Skill Savings Accounts

Driven by technological advances, today’s economy is rapidly changing the demand for skills within the labor market. Increasingly, workers need to learn new skills but lack proper guidance and financial tools to do so. This paradox is the education and workforce challenge of our time – leading to workers without jobs and jobs without workers. An investment in skill development is needed to drive our economy.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, there are more than 161 million workers in the United States. The Challenge focuses on adults who are in the middle or late stages of their careers seeking reskilling, upskilling, and career navigation support. These workers are the most in need of tools to fund and support continuous education and skill development.

Workers lack line of sight into what skills will be needed to stay competitive in the job market. Meanwhile, employers rely on traditional tuition reimbursement models that do not advance workers to quickly learn and apply in demand skills. Furthermore, publicly supported programs are falling short by focusing on specific workforce challenges or eligibility requirements. 

To address this challenge, employers and workers need sustainable and scalable tools designed for today’s knowledge-based, technology-enabled worker and economy.

Skill Savings Accounts (SSAs) are a flexible financial tool designed to enable upskilling and reskilling routinely and at scale. They encourage both workers and employers to contribute funds for skill development. These accounts prioritize skills-based learning, and are designed to be portable, worker-centric, and easily adaptable for a range of training needs. 

Like Health Savings Accounts, Skill Savings Accounts would consist of financial accounts with debit features. SSAs would be opened by an individual and are envisioned to be portable, flexible, and able to receive contributions from multiple sources (ex: individuals, employers, government). The funds can be used to pay for eligible expenses to participate in upskilling and reskilling programs and support services.

Skills savings accounts can further support workers by documenting skills through a Learning and Employment Record (LER). LERs are a new form of digital record or transcript that is based on a data standard and linked to an individual so they can be used to apply for a job or advancement opportunity, apply for continuing education, or search for jobs and career pathways.

Employee tuition reimbursement benefits have been successful in investing around $30 billion annually to improve worker access to credentialing opportunities. However, not enough employers participate, and too few frontline workers benefit from this investment. Today, we need to reach 60 million workers and substantially increase the investment in upskilling and reskilling training to fully meet the needs of today’s economy and labor market. 

Skill Savings Accounts are envisioned as a flexible tool and product intended for, but not limited to, individuals that make less than the median wage (i.e., asset limited, income constrained, and working adults—ALICE). We know that the risks of skills and digital disruptions will have unequal and disparate impacts on lower-income and disadvantaged workers. The Skill Savings Account provides a tool that mitigates this risk and ensures more equitable opportunities.

As imagined, Skill Savings Accounts can receive contributions from employers, workers, family and friends, government agencies, tax authorities, and community investment organizations. Workers can open a Skill Savings Account during onboarding with a new employer, through re-employment services organizations, or community-based organizations. 

Our vision is to reach 60 million workers with a combined balance of $100 billion resulting in over 500 million new skills.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation’s mission is to harness the power of business to create solutions for the good of America and the world. Our strength lies in our ability to convene the business community, engage employers around workforce and education challenges, and drive systems-based change nationwide.

Skill Savings Accounts were developed as part of Talent Finance, an initiative that advances research and innovation in employer-provided finance and investment in education and training. 

Talent Forward’s key guiding principles focus on public-private collaboration, shared value and risk, expanding choice, and empowering workers, with equity being important to ensure that access to finance instruments is available for all workers, including those that need it most.

Co-chaired by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation and Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM), the Employee Education Benefits Workgroup examined the current state of employee education benefits from 2020-2024 and collected and benchmarked information through employer surveys. 

The workgroup recognized the limitations of current approaches for financing upskilling, reskilling, and lifelong learning and believed that employee educational benefits have greater potential if better designed to serve the needs of both the individual employee and the employer.

Skill savings accounts address common worker-identified concerns of traditional funding models such as:

• Outlay of personal funds to participate in reimbursement model; 

• Limited use of tuition reimbursement toward traditional education pathways and degrees;

• Existing student loan debt; 

• Training tied to employer and not able to move with the worker; 

• Training tied to taxpayer dollars and means-tested;

• Training not tied to promotions or job opportunities; 

• Training not tied to a skills-based credential.

We boast a substantial employer network for potential partnerships and have the ability to promote the adoption and use of Skill Savings Accounts at scale. Once utilized by employers, these accounts would continue to grow through employer contributions.

After several years of research, Skill Savings Account concept is ready to be developed into a minimally viable product in 2025. Through previous projects, we have laid the groundwork for data interoperability and sustainable expansion nationwide.

Learning and Employment Record (LER) technologies have already been developed to manage individual accounts and track skills. The US Chamber of Commerce Foundation has a network (T3 Network) of 1,500+ organizations including employers; education, training, and credentialing providers; government agencies; community-based organizations, nonprofits, workforce agencies; and technology partners working together to implement this technology and pilot it across the country.

In addition, the US Chamber of Commerce Foundation has already developed a web-based resource (JobSIDE) to help employers more easily produce skill profiles for in-demand jobs. JobSIDE also helps educators and workforce development professionals align their education, training, and credentialing offerings with industry needs.

Skill Savings Accounts are the next logical step to remove the practical barrier of financing that prevents employers from investing more in skills training and workers from seeking that training. We know that SSAs will integrate with our existing programming to empower workers by providing tools for career guidance, skills assessment, and labor market information.

Skills Savings Accounts | U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation

Skill Savings Accounts support the needs of multiple stakeholders and are an agile solution to supporting skills-based learning at scale. They leverage existing technology, can support workers in various stages of their career, take a skills-based approach to learning, and can serve businesses of all sizes and industries. 

Employer Buy-In

For employers, SSAs would serve as a practical recruitment and retention tool that can encourage workers to invest in themselves. They can be implemented without large upfront investment and scaled for a range of budgets. SSAs can replace traditional tuition reimbursement models and go a step further to support non-degree training that results in verified credentials relevant to skills needed and supportive of personal goals for each worker. 

Equitable Access

For workers, SSAs are empowering because they are flexible and portable. They provide funds up front, are easy to use, and can allow for proactive planning through job changes and economic shifts. SSAs provide greater autonomy than other tools available with significantly less administrative burden. They place focus on acquiring specific skills rather than formal degrees, providing access to a broader range of training programs and non-degree credentials.

Public-Private Investment

SSAs can work alongside publicly funded models, allowing for government partners to directly invest or provide tax incentives. 

Integration with Technology:

SSAs leverage fintech and Learning and Employment Record (LER) technologies to manage accounts, track skills, and provide career guidance. This integration includes features like digital wallets, AI-enabled career advisors, and blockchain for secure skill validation.

Our first goal is to develop a minimally viable product for piloting with companies and workers. 

We would test Skill Savings Accounts with 250-500 small to mid sized companies and reach 2,000 workers with a combined investment of $250,000 to $500,000 as part of the initial pilot. By 2031, we plan to reach 10,000 companies and 100,000 workers with combined investment of $5 to 10 million.

Within ten years, we aim to reach our larger goal of 60 million workers and to increase employer investment in skills training from $30B to $100B.

Through our banking partner, we would track the number of accounts and total financial investment in dollars made by employers, individuals, and/or government partners.

In addition, we would track the number of new skills developed each year through our LER system. We anticipate hundreds of new skills to be acquired, can analyze skills trends, and benchmark over time in tandem with our other initiatives.  

Finally, we will collect qualitative feedback through surveys and interviews with employers and employees about the effectiveness and usability of the accounts and whether they have helped workers achieve upward economic mobility.

Full Time staff: 8 

The Foundation has a total staff of 48 full time staff members, 8 of whom are part of the workforce team.

Part Time staff: 0

Contractors: 0 

We would bring on contractors as needed to implement a pilot program.

Since 2013, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation has been a leader in advancing workforce development solutions. We know that employers and workers are looking for better ways to navigate a dynamic economy, ensure economic prosperity, and offer access to opportunity. 

In 2020, the Foundation launched the Talent Finance initiative to study the development and use of public and private instruments for aligning investments in talent development and in managing related downside employment and income risks. In 2023, we convened a workgroup with Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) to examine employee education benefits and research alternatives.

Diversity, equity, and inclusion are part of the Innovation Model which drives the work of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation. Diverse teams are better at problem-solving, decision-making and innovating. Companies with an inclusive culture are not only considered a great place to work by employees, but they are also more effective. 

Within the Foundation, the research and development function of our work is supported by the Incubator. The Incubator is staffed by an Executive Director of Strategy and Innovation, dedicated program manager, and four Innovation Scholars who serve on rotating two-year contracts. 

Through the Incubator, we explore frontier issues, test new ideas, and suggest novel approaches to address big challenges. For example, the Incubator hosts brainstorming, simulations, and hackathons to think through solutions to problems within and across our work. Concepts that prove high value are advanced for future programming consideration.

In addition, we offer Lunch and Learn sessions hosted by our Incubator for continued training and development so that employees can develop professionally. We also offer flexible work arrangements and ample support for those who wish to pursue additional education or certifications. 

Inclusion is about dedicating resources and time to creating a space that embraces all perspectives and employee needs. Through volunteering internally with other departments and externally through service projects, we foster an inclusive culture at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation. We submit Shout Outs to recognize peer accomplishments and thank peers for their help on projects. 

We set team-based performance goals for which all staff have input and revisit these goals annually. We engage peers in annual performance review cycles and encourage all staff to nominate up to three peers to support their personal review. Finally, we track staff satisfaction through annual surveys and set as a goal 80 percent satisfaction or higher.

KEY BENEFICIARIES

Our key beneficiaries are current workers needing to upskill or reskill to adapt to economic and labor market changes and who lack the financial means to pursue skills training. Although Skill Savings Accounts can serve all workers, we recognize the benefits for those earning less than the median wage (ALICE: Asset Limited, Income Constrained, Employed) would be substantial. For workers, the long-term benefits are increased worker wages and earnings as well as increased career mobility. 

Skills Savings Accounts permit flexibility so that individuals can save funds over time to use when most needed, such as during an economic downturn. We expect increased skills-based hiring and promotion by employers based on verifiable credentials such as LERs as they become more widely used. For current workers, LERs can document and verify skills so that they can be used to advance professionally.

Additional key customers include businesses seeking to attract and retain talent, government agencies seeking to advance economic competitiveness and workforce development, and education and training providers who would benefit from increased enrollment. 

BUSINESS MODEL

For employers, Skill Savings Accounts leverage a familiar existing business model (previously established with Health Savings Accounts) that enables businesses to offer employee benefits at an affordable cost. 

Skill Savings Accounts would create a banking system where the solution is sustained through transaction-based or maintenance-based fees. By building for scale, the fees used to sustain and grow the solution would be marginal for any one account user and could be offset by employer contributions to the accounts.

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation is primarily supported through donations and grants by corporate and private foundations. 

The solution will be incubated at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation but operationalized through partnerships with banks. We anticipate the business model will be sustainable over time as it scales and employers adopt skills savings accounts as their preferred tool for funding skills training.

Beyond financial support, we would benefit from Truist and MIT Solve’s expertise in Product Design and Pilot Design. 

To operationalize Skill Savings Accounts, we need experts to engage in deep product design and development, including the combination of fintech, LER-tech, and other value-added technologies that support the user’s experience. We acknowledge that financial institutions have insight into how best to leverage existing technology. 

We welcome MIT and Truist’s insights during pilot design to determine which states, industries, and workers should participate in early pilots and demonstrations given their upskilling and reskilling priorities with a goal of testing a minimally viable product that can collect evidence on its use and impact. We have established relationships within Truist’s geographic footprint and would leverage those relationships to ensure a successful launch and support of public and private stakeholders through the pilot.