It’s not what you know, it’s who you know. We’ve all heard the phrase. It’s true, of course, and always has been, that who you know is important. But in today’s technology-driven, globalized world, what you know matters more than ever. The set of skills that is most rewarded in terms of employment and wages has become increasingly deep and broad, extending beyond strong reading, mathematics, and writing skills to include analytical, technical, and problem-solving skills. Rapidly evolving technologies have also upped the ante – requiring workers to be increasingly nimble and able to learn on their own. In the fast-paced competitive global marketplace, those who can bring higher-level skills and the flexibility to adapt are in demand. Those without such skills are not faring well and will only fall further behind.
The broad set of cognitive skills and knowledge that is necessary today, along with interpersonal skills such as collaboration and teamwork, and character traits such as motivation, persistence, reliability, and self-discipline, is often referred to as human capital. Human capital has always been important, but it is increasingly rewarded in terms of employment and wages.
In America today, to succeed, or even get by, it is what you know. Of course, who you know, broadly speaking, is important as well. The family into which you are born and raised, the social networks that connect you with fellow members of religious organizations, clubs, or teams who provide support and advice, the social norms and values that guide your behaviors – all of these factors, collectively termed social capital, impact life outcomes as well. For any individual, positive social capital serves to foster development and success.
Human and social capital have never constituted independent drivers of life outcomes. We are, however, seeing changes in the nature of their relationship. Over the past generation or two, social capital has become more strongly related to human capital; that is, those with more human capital also tend to have the networks, norms, and behaviors that provide the most benefits in today’s environment.
The transmission of opportunity from one generation to the next is increasingly driven by a compounding of advantage or disadvantage, with one advantage leading to another for some children, while one disadvantage is followed by the next for others. Although the lottery of birth has always shaped an individual’s life chances, it is increasingly determining opportunity in America today – and this reality stands in stark contrast to the American Dream.
Choosing Our Future: A Story of Opportunity in America, a report by ETS, examines the interplay of these issues through a well-researched piece with many intriguing and disturbing charts that point to the inequities inherent in society. The goal of the Opportunity Project is to help catalyze a national conversation on the necessity of taking actions that would substantially reduce differences in opportunity.
The report concludes with a framework built on 5 principles that can help guide future efforts to level the playing field, as follows:
Principle 1: Interventions must be implemented systematically across the life span.
Principle 2: Interventions must be systemic, drawing on all relevant stakeholders and institutions.
Principle 3: Efforts must be sustainable.
Principle 4: A strategy of continuous improvement must guide initiatives.
Principle 5: Efforts must be adaptable to local contexts.
For more information and trend data, see Choosing our Future.
