2020 Workforce Learning Innovation Research Grant Awardees
Congratulations to all of our 2020 grantees in Workforce Learning Research Innovation! In 2020, J-WEL's Workforce Learning Collaborative awarded over $200,000 in funding to four projects.
J-WEL Workforce Learning reviews grant applications on a rolling basis. To learn more or apply, visit our grants page.
Projects awarded funding, 2020
Co-Lab Studio at CambridgeSide
PI: Michael Cima, Associate Dean for Innovation; Professor, Department of Materials Science and Engineering; Director of the Lemelson-MIT Program
Project team: Dr. Stephanie Couch, Executive Director of the Lemelson-MIT Program; and Betsy Boyle, Program Manager for the Lemelson-MIT Program
The rapid rate of technological change generates a need for adults to continuously upgrade skills. Family obligations and time pressures present barriers. The Co-Lab Studio project creates a testbed for new approaches to helping adults and youth learn emerging technologies, thereby shortening the timeframe required for adoption and use.
The Returns to Workplace Training and Retention for Female Workers: Evidence from India
PI: Namrata Kala, W. Maurice Young (1961) Career Development Professor of Management; Assistant Professor, Applied Economics
Project co-author: Madeline Mckelway
This project will explore key barriers to enrolling and completing vocational training for women in India, and will pilot interventions to address these barriers. The second phase of the project is to design a full-scale randomized controlled trial (RCT) based on the results of the pilot work.
Training the Driver, Not the Car: Entrepreneurship Education Focused on Individuals in West Africa
PI: Susan Silbey, Professor of Anthropology and Sociology (SHASS), Work and Organizational Studies (Sloan),
Project team: Dr. Caroline Fry, Technological Innovation, Entrepreneurship & Strategic Management, MIT Sloan; and Ethan Poskanzer, PhD Candidate, Economic Sociology Program, MIT Sloan
This project will examine an innovative entrepreneurship program in Ghana that focuses on individual skill development. The project team will estimate this program’s effectiveness relative to more traditional entrepreneurship programs, identify the populations for which training is most impactful and study how the program affects participants’ careers.
Understanding the Manufacturing Worker's Decision to Train
PI: Dr. George Westerman, J-WEL Workforce Learning Principal Research Scientist
Project team: Axelle Clochard, MSc Student, Technology and Policy Program; Susan Young, Assistant Director for J-WEL Workforce Learning
This project will investigate the factors that influence low-skilled manufacturing workers’ decision to participate in work-related training. As this population is at risk of being displaced by the increasing technologization of manufacturing, understanding their learning motivations and barriers will be crucial to ensuring that they can benefit from upskilling opportunities.