posted by admin on Oct 1

I’m a little confused. Let me see if I have this straight…..

The organization, Corporate Voices for Working Families, issued Tomorrow’s Workforce: Ready or Not Report: It’s a Choice the Business Community Must Make Now (July 2008) that contends “young people are not prepared with basic workforce skills” – these young’uns do not meet the hiring criteria for the workforce, even after graduating from high school and college, for that matter. “Employers want workers with applied skills, such as professionalism, teamwork, communication and critical thinking all of which are required in a “knowledge based economy,” the report said.

While reading the report, I became alarmed when it said, “This crisis is one that threatens our nation’s ability to compete in a rapidly changing and more competitive global economy. And if left unresolved, it is a crisis that will undercut the standard of living and way of life for our children-and theirs”. After thinking about this profound statement, I became very confused…I kept asking myself why the Education System is not connected to the business community more tightly AND why are we not organizing and demanding changes in the local education systems like we know we are in a crisis?

The report gives a crystal clear interpretation that the current Education system is outdated and broken and gives us the information very loudly. To borrow from the movie Cool Hand Luke, “What we have here is a failure to communicate” – a profound disconnect between the education and workforce stakeholders that needs fixing.

I did feel some hope when the report pointed out “that the problem, is also a problem with solutions, if we can harness the skills, resources and vision of all the stakeholders-parents, business leaders, educators, community leaders, policy makers, and young people themselves.” Hmmm. Just like what is required in a knowledge based economy – practices like collaboration/ brain storming, information sharing, process development, talking to each other… will have to be used by stakeholders to align school to work goals and practices in our local communities. We can improve overall performance to meet the global economy challenges, all we need is a mindset change.

According to the report non-profits involved with youth development and after school programs are “critical delivery systems for many of the applied skills that employers value most. In order to meet the growing demands and ensure that today’s youth are well-prepared to enter the workplace of the 21st century, we need a new system for learning that coordinates and integrates these and other learning environments together with school-based learning.”

Take note non-profits that the report does cite some “model practices” such as job shadowing, summer jobs, employers sending employees to serve as mentors and tutors, business investment in after school and youth development programs, that some businesses are partnering and implementing with stakeholders. There are a number of foundations funding these type of concepts and some of the most generous can be found in the Grant Resources category.

The report does lay out some heavy challenges, but businesses are the ones screaming that the United States is facing a workforce crisis because they realize there is a financial stake in “ensuring that young people today- the workforce of tomorrow-are prepared to contribute to or succeed in a knowledge-based economy” – business must take the lead!.