Monthly Archive

I have recently been sitting in quite a number of meetings with educators.  These are the hardy people tasked with the duty of preparing the youth of today to meet the needs of business for tomorrow.  I have regularly heard that the trend is that education is working towards this goal.  Some school districts are starting career assessments as early as 6th grade, while others are conducting work readiness trainings earlier as well.  Many school districts are increasing the requirements for graduation.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, 12 of the 20 fastest growing occupations over the next 10 years will require some post-secondary education (at least an associates degree).  At the same time, nearly one out of three high schoolers will drop out before graduation. 

In a report by The Conference Board, Corporate Voices for Working Families, Partnership for 21st Century Skills, and the Society for Human Resource Management Are They Really Ready to Work? According to this study, the following required skills are either rated as deficient by employer about new job market entrants:

• writing in English
• mathematics
• comprehension
• written communications
• professionalism/work ethic
• critical thinking/problem solving

The following were rated only adequate in these highly important applied skills:

• information technology application
• diversity
• teamwork/collaboration

I have more questions than answers.  What’s the gap?  Businesses need to get involved in order to ensure that we can mentor and develop the skills needed to sustain the competitiveness of our economy and our workforce.

I recently returned from a class on nonprofit management at Georgetown University in Washington, DC… the heart of this nation’s nonprofits.  To say the least, I’m extremely impressed by the uniqueness of the work being done in this sector.  Overall, we are one of the most generous and socially responsible nation’s in the world.  One of my biggest takeaways from the program is the unfortunate outcome of the tendency of nonprofits to shift their focus… be it ever so slightly towards the direction of the money.  Specifically in the arena of workforce development, the tides are changing because of this.

The old work of workforce development was just about getting someone a job.  Oftentimes a career counselor would look at what that individual had done before or what they wanted to do.  Then, they’d help to find a job that fit those needs.  This focused on the individuals primarily at the lowest income levels and most difficult to place.  Some great nonprofits were built on just helping people with the most basic of job search skills… clothing, resume wriing, job search and interview techniques.  In today’s workforce development funding environment, this is no longer enough.

The shift today is towards demand driven… driving the development of tomorrow’s workers into industries… into professions that are needed by the economic culture.  The Aspen Institute recently published a report on Sector Strategies in Brief that discusses many of these strategies.  Essentially the idea here is that we take a population of individuals that can do the work and train them to fill the needs of business based on upcoming economic trends.  Additionally, many of the government grants that are issued in this area are focused on driving towards the demand driven.  Such as the WIRED grant by the US Department of Labor.  In Colorado, for instance, the WIRED grant funds ($15mm over 3 years) are focusing on innovative ways to develop talent in aerospace, bioscience, energy and information science.   This is not about helping a person just find a job, it’s about shifting to an entire education and training culture.