Jobs are going vacant and skilled/educated people are unemployed. Whatttt? Or should I say, why?Are jobs and skills not matching? Who is supposed to address this?
We say that you must have a college degree to get a good job and when the young people amass a mountain of student debt to get them, they discover they aren’t trained for the available jobs. No surprise that there are few good jobs for the high school graduates where they used to get them – in the manufacturing sector. The only jobs around for those without college experience are in the retail or service sector at or near minimum wage.
Why is there a mismatch in manufacturing? Low skill manufacturing jobs have gone overseas and taken a lot of the auxiliary jobs with them. That would be the tool-makers, the machine makers and repairers, and the packaging designers and manufacturers.
Manufacturing jobs that remained in the US are higher skilled. Automation has driven productivity increase and today’s manufacturing employee has to program the computer to operate the machinery. They can run 1 to 3 lines by themselves. These jobs now pay an average of $26.75 nationwide* and they go unfilled because applicants don’t have the computer skills to run the machines.
Doesn’t it seem obvious that companies will have to hire differently? Test applicants for aptitude and the right attitude. Don’t just interview. Then, do the training yourself.
Here are other steps I have seen companies make: partner with local community colleges and trade schools to get training for your people..Post jobs at the technical schools. Get to know the guidance counselor at your local high school.The state of California will reimburse a lot of that training.
If you are looking for people who can analyze and write well, who have complex reasoning abilities, look for college graduates and then, yes, you will have to train them.
This week, assess what training your workforce needs. What can you teach internally to improve the skills of the people you have? Long term employees know a lot that could be part of “How we do things around here training”. In addition, many Vistage Members have regular “lunch and learn”s where the staff picks the topic. Sometimes it is a TED talk or a youtube video. All it costs you is the food for lunch.
*ITR On the road blog
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