Better Hiring & Retention
In 2011, unemployment in this nation was hovering around 9%. Unemployment has been high for awhile, and while the numbers are high, there is an even bigger problem to be addressed. In many cases, it's not a lack of job availability it is a lack of skilled and trained labor that are ready to work.
At the Center of Excellence for Aerospace and Advanced Manufacturing, we are at the table when it comes to employment discussions in our state.
Aerospace and manufacturing leaders in Washington state tell us that we have the jobs. The problem is not a desire to hire - but finding qualified candidates to do the job.
While more students than ever are graduating from college, about 30% of Americans have a college degree, employers are saying young people entering the job market are not prepared.
"We are hearing this from industry people in all industries," says Mary Kaye Bredeson, director of the Center of Excellence for Aerospace and Advanced Materials Manufacturing.
In fact, employers in Washington state say it plain and simple - Young people need more technical training.
More hands-on technical training needed
Roughly 70% of high school graduates will go to a four-year college. However, only about 30% will graduate with a Bachelors degree or higher.
The problem is that a greater percentage of high school students could benefit from more hands-on, technical education, to whet their taste for technical education at a community college. But it is only being taught to a small percentage of the students in any given high school.
For parents, there is a stigma with hands-on technical training.
But, as jobs become more technical in our country, hands-on technical training is the key to employing more people faster.
Changing perceptions
While educators prepare our next generation for the workplace, there is a noted focus on college prep. Parents want their kids to go to college. Plain and simple.
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Recently we learned of a Career and Technical Education (CTE) instructor who taught a sign making course (CNC manufacturing class). The course was hands-on and dealt with running a sign shop. Through taking and fulfilling the order for customers in the community, students were learning applied math and gaining valuable work skills for a small business. For all purposes the class would prepare older teens to go into a work environment. They would know how to work with customers and produce something of value. However, the CTE instructor had four shop classes cancelled (including the sign making class) because students needed more math classes for graduation. So instead of teaching kids real world working skills – learning to fill out a purchase order, calculating, designing – CTE students are getting cut because the need math credits for graduation. |
Parents should note that industry says – We have kids who have taken college prep classes and four years of math, but can’t apply it to real world production.
When college educated kids go to our local employers, they have to send them to training to learn how to do something.
Moving forward with solutions
The Center of Excellence is working with school districts and skills centers to tell them that students need to be more prepared for more than just college prep - in other words - technical education is a good thing. Your students will have a better shot at starting their career sooner with CTE courses and/or technical training.
We will continue to work with groups statewide to bring awareness to better education that will ultimately equal hiring smarter - more prepared workers - who can accomplish workplace tasks that will ultimately satisfy employers and their customers.
Better hiring and retention begins with bringing students into CTE training with curriculum that has been specifically designed for application in the workforce. When students are hired from these programs, they will be more prepared to assimilate into the company with skills to begin work.