Our worldview has not adapted to the reality of our situation. Prior to the Great Recession, we spent significant time raising the alarm about retiring boomers and the need to hire and train new workers well ahead of those retirements. But the recession delayed those retirements, giving the false impression that boomers simply will not retire. We lost any sense of urgency about training new workers and we’ve lost those years of preparation.
On a more positive side, many of our companies adopted Lean Manufacturing principles, making them more competitive locally and internationally. But perhaps we missed the chapter on succession planning and now we see many companies unable to hire skilled workers.
What kinds of companies, you ask? We have skill shortages in a wide variety of “middle skill” jobs – CNC machinists, operating room nurses, engineers of many types, paralegals and many more. In some cases, we can point to many graduates coming from college programs, but recent graduates rarely exhibit the experience that companies seek.
Also, most of the companies seek experienced middle skill workers – those who can help train and guide the newly educated, but our challenge is to find ways to accelerate the learning of middle skill workers who are already on the job.
To some extent, we can recruit some of these workers from out of town. Or companies can choose to do the work elsewhere.
Most job training programs focus on entry level workers, but it is time to also look at advancing the skills of those already on the job, in addition to training new workers. What would that look like? An existing model works for many industries – registered apprenticeships. Can we work with apprenticeship committees to compress training times somehow?
In companies or industries without registered apprenticeships, is it possible to start them quickly and with a minimum of angst? Or are there alternative arrangements which will help workers move ahead in an accelerated mode?
It is clear that our local economy depends on a skilled workforce if it is going to flourish. We can’t just have willing people; we also need to have people with the right skills. We must develop a collective sense of urgency about addressing these skill gaps if we want new jobs in our community and the solution needs to begin within local businesses. How can you help?
Jeanne Bennett is the executive director of the Southwest Washington Workforce Development Center; Lisa Nisenfeld is the executive director of the Columbia River Economic Development Council.
