Nontechnical skills — communication, creativity, and teamwork — are important to career success. Unfortunately, they often aren’t well-defined, and we have trouble “teaching” them in a classroom. David Deming of the Malcom Wiener Center on Social Policy at Harvard’s Kennedy School of Government has spent several years researching the role noncognitive and nontechnical skills play in workforce success.

On this episode of “Hardly Working,” I sat down with Deming to learn more about his career and the impact of job outcomes. He also spoke about the launch and development of the new Harvard Skills Lab and how state and local workforce agencies, training organizations, community colleges, and others can gain access to more information about what works in workforce preparation.  

 Items mentioned during the podcast:

STEM without fruit: How noncognitive skills improve workforce outcomes

Early childhood intervention and life-cycle skill development: Evidence from Head Start

Malcom Wiener Center on Social Policy

“The Gardener and the Carpenter: What the New Science of Child Development Tells Us About the Relationship Between Parents and Children”

Harvard Project on Workforce

Harvard Skills Lab

David Deming’s 2017 paper on noncognitive skills

David Deming’s 2020 paper on team players

Community of practice webinar

David Deming’s Twitter

David Deming’s personal website

Scholars mentioned during the podcast:

Susan Dynarski

Lawrence Katz

David Autor