A Enhanced View of Training & Development – Basic Education May Need to be Added

As updated news on the state of the incoming work force is reported, it will cause decision makers to update their thinking and strategy regarding employee training and development. I suspect corporate training will take on more meaning and a greater role as we move forward.  Why?

Consider recent statistics regarding alarming educational trends impacting the readiness of todays incoming workforce.  This information is provided from a article entitled - Employers High Demand for Students and Workers With an Informational and Technical Education in the Emerging 21st Century. You can click the link to read the entire article.

This is the excerpt of note:

“Employers complain that many college graduates are not prepared for the marketplace and lack the new set of skills necessary for successful employment and continuous career growth. Only 6 percent of todays jobs do not require at least completion of high school, which means for a student without the adequate skills, he/she will not be eligible to even apply for 94 percent of job openings. The U.S. Department of Labor forecasts that by 2012 the U.S. economy will have the largest workforce in the nation’s history culminating to more than 162 million people. However, it will not be enough to fill the 2 million job openings projected to be available. In order words, millions of jobs are expected to go unfilled because workers lack the specialized skills required to fill them. Alarming, the U.S. government predictions show a shortage of more than 10 million skilled workers by 2012.”

Here’s an important question…Does this information imply that companies will be forced to take on more of an “education role” in it’s employee training and development strategy, take on the development of more fundamental skills such as writing and math? We might have to reframe what we’re doing and call it “education and training.”

This reminds me of a current fundamental mishap in our hiring and management and that is the practice of gross assumptions of the fundamental capabilities of those we hire.  I’ve witnessed this just in the simple thing of thinking through a challenge to generate multiple solutions.  Just the act of thinking something through seems to be missing!

Coaching Tip: It’s three fold for this post…

1. Become more mindful or your assumptionns with those you lead and those you are hiring related to these kind of capabilities.

2. Assess the funding and offerings of your training plan.  It may need to include more classes on fundamentals (math, writing, grammar, communication.) or accommodate more blended learning offerings to meet the unique needs of each employee that can be embedded in the everyday work experience.

3. Evaluate your hiring protocol.  You may want to include testing to expose these capability gaps.