Gina Raimondo

What might it look like?

Imagine a 45-year-old woman.

She's been an accountant for 15 years, closing the books.

She's got two kids, a pile of bills and a mortgage.

Pretty typical.

Last week, she was told she's losing her job because it's being automated.

Today, in our system, if she's lucky, she'll get a retraining brochure and two-week severance.

There's over a million accountants in America.

In a better system, her company would be incentivized to allow her to start retraining months before she's laid off,

Maybe she gets a short-term credential to learn a higher-value skill.

It puts her in a position to get redeployed at that company, if the company is committed to redeployment.

And if she needs it, maybe she could collect temporary wage insurance to top up her income to make up the difference between her old job and her new job's salary.

So how are we going to do this?

How do we get there?

Incentives, innovation and urgency.

First, the government needs to fund schools and training programs on their outcomes.

How about that?

They shouldn't just get the money, because people show up and enroll.

They need to be funded based upon whether people get good skills and actually get a job.

Incentives need to change for businesses as well.