We Need a Farm System for American Jobs

Yahoo

29-05-2025

A young football player gets ready to hike a football. Credit - Matt Brown—Getty Images
America has a talent pipeline problem.
Not in sports—we've got that covered. From the moment a kid picks up a football, we've built an entire ecosystem to scout, train, and elevate them through high school, college, and into the pros. It's a structured path from raw talent to professional achievement. But when it comes to preparing young Americans for jobs in the industries that actually drive our economy—healthcare, tech, finance, real estate, the professions and trades, advanced manufacturing, AI—we've got nothing close to that same focus and program.
And that is a massive missed opportunity.
We don't just need to fix what's broken—we need to build what's missing. What I'm proposing is simple: a farm club system for American jobs of the future. A national pipeline—backed by private enterprise and public policy—that starts in K-12 and follows a young person all the way into a career with dignity, purpose, and a paycheck.
Because here's the truth: while politicians argue over immigration and trade policy, the real threat to American economic dominance is internal. It's our failure to prepare the next generation for the economy that's coming.
We're short millions of skilled workers — not because Americans aren't willing to work, but because we haven't shown them where the jobs are, how to get them, and why they matter. We've disconnected our education system from our economic engine.
Right now, we let young people stumble through the most important years of their lives with little real-world guidance. They graduate from high school (sometimes) and are left to figure it out on their own. Some go to college and rack up debt. Others go straight to work, but too often in low-wage, low-growth jobs that don't match their talents.
This isn't just inefficient. It's a national liability.
The good news? We already know how to build a farm system. We've done it in professional sports. We've done it in the military. We've done it in music and the arts. The missing piece is vision and leadership—and belief. We have to believe in young people as assets, not problems. And we have to organize our economy to cultivate their potential from an early age.
That means starting in elementary school with exposure: showing kids what's possible beyond their neighborhoods. It means bringing business leaders into classrooms — not just for speeches, but for partnerships. Real apprenticeships. Real mentorships. Real pathways. Like right here at Operation HOPE, and specifically the AI Ethics Council that Sam Altman and I co-chair, and its new AILP3 – which is a AI learning pipeline for young people from elementary school through college in Atlanta, where I live, a partnership with Mayor Andre Dickens, Atlanta Public Schools and Georgia State University and it's Robinson College of Business. This is a focus Ph.D and Ph.Do too.
By middle school, we should be identifying interests and aptitudes—whether it's coding, caregiving, carpentry, or clean energy—and channeling them into hands-on experiences. By high school, students should be plugged into sector-specific programs that align with real industries in their region, whether that's aerospace in Atlanta, robotics in Pittsburgh, or renewable energy in Texas.
And by the time they graduate, they should have credentials, not just diplomas. A line of sight into a career, not just a hope and a prayer.
This isn't about eliminating college. It's about making it one of many valid routes — not the only one. We need to dignify the skilled trades again. We need to champion community colleges and technical schools. We need to stop telling young people that success looks only one way.
We also need business to step up. Not just with donations—with hiring commitments, onramps and training investments. The companies of the future can't just be headquartered in America. They need to be rooted in American talent. That means betting on the 15-year-old in Detroit just as seriously as we bet on the five-star recruit in Alabama.
And government has a role, too. We need federal and state policies that incentivize school-to-career partnerships, reward innovation in workforce education, and fund modern infrastructure that connects schools, employers, and community-based organizations. This is how we close the skills gap. This is how we rebuild a middle class that's been eroded for decades. And this is how we future-proof America—by investing in our own people.
The world isn't waiting for us to figure this out. China, Singapore, and South Korea are investing in its next generation. And we're still debating whether shop class belongs in school.
Let's build a workforce farm system that rivals anything we've ever done in sports. Let's treat our young people like draft picks—not dropouts. Let's give them a bench, a coach, and a playbook for the game of life. That's how you raise up a nation. That's how you grow GDP. That's how you win the future.
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