What to do about U.S. workers' skills gap (first of all, determine if in fact there really IS such a gap - this is quite doubtful)

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What to do about workers' skills

By Richard W. Riley and John Engler
January 22, 2012

Chicago has an employment rate of nearly 10 percent, but it also has more than 100,000 unfilled jobs. You see this across the U.S. Thirteen million Americans are looking for work, but the U.S. has 3.3 million job openings. Why are those jobs going unfilled?

Mayor Rahm Emanuel has identified a major cause and solution. He recognizes that plenty of employers are ready to hire but can't find people who have the skills needed for the jobs that are available. Employers are frustrated by this skills shortage.

Just what the fuck kind of skills are we talking about here? In the U.S., 40% of adults are functionally illiterate, one suspects this is not true of U.S. college grads and high school grads.

The obvious answer: Young adults and displaced workers should return to school to get the needed skills, the kind of training they didn't get in high school. But they're understandably worried about the cost of education. Tuition and student debt continue to rise.

AH, but young adults and displaced workers DO return to school to get the needed skills, and they pay for-profit on-line colleges real big bux to misunderedumacate themselves, also.

Emanuel has put a focus on community colleges, which are under-recognized, under-resourced and underappreciated institutions. Community colleges provide an affordable avenue to the job training and retraining that unemployed workers and businesses need.

How in the fuck can these ass holes make THIS assertation?  Speaking of just the three community colleges in my area with which I am very well acquainted (Harper, where my son graduated #1 in his class to become a phlebotomist, and DID in fact go to work as a phlebotomist ... but could not get 40 hours a week, more like 15-18, which WAS NOT ENOUGH TO SUSTAIN AND SUPPORT HIM, and thus, he started to supplement his phlebotomists' job working as as food server at one of the local private country clubs, where he fell into making SO MUCH FUCKING MONEY (relatively speaking) that he went full time into the food service for the rich folks career path, and THIS, is at the present moment a good thing for my son, BUT, he has such healing gifts, that he ought to be working full time (and training others in his healing gifts) in the health care bidness.

CLC - College of Lake County has tremendous technical programs - for health care, first responders, etc, etc, etc.    MCCC - McHenry County Community College - had the best desktop publishing cirriculum of the three schools, back in 1992, when I took the introduction to desk top publishing course, which was then taught by a man who worked at BlackDot Publishin in Crystal Lake, IL, and whose company put out the first book with the complete impeachment trial of Slick Willy, William Jefferson Clinton, who, these days, seems to be spending a lot of time hanging out with our favorite dufus screw up rich fly-boy - George W Bush - they are, in fact, birds of a freaking feather.

College of Lake County has an ACTUARIAL SCIENCE PROGRAM, which is taught by Mike Abroe, FSA, MAAA, my first boss, and who is thought to be the most knowledgeable health insurance actuary in the country.  JUST HOW THE FUCKING HELL UNDER-RESOURCED are the junior colleges that have such top talent teaching at them? HELL, this IS the business community stepping up and in to TEACH THE STUDENTS WHAT THEY REALLY NEED TO KNOW to come into a new job out of JoCo and begin to contribute IMMEDIATEMENT! 

SO, when my son can make far more money in the service industry than he can make with the exceptional training he got (he graduated a registered / certified phelbotomist; he had done his internship too! then MAYBE IT IS THE AMERICAN BUSINESS COMMUNITY with its penny pinching tight-ass ways, that no longers provides health insurance bennies, paid vacations, or even a decent fucking wage, much less 35-40 hours of work a week that is slitting its own throat?  Yes, that's it!  BIG BIDNESS is culpa! 

 

The problem is, a lot of community colleges have low graduation rates — some Chicago community colleges have rates below 10 percent. Community colleges have to improve. If they'll just look, they'll find national models of excellence.

One this about this 10% number - a LOT of people take classes from a community college with no intention of obtaining a degree; they are just interested in the topic being offered!

Last month, the Aspen Institute recognized five community colleges that provide high-quality, affordable education and teach the skills demanded by today's workplace. Among them:

• Valencia College in Orlando, Fla., which won first place in the Aspen competition, has for a decade consistently increased student success rates. Graduates have high employment rates in jobs that drive the regional economy in areas such as the hospitality industry, health care, film production and laser technology, and they can take advantage of guaranteed admission to transfer to the nearby University of Central Florida.

• West Kentucky Community and Technical College in Paducah, Ky., completely revamped its remedial math program and drove huge changes in its reading curriculum. (They really NEEDED to change the reading curriculum, since many high-school graduates from "the inner city" have reading levels that would not be average for junior high school students. That is reality. The result: The college churns out students who are well-prepared for its region's employers, including a sizable health care industry, and ready to transfer to the state's four-year colleges.

• Lake Area Technical Institute in Watertown, S.D., has developed such a strong, coherent plan for delivering hands-on technical education that 75 percent of the students complete a degree or transfer to a four-year college, and regional employers hire more than 90 percent of the graduates because they know that a Lake Area Technical graduate is a qualified graduate.

The Aspen Prize winners have a superb record of providing access for low- and middle-income Americans who otherwise could not afford higher education. If it can be done in Orlando, Paducah and Watertown, why not Chicago?  (Because Chicago does not really care about its low- and middle-income citizens who cannot afford higher education!)

As former governors, we understand the incredible value of community colleges. They offer a wide range of degrees and courses at a fraction of the tuition charged at four-year colleges.

Students want an affordable education that leads to jobs that pay good wages. Liberal arts degrees have substantial merit, but community colleges can blend intellectual growth with an education that leads directly to jobs and ultimately to careers.

Jesus Christ - read Michael Lewis Liar's Poker. Michael was a freakin' English Lit Major who went to work for Goldman Sachs (or maybe it was one of the other of the big out-houses ... er .... investment banks) and he was doing "research" on companies whose products he did not use and knew litle of what is worth knowing.

A recent Georgetown University report, "The Undereducated American," says, "A clear trend has emerged: The United States is losing ground in post-secondary education relative to our competitors. The significance of these rankings goes beyond mere bragging rights — increasing our supply of skilled labor is central to the vitality of the U.S. economy."

We have increased our supply of skilled labor, it's just that the US Government grants 250,000 exemption green cards for skilled immigrants from other countries, who will work for 50-65% of what an American worker would take, thereby driving down and keeping low the wages of American workers in those industries (Medicine, health care, business, investments, finance)

Students must complete college and, whether they stop at a certificate, a two-year degree or go on to a four-year college, take their degrees to a marketplace that values what they have learned.

Local employers must forge partnerships with community colleges to create clear paths to employment — and demand reforms to the curriculum if that's what it takes to ensure that graduating students have acquired necessary skills.

Why don't they just tell the fucken colleges what they fucken want?

We're glad to see Emanuel recognize that these partnerships are essential to bridging the gap between jobs and applicants. Local, state and national leaders have to take on the skills shortage that holds back businesses and job-seekers.

We must challenge community colleges to fulfill their potential as an affordable, high-quality solution. Their success will help determine whether America can compete in the global economy.

Richard W. Riley is a senior partner at EducationCounsel LLC, former U.S. secretary of education and former governor of South Carolina; John Engler is president of the Business Roundtable and former governor of Michigan.

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