*First appeared in the October 31 edition of the Laurel Chronicle.
This week I attended a workforce development conference hosted by the Federal Reserve Banks of Atlanta and St. Louis, the Mississippi Manufacturers Association, and other statewide partners. The event reminded us that, as MMA president and CEO Jay Moon said, workforce development remains a critical element of successful economic development.
Here are a few more observations from the event.
Panelists at the conference included representation from multiple states and a mix of the public and private sector, and conference attendees represented business and industry; education; and workforce agency stakeholders.
Throughout the day, much discussion centered around “soft” skills. That’s industry speak for things parents used to teach their kids – how to dress for work, how to have a good attitude, punctuality, and motivation to do a good job. Believe it or not, states are spending millions of dollars each year to teach workers these types of skills. Employers are clamoring to find workers who exhibit “conscientiousness” (as one panelist put it). To paraphrase another speaker, employers want a motivated workforce even more than a trained workforce.
As I’ve said before, when the family unit fails our kids, the government tends to step in. Ideally, parents – not training providers – would teach their children these very basic life skills.
Nicole Smith, senior economist at Georgetown University, raised the issue about Mississippi’s “brain drain,” noting our state is a net exporter of college graduates. In essence, we are training young workers to go somewhere else. This is particularly troubling in a state that already suffers from a historically low labor force participation rate (the number of people who are either working or looking for a job). This measure certainly won’t improve if our future workers catch the next train out of town.
Representatives from the construction and defense industries stressed that workforce policy should embrace all career and education pathways – both those which require a four-year degree and those that require a technical degree or certification. The earning potential of non-university careers was explored, with economist Smith noting that a bachelor’s degree in education typically pays much less than a two-year certification in an engineering-related field. (Students: Y’all take that to heart.)
Mike Beatty, president and CEO of the Great Promise Partnership, discussed a Georgia dual enrollment program targeting at-risk youth. The public-private partnership combines traditional classroom education with a job working about 20 hours a week as long the student maintains certain grades and behavior requirements. This program provides real-life work experience – such as those soft skills I mentioned earlier – and demonstrates the value and reward of hard work. It has helped turn the tides for at least 600 Georgia teens since the program’s inception and could be a model for similar Mississippi efforts.
Mark Henry, head of Mississippi’s workforce agency (the Department of Employment Security), is currently serving as president of the National Association of State Workforce Agencies. In this role, he is advocating Congress give states maximum flexibility on federal workforce dollars. Amen to that, brother.
Conference attendees broke into small groups, with each group producing a single idea for further study by Mississippi workforce officials. These ideas ran the gamut: Emphasizing the value of work to youth; developing a single workforce development brand for the state; renewing our focus on entrepreneurship; understanding and overcoming the barriers faced by felons re-entering the workforce; unifying the education system; and developing workforce academies and ensuring courses taught by community and junior colleges meet employer needs.
These topics aren’t new, but they continue to be challenges faced by Mississippi as we look to improve our workforce delivery system. I suspect these issues will continue, at least in the foreseeable future, to dominate discussions on how to move Mississippi forward, since successful workforce development breeds successful economic development.
Economic development is, after all, the art of attracting new business and industry to a city, county, state, or region. While competitive tax structures, financial incentives, and other bells and whistles are important, a company won’t locate its next facility in an area without qualified workers.
Showing posts with label Workforce Training. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Workforce Training. Show all posts
Thursday, October 31, 2013
Thursday, October 17, 2013
4-year degree not required to achieve American dream
*First appeared in the Oct. 17, 2013, edition of the Laurel Chronicle.
A few years ago, I noticed a banner hanging from a fence at the high school near my house. It read something along the lines of, “University or bust.” Its purpose, I suppose, was to encourage high schoolers to attend college in pursuit of a bachelor’s degree.
It reminded me of my own high school experience, where the refrain from counselors and other authority figures was essentially the same: A four-year degree is your key to success.
And, well, maybe that is true for some students. But this belief – one that I think is misguided – has been too broadly applied, resulting in parents, teachers, counselors, and eventually students believing that their only chance for success is to attain a four-year degree.
In today’s economy, that couldn’t be further from the truth.
I keep thinking about my own experience. While I chose the maybe-not-so-practical path of getting a French and political science bachelor’s degree, my brother decided a four-year university wasn’t in the cards. He got an associates degree from Jones County Junior College and, quite frankly, is the picture of the American dream.
Seriously, you guys – my brother has a fantastic house that’s almost paid for, a lovely wife, a few cats and a Great Dane, and he recently bought his second boat. A facility technician at AT&T (where he’s worked for nine years, though it was still BellSouth when he first began the job), Jonathan receives a competitive wage, full healthcare and pension benefits, and opportunities for regular and double overtime (cha-ching!).
Importantly, he did all this without having the so-called “key” to success (a bachelor’s degree). I will also point out that not only did he skip the four-year college track, he also avoided the excessive student loan debt that often accompanies higher educational pursuits.
So what led him to this role, you ask? For starters, you need to know my brother is the guy you want with you if you’re stranded on a desert island. He can wire anything; he can build anything; he can troubleshoot anything…which is probably why he scored the highest in his grade on that military exam they give you in high school. Jonathan has been able to translate his natural aptitude for doing and building into an electronics career where he troubleshoots and maintains electrical circuits.
That’s what America – and Mississippi – needs more of: People like my brother who recognize their natural skillsets and turn them into meaningful careers.
Of course, I’m not the only one who thinks like this. I’ve spoken to countless company reps from across industry sectors – from energy to manufacturing, construction to telecommunications – and they share a common goal: They need more skilled workers, not necessarily those with four-year degrees.
This is particularly relevant with the onset of “onshoring,” or the trend of manufacturers locating plants in the U.S. due to changing dynamics within global markets. Rising labor costs in developing countries, affordable domestic energy, access to low-cost American capital, American productivity, and supply chain complexity has been the recipe leading to the influx of manufacturing jobs stateside.
Some economists estimate that onshoring has created between 250,000 and 500,000 jobs in America over the last three years, and the trend is expected to continue. Major companies like Caterpillar, Ford, and Apple are making heavy investments in U.S. facilities. GE CEO Jeffrey Immelt told the Harvard Business Review that outsourcing “is quickly becoming outdated as a business model for GE Appliances.”
Because it’s becoming more economically viable to manufacture in America, our workforce capacity must gear up to supply the needed labor for the new demand. States in the southeast, which typically enjoy lower costs of living, competitive tax environments, and a Right-to-Work policy, are especially attractive to companies looking to bring back jobs to domestic markets.
That means Mississippi is poised to benefit from the manufacturing renaissance, as long as we ensure that we have the skilled labor necessary to do the jobs coming back onshore.
We must change our thinking on education, with a dedicated effort to de-stigmatize workforce training. Not every student needs to go to a four-year university, and that’s okay. Some students have a strong aptitude for technical learning and will thrive in the workforce with a technical degree or certificate.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics has previously estimated that in the ten year span leading up to 2014, more than 40 million jobs (roughly three-fourths of total openings) would be filled by workers without bachelor’s degrees.
In Mississippi alone, individuals who lack a bachelor’s degree but have some type of skills training – whether it’s welding, electronics, plumbing, or even healthcare – can get high-paying jobs with good benefits. This is especially true in Southeast Mississippi, which accounts for the most industrial employment in the state with some 58,347 industrial jobs according to Manufacturer News.
We’re at a critical juncture. The global dynamics have shifted and favor a return of job-creating companies to the U.S., particularly the Southeast. But will Mississippi’s workforce culture change with it, or will we continue pushing the misguided idea that all students need a four-year degree to succeed?
A few years ago, I noticed a banner hanging from a fence at the high school near my house. It read something along the lines of, “University or bust.” Its purpose, I suppose, was to encourage high schoolers to attend college in pursuit of a bachelor’s degree.
It reminded me of my own high school experience, where the refrain from counselors and other authority figures was essentially the same: A four-year degree is your key to success.
And, well, maybe that is true for some students. But this belief – one that I think is misguided – has been too broadly applied, resulting in parents, teachers, counselors, and eventually students believing that their only chance for success is to attain a four-year degree.
In today’s economy, that couldn’t be further from the truth.
I keep thinking about my own experience. While I chose the maybe-not-so-practical path of getting a French and political science bachelor’s degree, my brother decided a four-year university wasn’t in the cards. He got an associates degree from Jones County Junior College and, quite frankly, is the picture of the American dream.
Seriously, you guys – my brother has a fantastic house that’s almost paid for, a lovely wife, a few cats and a Great Dane, and he recently bought his second boat. A facility technician at AT&T (where he’s worked for nine years, though it was still BellSouth when he first began the job), Jonathan receives a competitive wage, full healthcare and pension benefits, and opportunities for regular and double overtime (cha-ching!).
Importantly, he did all this without having the so-called “key” to success (a bachelor’s degree). I will also point out that not only did he skip the four-year college track, he also avoided the excessive student loan debt that often accompanies higher educational pursuits.
So what led him to this role, you ask? For starters, you need to know my brother is the guy you want with you if you’re stranded on a desert island. He can wire anything; he can build anything; he can troubleshoot anything…which is probably why he scored the highest in his grade on that military exam they give you in high school. Jonathan has been able to translate his natural aptitude for doing and building into an electronics career where he troubleshoots and maintains electrical circuits.
That’s what America – and Mississippi – needs more of: People like my brother who recognize their natural skillsets and turn them into meaningful careers.
Of course, I’m not the only one who thinks like this. I’ve spoken to countless company reps from across industry sectors – from energy to manufacturing, construction to telecommunications – and they share a common goal: They need more skilled workers, not necessarily those with four-year degrees.
This is particularly relevant with the onset of “onshoring,” or the trend of manufacturers locating plants in the U.S. due to changing dynamics within global markets. Rising labor costs in developing countries, affordable domestic energy, access to low-cost American capital, American productivity, and supply chain complexity has been the recipe leading to the influx of manufacturing jobs stateside.
Some economists estimate that onshoring has created between 250,000 and 500,000 jobs in America over the last three years, and the trend is expected to continue. Major companies like Caterpillar, Ford, and Apple are making heavy investments in U.S. facilities. GE CEO Jeffrey Immelt told the Harvard Business Review that outsourcing “is quickly becoming outdated as a business model for GE Appliances.”
Because it’s becoming more economically viable to manufacture in America, our workforce capacity must gear up to supply the needed labor for the new demand. States in the southeast, which typically enjoy lower costs of living, competitive tax environments, and a Right-to-Work policy, are especially attractive to companies looking to bring back jobs to domestic markets.
That means Mississippi is poised to benefit from the manufacturing renaissance, as long as we ensure that we have the skilled labor necessary to do the jobs coming back onshore.
We must change our thinking on education, with a dedicated effort to de-stigmatize workforce training. Not every student needs to go to a four-year university, and that’s okay. Some students have a strong aptitude for technical learning and will thrive in the workforce with a technical degree or certificate.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics has previously estimated that in the ten year span leading up to 2014, more than 40 million jobs (roughly three-fourths of total openings) would be filled by workers without bachelor’s degrees.
In Mississippi alone, individuals who lack a bachelor’s degree but have some type of skills training – whether it’s welding, electronics, plumbing, or even healthcare – can get high-paying jobs with good benefits. This is especially true in Southeast Mississippi, which accounts for the most industrial employment in the state with some 58,347 industrial jobs according to Manufacturer News.
We’re at a critical juncture. The global dynamics have shifted and favor a return of job-creating companies to the U.S., particularly the Southeast. But will Mississippi’s workforce culture change with it, or will we continue pushing the misguided idea that all students need a four-year degree to succeed?
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