Employers all over the country report that they cannot find workers who have the skills to fill available jobs and the lack of qualified workers is restricting their ability to expand their business. In fact, workforce quality has been and remains among employer's top three concerns.

The Learn More Now, Do More Now, Earn More Later Student Credentialing System is one way you can begin to build your future workforce, create better schools in your community, and support your employees in their quest for better lives for their children. You can use our roadmap to deploy LearnDoEarn in your workplace and in your community. And you can register as a website member to keep up with exciting developments on the site in the field of workforce development and education reform.

The goal of LearnDoEarn is to improve students' understanding of what they need to do in middle and high school to be ready for their futures. The website motivates students with eye-popping statistics and rewards students with credentials for each of the five LearnDoEarn programs, each of which responds directly to employer-identified deficiencies found in many young workers - whether they enter the job market after graduation from high school or from college.

• Employers cite that young workers are ‘not able to think’ or ‘not able to solve complex problems.' Unequivocal research shows that if students don’t build critical thinking skills by taking rigorous high school coursework, especially in mathematics, they will not be able to solve the kinds of problems you will give them.
  
  
  • The World Class Students program ensures that students - and their parents - know that completing rigorous course work in high school is the best way to build their minds - the best way to gain the critical thinking skills, logic, and discipline that you will demand of them in the workplace. Schools can acknowledge and reward students who complete the demanding sequence of courses that research indicates will best prepare them for any future with interim and graduation credentials and medallions.
    
    
• Employers state that young adults lack a professional-level work ethic. Incoming workers don’t report to work when scheduled, are frequently absent and late, and don't deliver a full day's work for a full day's pay.
  
  
  • The School Counts program helps students understand how important timeliness and work ethic are and rewards them with annual credentials they can use when they seek part-time jobs during high school or full-time jobs after graduation.
    
    
• Employers state that young adults do not have the level of working knowledge required to use common computer business software like word processing and spreadsheets.
  
  
  • The Technology Challenge makes sure that students - who are aces at IMing and downloading tunes - are also proficiency in business software. The Technology Challenge produces a computer-generated credential after each exercise in word processing, spreadsheet, presentation, database software or Internet searches. This credential can be used during job interviews, too.
    
    
• Employers are finding that more job candidates have high levels of debt, which can result in a negative hiring decision.
  
  
  • Work the Money alerts teens to the impact that a bad credit rating might have on their ability to get a good job, given the increasing number of employers who do credit checks at the point of hire. Work the Money also presents students with information on the real cost of the decisions they make in relation to health and safety.
    
    
• Students will only learn what they are taught.
  
  
  • The Math Challenge provides an opportunity for students, teachers and parents to benchmark progress in key mathematics courses like pre-Algebra, Algebra I, Ii and Geometry with online tests that generate diagnostic credentials for students.

The LearnDoEarn (LDE) System addresses each of these deficiencies. Through a series of online presentation modules delivered by virtual business people, pop quizzes, and fun activities, the LDE System builds a statistical case for middle and high school students that clearly illustrates why they have no choice but to work hard. For example, students learn that:

• Completing a sequence of mathematics courses in high school that goes no further than Algebra I results in only an 8% chance of earning a Bachelor's Degree.
  
  
• Students who earn 'C's' and 'D's' in high school have only a 50-50 chance of earning even one college credit.
  
  
• Completing a college-prep sequence of courses in high school can result in 13% more in annual wages even when college is not present.
  
  
• Students who do 15 hours a week of homework in high school typically complete 2.7 more years of college and earn up to 35% more than students who do no homework in high school.

These statistics provide a clear motivational foundation for students -- and their parents. In pilot schools, the LDE System has generated increased student enrollment in key mathematics classes from 8-33% annually, increases in student enrollment in Physics of up to 250%, and Economics up to 220%.

While the ultimate goal of LearnDoEarn is to build your future workforce, it also has immediate relevance for employers, their employees and the communities in which they do business. There are many ways you can get involved and use the LearnDoEarn website.

In an era in which teenagers and young adults do less and expect more, this consistent message from the business community to students across the country is changing the way students think and behave. And, not so coincidentally, the messages delivered to students by business people reinforce what teachers tell them every day.

LearnDoEarn delivers a hard but all-too-realistic message to students:

• Work hard today or you may not have a job tomorrow.
  
• Take demanding courses.
  
• Do your homework.
  
• Be in school on time every day.
  
• Be honest and ethical.
  
• Turn off the television.
  
• Learn more now and do more now so you can earn more later.

Support Our Work!

The LearnDoEarn System is supported and maintained through tax-deductible contributions. Get involved today. Help us deliver the message teenagers and young adults need to hear.

For more information, call 609-989-8315.