Book Review: Putting Skill to Work: How to Create Good Jobs in Uncertain Times by Nichola Lowe

Abstract

The skills gap has been a topic of heated debate among economists, economic development scholars, and policy makers. In particular, the middle-skills gap has received much attention. Some of the most prominent questions are whether there is a skills gap, which occupations or industries are involved, and how we fix it. In Putting Skill to Work, Nichola Lowe argues that workforce intermediaries can play a crucial role in connecting job seekers to work and partnering with employers to create internal pathways for career advancement for both new hires and incumbent workers. She argues that intermediaries can help employers understand the need to upgrade skills and create career paths for workers who hold lower-level positions. In her view, the key is reimagining, reinterpreting, and restructuring around skills. An underlying theme that runs throughout the book is the role of workforce intermediaries in ensuring that technological innovations do not leave less-educated workers behind. Using a combination of vignettes and case studies, Lowe breaks down how the worker-centered approach is implemented in practice, focusing on manufacturing firms and intermediaries with whom she has worked over the past 20-plus years. Her argument commences with the proclamation that “America has a skill problem” (p. 1). She goes on to explain that, while large firms provide more training than smaller ones, the majority of firms are small. Small firms are more likely to have low-wage jobs filled by people with little education and have fewer resources and less incentive to train them, thus creating “the great training paradox,” leading to increased inequality. In Chapter 1, Lowe recounts the story of a single mother, Maddie, who is stuck in a low-wage job with few prospects for mobility. She uses Maddie’s story to unpack the complexity of the skill issue and to explain her theory on why there is a problem. Lowe hones in on the assumption by many that higher education, such as a college degree, is the solution to Maddie’s dilemma. She reasons that Maddie has many critical skills to successfully do her job, but these are overlooked by her employer because of her lack of education. A key tenet put forth in the book is that skill is a problem of employment rather than education. She reasons that employers often rely too heavily on credentials as a way of determining who has the required skills and who does not. However, skills, particularly in manufacturing, are not necessarily obvious based on a person’s level of education. Lowe reasons that employers should invest more effort in recognizing and improving the skills of their workers, adding that “[S] kill development is not simply a precursor to accessing a good job ... [R]ather skill development is constitutive of a quality job” (p. 8). The intermediaries that Lowe highlights help firms deepen their commitment to skill development by formalizing internal mechanisms for recognizing and rewarding work-based learning and occupational mobility. She argues that the “ambiguity around skill” creates room for shifting employers’ conceptualization of skill to “explicate” their social responsibility. The second chapter lays out the history and theoretical underpinnings of the skills debate, focusing on theories around skill-biased technological change. Lowe lauds the role of unions for elevating the status of skill to a worker’s right. While she admits that unions have lost some ground, she argues that concern over the skill shortage creates an opportunity for others (e.g., policy makers and their institutional allies) to step in and reclaim the new institutional space. Lowe puts forth a model that suggests that the workforce intermediaries she highlights in the book, along with their employer and institutional partners, are revolutionizing how employers think about skill by reimagining, reinterpreting, and restructuring how they conceive of, detect, evaluate, and train employees. She suggests an “alternative interpretation” of skill as a social good, thus positioning it as a worthy target for institutional action and advocacy. Here she unpacks the role of workforce intermediaries. In Lowe’s view, workforce intermediaries “mediate” the hiring Book Review