Remember when the American Dream meant getting a good education, a job, buying a home to raise a family while becoming part of the middle class? The time has come to make this dream a reality again in America.
Organizations of all sizes are finding the greatest challenge facing them continues to be the recruiting and retaining qualified candidates. A Chamber of Commerce survey finds the lack of skilled and qualified workers to fill the millions of existing jobs openings is creating a national economic recovery crisis that poses an imminent threat to our fragile recovery and America’s great resurgence.
The pandemic has reinforced the need for getting an education with employable skills by requiring the educational system to prepare and graduate skilled career-ready citizens to design, make, and supply quality products at home. To replenish the talent pipeline employers are looking for the next generation of “blue” and “white” new collar workers with transferable skills and capabilities over degrees. The world of work is changing with skills becoming the new currency on the labor market.
Students assume getting a four-year degree — and taking on the thousands of dollars of student-loan debt that comes along with it — is the only way to get your foot in the door at top companies. Now, prominent companies such as Tesla and Netflix are hiring employees who have the skills required to get jobs done, with or without a degree. Glassdoor found firms including Google, Apple and IBM do not require a college degree to land a job.
Parents, students, employers and guidance counselors need to stop referring to these new-collar careers as “trades and vocations” they need to be referred to as “professions” like they do in Germany and Switzerland. These countries have benchmark workforce development and apprentice programs that pay high wages for skilled professionals with low unemployment and underemployment rates.
Skilled and credentialed careers are paying off. Twenty-seven percent of people with post-secondary licenses or certificates earn more than the average bachelor’s degree recipient. Eighty percent of associate degree holders earn more than the bachelor’s degree holder’s median income. When asked about the strengths of U.S. manufacturing careers, a survey of manufacturing professionals confirmed that manufacturing provides stability and solid middle- to upper middle-class salaries.
Business and educational leaders need to focus on credentialing and apprenticeships initiatives to replenish employer’s skilled labor needs while reducing the millions of unemployed workers caused by the pandemic. OJT and apprenticeship opportunities can provide a debt-free career path for Generation Z and entire workforce at-large to enjoy a family-sustaining career while bridging the skilled labor gap.
Parents, educators, community leaders are discovering that career and technical education initiatives, valued by employers can provide an equitable gateway for students to learn how to be capable and qualified in achieving their career goals and dreams.
Glenn Marshall, who lives in Williamsburg, is on the Association for Manufacturing Excellence Management Team initiative for leading a “Manufacturing Renaissance.” He can be reached at [email protected].
