Help Wanted: A Literate, Career-Ready Workforce

The future workforce is here — and it is woefully ill-prepared for the demands of today’s (and tomorrow’s) workplace. So say employers in a unique study by The Conference Board, Corporate Voices for Working Families, Partnership for 21st Century Skills, and the Society for Human Resource Management, which looks at the readiness of new entrants to the workforce. Knowing how employers view these new entrants is an important first step in enabling both these new entrants and business to succeed on the global economic playing field.

At the height of the recession, 32 percent of manufacturers reported that they had jobs going unfilled because they could not find workers with the right skills. The public believes manufacturing is critical to reviving our economy, but they would not recommend manufacturing jobs to their sons and daughters. And 84 percent of manufacturers reported the K-12 school systems were doing an inadequate job of preparing students for the workplace.

The four participating organizations jointly surveyed more than 400 employers. These employers articulate the skill sets that new entrants — recently hired graduates from high school, two-year colleges or technical schools, and four-year colleges — need to succeed in the workplace. Among the most important skills cited by employers are Professionalism/Work Ethic,Oral and Written Communications, Teamwork/Collaboration andCritical Thinking/Problem Solving.

In fact, the findings indicate that applied skills refer to those skills that enable new entrants to use the basic knowledge acquired in school to perform in the workplace on all educational levels trump basic knowledge and skills, such as Reading Comprehension and Mathematics.

In other words, while the “three Rs” are still fundamental to any new workforce entrant’s ability to do the job, employers emphasize that applied skills like Teamwork/Collaboration and Critical Thinking are “very important” to success at work.

In the next five years, college graduates will continue to increase in number among new hires. More than one-quarter of employer respondents project that during the next five years, their companies will reduce hiring of new entrants with only a high school diploma. Almost 60 percent project that their companies will increase hiring of four-year college graduates and about half project increased hiring of two-year college/technical school graduates.

So What Can Be Done?

AME has been engaged during the past three years in the Revitalization of North American Manufacturing initiative. This initiative to be successful needs more individuals to be excited and prepared to excel at Manufacturing AS A Desirable Career Path. Having a highly skilled workforce is the lifeblood of any successful company, industry, community and the economy.

Business owners are facing the challenge of finding and recruiting the 38 percent of 12th graders who are grade-level proficient at reading reported by the National Assessment of Educational Progress (NAEP). Along with the critical thinking and problem solving skills needed for good paying careers in advanced manufacturing and shipbuilding. The Literacy Education for All, Results for the Nation (LEARN) Act can help address the need for schools to produce literate career ready citizens.

The LEARN Act will benefit students who are at risk for literacy failure: struggling readers, English language learners, economically disadvantaged youth, dyslexia students and students with specific learning disabilities (SEEDS) students. The LEARN Act can address reading proficiency by ensuring students have the skills demanded in the 21st century the ability to read for knowledge, to write for understanding, and to think critically about what is read. Reading is the foundational skill without which math, science and all education and economic attainment becomes unattainable.

As part of an effort to attract and groom entrants, businesses and learning organizations must be engaged in the supply side of human capital value stream. They need to develop close ties with the public schools, community colleges and trade schools. Through a program called “Career Pathways,” they are reaching out to elementary, middle and secondary schools, to encourage students to seek careers in manufacturing and take STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) skills courses.

People think that science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) skills aren’t important because you’re not interested in becoming an engineer or a computer programmer (though those jobs ARE in demand). What they need to keep in mind is that almost all jobs will require some STEM-related skills. The elementary, middle and high schools are provided career readiness skills as well as providing a more advanced knowledge of those same STEM skills needed in the shipbuilding, advanced manufacturing, for college and beyond.

The Roadmap to Education Reform for Manufacturing released by the Manufacturing Institute is a comprehensive blueprint for education reform designed to develop and help recruit the 21st century talent critical for manufacturers to sustain and grow global competitiveness. The report lays out six principles for innovative reform, including moving to competency-based education; establishing and expanding industry-education partnerships; infusing technology in education; creating excitement for manufacturing careers; applying manufacturing principles like “lean” to reduce education costs; and, expanding successful youth development programs.

AME invites other public and private organizations to share best practices and lessons learned through the AME APQC Benchmarking Community of Practice. This forums lets practitioners share, learn, and grow together so they can help sustain and expand a prosperous economy, while filling the demands for a skilled workforce, it next face to face summit will be held at the Revitalization of North American Manufacturing conference April 15 -18 in San Antonio, Texas.

Prepared by: Glenn Marshall, Director At Large, Association for Manufacturing Excellence. He is leading the initiative - Manufacturing AS A Desirable Career Path. Contact: glenn.marshall@hii-nns.com or www.ame.org.