"Jobs waiting for the taking"
In today's economic climate, job seekers face challenges. Employers have challenges too. There is a growing gap between job skills held and job skills required.
The global consulting firm, McKinsey & Company estimates 800,000 jobs (mostly in health care tech and engineering) are going unfilled because there are not sufficient numbers of people with the skills to fill them. The Department of Labor reported in March 228,000 manufacturing jobs unfilled.
In this difficult recession and recovery, with a lot more people looking for work or under employed, this mismatch in education and skills with the high tech skills required in today's advanced manufacturing, engineering, and health care sectors needs to be addressed.
Community Colleges are providing solutions to filling this skills gap.
Community Colleges are engaged in innovative partnerships with corporations and manufacturing groups.
Forsyth Tech in Winston-Salem, N.C. is the first and one of four Community Colleges deploying The National Association of Manufacturers (NAM)-endorsed skills certification system. NAM is the oldest and largest broad-based industrial and trade association in the country. Those enrolled in Forsyth's NAM skills certification program quickly (in a project-based environment) receive a college certificate that is directly aligned to the specific skills manufacturers need.
With 800 participating employers, Cincinnati State Technical and Community College's Cooperative Education Program is the largest in the U.S. Every Cincinnati State CO-OP student is placed in his/her chosen field with employers who agree to become academic and career partners and mentors.
Cincinnati State's Computer Numerically Controlled (CNC) certificate is designed for those currently employed who desire additional training in the specialized field of CNC programming and computer-aided manufacturing.
Along with 16 other midwest (70 across the nation) Community Colleges, Cincinnati State has launched a series of targeted, skills focused, job-specific training courses in health information technology.
Rockwell Automation's partnership with Cincinnati State's Workforce Development Center (WDC) provides training and retraining in the latest, leading-edge technologies, industrial products and continuous improvement strategies.
High School students are benefiting from Community Colleges.
In San Antonio, Texas NAM skills certification is being offered in two high school academies, one on advanced manufacturing, and one in aerospace. In partnership with Alamo Community Colleges, 11th and 12th graders receive training which leads to their high school diploma, their national career readiness certificate, a direct tie to an employer and up to 30 credits toward their associate degree.
The STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) Summer Academy offered at Cincinnati State gives rising high school seniors dual credit for both high school and college. Classroom experiences run the gamut from solving equations for electrical resistance in engineering technologies to cultivating DNA samples in bioscience.
On June 8, 2011 at Northern Virginia Community College, President Obama announced a major expansion of Skills for America's Future, an industry led initiative to dramatically improve industry partnerships with Community Colleges and build a nation-wide network to maximize workforce development strategies, job training programs and job placement.
The new jobs in this economy are not always at the baccalaureate level; they are at the technical level.
Our educational system, our society and our culture have undervalued vocational training and work.
It is absolutely important for this nation to re-establish educational pathways that recognize competency-based, proficiency of skills training.
Our Community Colleges are the heroes leading the way.
Richard O. Schwab was formerly associate head of school and middle school head, Cincinnati Country Day School. He is also neighborhood team leader, Glendale Organizing for America Community Team (www.gofact.blogspot.com).
