Skills: Where Do You Find What You Need?ByRaymond D. Matkowsky
Many of us have gone to college, assumed the heavy expense, earned a degree and hoped that one day we would make it into the “protected” class. Children are urged to set college as one of their goals. Education is important but, unfortunately, very few do eventually make it into the “protected” class.
At this point I should define what I mean by the term “protected” class. I do not mean legal protection. What I am referring to is the situation where society’s upper echelon’s wealth can easily have them stay safe and prosperous during difficult times while the lower segments live precariously and subject to all of society’s negative whims. The “protected” class comprises about 10% of the population. The remaining 90% is unprotected.
Chances are very poor that today’s college graduate will ever make it into the “protected” class. So, that shouldn’t even be a consideration when weighing the various factors that goes into determining if one should go on to further education. What is more important is the question: What do you want to do the rest of your life? The second question is one that is made to business. Does that job really need a college education?
Individual’s Responsibility
The individual has to decide what they would like to do for the rest of their working life. This decision takes a great deal of thought and research. An individual should not go into college or a trade school not knowing what they really want and prospect for the future.
Once a decision is made, the next step is to decide if a college education is necessary or are there alternatives. There are more than 16 million job openings in the United States that require more education than what you receive in high school, but less than a college degree. Some 40% of these jobs pay more than $55,000 a year. However, employers can only find candidates that are sufficiently trained for about 43% of these jobs.
If a person decides that what he or she wants to do require attending college for four to seven years, I would whole heartily encourage them to do so. If they prefer to learn a trade I would also encourage them to do so.
The next step is to determine where. Not every college or trade school, for that matter, is good in everything. The cheapest alternative is not always the best and costs should be the very last consideration to be made. Again, this takes a lot of thought and research.
One caveat about private trade schools is in order. Many of these schools work on a fixed timeline. They are not for the student that may need personal help to keep from falling behind.
Role of Business
For years I have heard complaints from fellow businesspeople that they cannot find enough workers with the skills they need. There are many reasons for this, but when it comes down to the bottom line the problems fall clearly on businesses themselves. It is a costly problem to ignore.
In the first place no one is going spend time retraining unless there is a specific job at the end. Dislocated workers need a job immediately not two years down the road unless they have something in exchange. Employers do not, for the most part, transmit their needs to colleges and vocational schools. Even if they do, the skills that employers need today are churning over at a faster rate than ever. Colleges and trade schools can take months or years to develop a program that will meet the criteria given to them. Students will be learning skills that are outdated before they graduate. You cannot depend on colleges or trade schools to turn out students with the skills you need. To fill all of your positions not just 43% of them, you have no choice except to be proactive and train people for these positions.
Employers Need to Teach the Skills They Need Themselves
As a manager the question that you have to answer is: What kind of training is required? Is this job repetitive or does it require forward thinking? Is the employee going to interact with customers or is he or she in a support role. A different skill set is required for each situation. The necessary skills will be unique to each company.
Employers constantly say they want to hire someone that can “hit the ground running.” Running to where? No one hits the ground running! It takes about a year before a new hire experiences and reacts to all the situations that can occur and these situations will be distinctive to each company.
Education teaches you the basics, how to think, and where to go to find more information. It cannot possibly teach you everything that you will need to know for the rest of your life. It is up to the employer to teach an individual the basics of working for the company, its products, and its customers. You will be required to train the individual. Give them the skills that you need.
Advantages of Training within Your Workforce
You are better off training someone already part of your workers. Training an existing employee has three advantages. One is that you already know a person’s work ethics. When you train someone to move up, it puts a company in a favorable light. It has been well documented the degree of success of a business correlates with how it is perceived by both the employees and the public. Third, you do not have to compete with other businesses and offer higher wages and benefits to obtain a new employee.
Conclusion
The only way that you will be sure to get a person with the skills that you need is if you train them for the position. You may be lucky and find a perfect fit outside of the organization, but history suggests that might be a gamble and you may not know the results until a year later. There is money riding on that gamble!
If you have any further suggestions, do not keep it to yourself. Help your fellow readers!
If you have any questions, comments or suggestions drop me a line at rdm@datastats.com.
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