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Influential DC associations raise alarm on U.S. workforce skill gaps
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Workforce Training
Very sweeping and powerful forces are working against U.S. worker competitiveness, worker prosperity and productivity, worker skill training, and increased employment opportunities now and in a post-recession period. If things weren’t dire enough, survey data produced by local influential associations points to a growing ill-prepared workforce and a more demanding set of employer skill needs in an ever-changing marketplace.
Employers expect their educational and technical skills requirement to steadily increase; they are already having difficulties finding qualified workers, and they complain that productivity is suffering as a result. Yet, employers are not providing or guiding employees to the requisite skill training. Another fact is budget cuts, during a down economy, often happen first in the training department of most companies.
Boomers may or may not be retiring, and those not retiring need new skills to stay current or to re-enter the workforce. New entering Millennials (Gen Y) are technically fearless, but tend to be lacking in soft skills (work ethic, accountability, punctuality and self-motivation). Everyone will need more degrees, certificates and credentials going forward to record the upgrade in skills.
Educational institutions are not producing the appropriately flexible programs to make it possible for workers to gain these skills either. Personal verification of this fact occurs when I hear numerous complaints within my personal network of people seeking timely and attainable training & certifications, not forgetting to check with community colleges, and still they come up empty.
It’s not as if employees are unaware of this trend, and it’s not like employees don’t seek training and further education. More often for them, it comes down to obstacles like: cost, convenience, time management and a lack of reliable information on just exactly what type of training they need that will lead to landing a job or gaining a better one with a higher family-supporting wage.
This gap falls squarely on business leaders first, since a strategic shift in thinking and more focused effort is required of them to begin solving this challenge. Training and educational leaders must help form the right partnerships with business to create affordable, convenient, and more collaborative supplies of training and educational opportunities.
The most recent survey, “The American Workforce” was conducted for The Springboard Project an independent commission convened by Business Roundtable, a Washington DC association of chief executive officers of leading U.S. companies with more than $5 trillion in annual revenues and more than 10 million employees. The survey reveals American workers unmet need for further education and training is negatively impacting today’s unemployment problem and pointing out a long range challenge from now into a post-recession recovery period. For more on this click here.
Earlier this summer a report highlighting the struggle U.S. employers are having finding new hires having the necessary basic and applied skills reflects the fact that employer-sponsored training is not up to the challenge. The report called, The Ill-Prepared U.S. Workforce; Exploring the Challenges of Employer-Provided Workforce Readiness Training was jointly produced by local associations, the American Society for Training and Development (ASTD), the Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) - both of Old Town Alexandria - and the Corporate Voices for Working Families in Washington DC. The Conference Board headquartered in New York also participated.
American business and workers, more than ever, must be able to adapt to a rapidly changing marketplace in order to succeed. Demand in the U.S. for educated and skilled workers is rapidly exceeding the supply - from nurses to technicians to engineers. To compete and succeed in an international marketplace for talent, U.S. workers need a 21st century approach to lifelong learning that enables them to develop and refresh the skills needed for high-skilled service and manufacturing jobs. We must call for the development of a modernized, streamlined, and effective system that provides universal access to workforce training to maintain a nimble and productive workforce. The United States needs a strong education system and lifelong learning opportunities to prepare today’s workers as well as the next generation of workers for the ever-changing economy.
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