In a rapidly changing economic landscape, educational assistance programs through tax policy changes can offer employers a competitive advantage, write W/A's Erica Price Burns and Liz Simon of General Assembly. Employers today are grappling with two connected human capital challenges: identifying and cultivating a workforce with the skills to compete, and finding ways to retain those workers to limit the costly cycle of recruiting and retraining their replacements.

At the same time, a confluence of factors — including a tightening labor market and pernicious skills gaps — has led to a seemingly paradoxical narrative. Six-in-10 manufacturing jobs are currently going unfilled. Seven-in-10 employers report that a shortage of workers with the necessary skills limits their ability to compete. Yet droves of Americans struggle to find jobs that put them on a path toward economic mobility. And in some high-growth fields, diversity gaps risk exacerbating wage inequality.

In the past month, nearly 3 million students graduating from college this year walked across the stage to collect a diploma and a handshake. But millions more students lacked some of the data that might help guide them through one of the most important investment of their lives.

In large part, students don’t have information on things like graduation rates or graduate earnings because federal law imposes severe restrictions on the U.S. Department of Education’s ability to collect student-level information. As a Democrat and Republican who have served in federal policymaking roles on and off of Capitol Hill, we bear a measure of responsibility for the existence of the law.

I’d like to encourage more entrepreneurs and investors to consider partnering with the public sector, understand its order, and master the sometimes Byzantine systems that will enable them to make an impact. Here are five recommendations for CEOs considering government challenges — or opportunities.