Ideas for Cities: Learning Jobs

Learning Jobs
Cities could enable job descriptions to grow or expand to convert low-wage, low-value work into high-wage, high value work. For example, a “garbage collector” could become a “waste management consultant”—beyond the menial work typically associated with the job description, they would learn to be street-scapers, environmentalists, and more through job-relevant training. The expectation is that people can and should broaden the scope of their work to make an impact. Part of this program is reframing the language we use, and part it is creating the training infrastructure and promoting the increasing skills of those workers. These employees could earn college credit for their learning.

This is part nine of a continuing brainstorm on the future of cities, inaugurated at the Velocity conference in September 2009. We’ll post a new idea each day until we run out, at which point we’re counting on you to come up with something smart. Do you have a good idea for improving your city? Add it in the comments below, or tweet it to @GOOD with hashtag #cityideas—we’ll publish the best ones. Monday’s idea: Street Activity Stimulation.