent graduates find jobs and inequities for first-generation students.

• "People who grew up in a family...who have degrees and successful careers automatically have an edge because they have strong social capital and a vast network built in that they can tap into when they're starting their careers. But for first-generation college students, people from underprivileged backgrounds, or simply people who come from families were the first ones to work at a corporate job, they're sometimes starting directly from scratch."

Thank you University of Phoenix for sponsoring this event.