Economic Opportunities Program Monthly Digest — October 2025

The Aspen Institute Economic Opportunities Program (EOP) advances strategies, policies, and ideas to help low- and moderate-income people thrive in a changing economy.

We are pleased to present a selection of our work from the past month.

If a colleague shared this newsletter with you, consider subscribing to our mailing list or connecting on social media. To learn more about our work, visit aspeninstitute.org/eop.

Publications

• Durable Skills, Strong Starts: What Employers Really Want from Early-Career Talent by Haley Glover (UpSkill America), Angie Napper Walker (WGU), and Sherri Hartzell (WGU)

Click here to view more publications.

Commentary

• Worker Power & Agency by Liba Wenig Rubenstein, Future of Work Initiative, for our series, “Back to the Future of Work”
• Will the Return of Manufacturing Mean the Return of Good Jobs? by Maureen Conway
• Announcing the Job Quality Fellowship Class of 2025-26 by Economic Opportunities Program Staff
• National Job Quality Practitioner Survey by Economic Opportunities Program Staff
• Seeing Talent Differently: How Education and Career Mobility Fellows are Reshaping Opportunity for Workers Everywhere by Chelsea Miller, UpSkill America

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Videos

Banking on Skills: Cara Collective and BMO Bank Partner for Change, featuring Liana Bran (Cara Plus), LaKeita Burns (BMO Bank), Paris Roney (BMO Bank), and Dee Wallace (Aspen Institute).

• Community Partnerships: Building Pathways with Skill-based Talent Strategies — Liana Bran
• Increasing Access: Using a Skills-based Lens — Paris Roney
• Back to Work: Leveraging Transferable Skills and Building a Career — LaKeita Burns

Big Impact, Big Challenges: Lessons from Collaborating with Large Businesses to Improve Job Quality, featuring Ellen G. Frank-Miller (Workforce & Organizational Research Center), Scotland Nash (Talent Rewire, FSG), Cindy Williams (WorkLife Partnership), and Matt Helmer (Aspen Institute).

• Five Enabling Conditions for Building Trust with Workers — Scotland Nash
• A Strong Business Case is Not Enough — Ellen G. Frank-Miller
• Beyond the Surveys: Bringing Employers Closer to Workers — Cindy Williams

Securing the Future of America’s Critical Industries, from the 2025 Employee Ownership Ideas Forum, hosted in partnership with the Rutgers Institute for the Study of Employee Ownership and Profit Sharing.

• Employee Ownership is a Competitive Advantage for the US — Greg Graves, Burns & McDonnell
• Employee Ownership Strengthens Firms and Communities — Fidan Kurtulus, UMass Amherst
• ESOP Culture Is the Key to Longevity — Mike Garvey, M-7 Technologies
• Securing Manufacturing and Embracing Technology — Chris Griswold, American Compass

Behind Every Employer S3 E5: Strengthening the Nursing Workforce, featuring UpSkill America Senior Director Haley Glover speaking about Streamlining Success in Nursing Training Programs in Texas, a partnership with the Trellis Foundation.

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Podcasts

• Banking on Skills: Cara Collective and BMO Bank Partner for Change, featuring Liana Bran (Cara Plus), LaKeita Burns (BMO Bank), Paris Roney (BMO Bank), and Dee Wallace (Aspen Institute).
• Big Impact, Big Challenges: Lessons from Collaborating with Large Businesses to Improve Job Quality, featuring Ellen G. Frank-Miller (Workforce & Organizational Research Center), Scotland Nash (Talent Rewire, FSG), Cindy Williams (WorkLife Partnership), and Matt Helmer (Aspen Institute).
• Securing the Future of America’s Critical Industries, from the 2025 Employee Ownership Ideas Forum, hosted in partnership with the Rutgers Institute for the Study of Employee Ownership and Profit Sharing.
• Behind Every Employer S3 E5: Strengthening the Nursing Workforce, featuring UpSkill America Senior Director Haley Glover speaking about Streamlining Success in Nursing Training Programs in Texas, a partnership with the Trellis Foundation.

Click here to view more podcasts. Click here to subscribe.

In the News

• Employee ownership creates opportunity for business and workers alike. Executive Director Maureen Conway was interviewed by Harvard Business School, discussing what constitutes a good job, how employee ownership can boost job quality, and the lessons that employers like Marlin Steel can teach us about both.
• Building a nation of owners with new financial products and fresh ideas. Writing for ImpactAlpha, author David Bank quotes Matt Helmer, director of job quality and worker well-being, who spoke about employee ownership and the “ownership economy” at this year’s Aspen Ideas: Economy festival in Newark, New Jersey.
• Employee Ownership — A Moment? A Movement? (pages 4-7). Writing for the Cedar Rapids Gazette for “ESOPtober,” author John Case quotes Helmer about the growing popularity of employee ownership and cites our role as cohosts of the annual Employee Ownership Ideas Forum, in partnership with the Rutgers Institute for the Study of Employee Ownership and Profit Sharing.
• PepsiCo’s AI Playbook: Buy The Tech, Own The Process. Writing in Forbes, author Ron Schmelzer cites findings from our 2023 case study, “UpSkilling for Career Mobility at PepsiCo,” by UpSkill America Senior Director Haley Glover.

Newsletters

• Job Quality Newsletter – Manufacturing Day by Maureen Conway
• From the Forum — Securing The Future of America’s Critical Industries by Frances Almodovar
• Upcoming Events — October & November 2025 by Economic Opportunities Program Staff
• Monthly Digest — September 2025 by Economic Opportunities Program Staff

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Upcoming Events

• November 19 — Backsliding on Child Protections: The Return of Child Labor in the US (online).
• June 2-3, 2026 — Employee Ownership Ideas Forum (Washington DC and online). Registration will open in winter 2026. Click here to save the date.

Click here to view more events.