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Axios roundtable on the future of the workforce

On Wednesday November 18 Axios' Sara Fischer and Dan Primack hosted the second in a series of three virtual roundtables, featuring policymakers, academics, and nonprofit leaders to discuss the workforce recovery after COVID-19 and the importance of digital tools, skills, and access.

Markle Foundation Chief Operating Officer Beth F. Cobert and Google.org Head of Impact and Insights Andrew Dunckelman highlighted how the pandemic has accelerated a shift to online businesses, citing research from the National Skills Coalition that reported that 1 in 3 American workers has limited or no digital skills. Roundtable participants discussed how to approach that critical digital skills gap and more broadly, the pandemic's affect on businesses and workers.

Sonja Diaz, Founding Director at UCLA's Latino Policy & Politics Initiative discussed how to create policy solutions for the businesses most acutely affected by the pandemic.

  • "A lot of the gains made by minority businesses have been outside of the regulatory sphere, meaning that they've been able to do this because of personal connections, community connections. They're under-financed and under-banked. So if we think about policy interventions, we know that tailoring and centering them on the needs of women and minority owned businesses is going to be a return on investment."

Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-IL) highlighted how the digital economy is a critical part of COVID-19 economic recovery.

  • "I think what the Americans are waiting for right now is the opportunity to have something really big and bold that speaks to them about their future and their jobs. And I certainly think that the digital economy can be built right into that."

Traci Scott, Workforce Vice President at the National Urban League stressed the importance of meeting users where they're at in terms of digital skills training.

  • "We would have virtual job fairs, but what we found is that people didn't know how to work Zoom. They had never navigated through Zoom. So then we realized that we had to go even deeper in our training just to train individuals on just how to use something that we all take advantage of."

Trevor Parham, Founder and Director of Oakstop and the Oakland Black Business Fund discussed how to see digital tools as something beyond just economic exchange.

  • "We need to focus not just on tools that are going to allow people to create economic transactions, but on whether it is technology or other tools or infrastructure that is going to allow us to restore our ability to be a real human community."

Read the recap of our first roundtable event here.

Thank you Google for sponsoring this event.

Go deeper

Axios Events
Updated Dec 1, 2020 - Axios Events

Watch: COVID-19 and the AIDS Fight

Axios' Mike Allen, Niala Boodhoo and Caitlin Owens hosted a conversation on the global response to two pandemics — AIDS and COVID-19, featuring Every Mother Counts founder Christy Turlington Burns, Churches Health Association of Zambia Head of Advocacy Yoram Siame and ONE Campaign President and CEO Gayle E. Smith.

Christy Turlington Burns discussed maternal health in the U.S. and the impact of COVID-19, highlighting how the risk of complications during pregnancy is especially high for Black and Indigenous women.

  • On the role of midwives and doulas in maternity care: "There are very few states in the country that adequately support these types of health care workers who we know make a huge difference in the impact of childbirth for any woman, let alone a woman who may have a chronic health condition or be marginalized."

Yoram Siame unpacked Zambia's fight against COVID-19 and the country's investment in public health safety.

  • On COVID-19's impact on Zambia: "Zambia is a landlocked country, which means that we depend on our neighbors for most of the goods and services. And when those countries go into lockdown, it means that our supply is cut off. And this has a big impact on economic activity."
  • How COVID-19 presents a challenge for treating existing diseases: "We are living in an environment where we don't have the number of health workers that we need. COVID-19 means that this literal human resource is shared between us and issues like HIV, TB, malaria, and non-communicable diseases like cancer, which are not going away."

Gayle E. Smith discussed how the COVID-19 pandemic has diverted resources from efforts to care for patients with AIDS and HIV and malaria, and the challenges of fighting two epidemics.

  • On the unique bipartisan support for fighting AIDS: "There's a fair amount of division floating around Washington, so to know that ending this epidemic...is still a priority and still a place where Democrats and Republicans have shown that they can work together is encouraging."

Donate to (RED) and help fight both pandemics.

Thank you Bank of America for sponsoring this event.

Axios Events
Updated Dec 2, 2020 - Axios Events

Watch: A conversation on eliminating waste in the environment

Axios' Alison Snyder and Dan Primack hosted a conversation on how policymakers and businesses can work together to eliminate waste in the environment, featuring congresswoman and founder of the Congressional Plastics Solutions Task Force Haley Stevens (D-Mich.), founder and CEO of The Recycling Partnership Keefe Harrison and managing director of Closed Loop Partners Bridget Croke.

Keefe Harrison discussed the scope of the plastic waste problem and how companies can be held to higher standards around environmental protection.

  • On how quickly the plastic waste problem is accelerating: "If we don't do something by 2050, there will be more plastics in the ocean than fish. That's my number one motivator."
  • On going from a linear to a circular economy: "If we model our economy around that circular system where the products from one thing becomes fuel for another, we start to see opportunities to make sure that we're again thinking about the design and delivery of goods, not just what is something packaged in."

Bridget Croke unpacked the economic potential of a circular economy and the shift by big companies to move away from single use plastics.

  • "When a large company like a Unilever or a Wal-Mart commits to using recycled content or doing refill models, that sends a market signal. That shows there's a lot of business opportunity in those emerging models and that these companies are moving away from using kind of extractive virgin plastics and materials."

Rep. Haley Stevens discussed the challenges of new technology applications and how grants and non-profits play an important role in funding recycling programs.

  • On new recycling technology at the local level: "We've got a technology problem. The logistics are there. You've got a lot of households that have fully embraced recycling. You've got municipalities who are prepared for it. Where they're stopped is on costs."

Axios co-founder and CEO Jim VandeHei hosted a View from the Top segment with American Chemistry Council president and CEO Chris Jahn and discussed modernizing recycling and the future of plastics.

  • On how to rethink plastics as a material: "Advanced recycling is a key part of the puzzle here in fixing these issues. And from our perspective, we need to fundamentally alter how we think about waste and plastic waste. We need to look at plastic as a valuable resource in the same way that we do aluminum or paper. We can take those products and break them back down into their basic building blocks and then reuse them for new products."

Thank you American Chemistry Council for sponsoring this event.

Alison Snyder, Eileen Drage O'Reilly
1 hour ago - Science

What COVID-19 vaccine trials still need to do

Illustration: Sarah Grillo/Axios

COVID-19 vaccines are being developed at record speed, but some experts fear the accelerated regulatory process could interfere with ongoing research about the vaccines.

Why it matters: Even after the first COVID-19 vaccines are deployed, scientific questions will remain about how they are working and how to improve them.

Go deeper (2 min. read)Arrow