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‘Fear Not The Job-Stealing Robots’- Forbes, Online

|  June 13, 2018  |  by Nicholas Wyman , Contributor  |

Let’s face it. You’re probably like most people. You’ve heard about workplace automation probably taking your job. But it won’t happen to you or maybe anyone you know, right? Much hot

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air is spent on the topic of workplace automation and its consequences for workers. Opinions are divided. Some people forecast we’ll take automation in our stride, as we have in the past. That displaced workers will be absorbed into new and emerging industries. Others foretell a gloomier future.

Optimists

The pro-automation bloc often point to American agriculture as an example. In the early 1900s, mechanization made U.S. farmers so productive that millions of rural dwellers moved off to cities, where labor was needed by a fast-growing industrial economy. In turn, as factories became more automated, millions of workers were laid off but found work in the emerging service economy. Machine-driven industrialization created wealth.

Over the past centuries, automation has improved conditions for most people. Today we enjoy abundant and less expensive food from fewer farmers, more cars, and refrigerators from highly efficient factories. We’ve also got a service economy that caters to almost every human want, from pet grooming to periodontal care. We have all of this, and nearly full employment to boot! Today’s wave of rapid automation may continue in the same way.

Pessimists

Those on the anti-automation bloc, however, point to a “jobless future.” They say the highly educated and tech-savvy will do exceptionally well, while robots and software will take over the work of the rest of us. An early 2018 report by Bain and Company’s Macro Trends Group estimates 20% to 25% of current jobs may be eliminated by the end of the 2020s, with middle- to low-income workers being the hardest hit. Income inequality under this scenario will worsen as more and more of today’s middle-class workers slide to the bottom.

Don’t Discount The Power Of Human Creativity

Indeed, they are two very different scenarios. Where do I stand? Put me with the pro-automation bloc any day. It recognizes the transformative power of human creativity in business, science and other walks of life.

Yes, automation will eliminate millions of today’s jobs, but what about the others? Many roles we can’t even imagine today. And innovation will create most of them.

Look At Apple, Amazon, FedEx, UPS

Life is full of surprises. Who in the late 1970s would have guessed that a handful of techno geeks in Cupertino, California would create the world’s most powerful brand and a robust job-producing engine? Today, Apple employs 124,000 people and has committed to hiring another 20,000 within five years. When its 9,000 U.S. suppliers and partners are added to the mix, Apple accounts for 2 million jobs.

Amazon is another example. Starting in 1993 with a small office and warehouse crew, founder Jeff Bezos now employs 566,000 people. The company’s second headquarters is on the drawing boards and expects to hire another 50,000 with an average salary of $100,000. And in support of Amazon and other online retailers, delivery companies such as FedEx and UPS are currently writing paychecks for almost one million people!

Growing Industries – Like Solar

Among industries, solar energy was barely a blip on the charts 15 years ago. It now accounts for 260,000 U.S. positions, mostly hands-on installation jobs, and that number is growing fast. One of every of 50 new jobs in the U.S. today is in the solar industry.

The job-creating potential of these and hundreds of other enterprises was not anticipated in the 1970s and 1980s when industrial robots first appeared in significant numbers. And other job-creating companies will undoubtedly emerge in the years ahead if the U.S. and its peer economies maintain their current dynamism.

Being Proactive

Sure, there will be growing pains, but when aren’t there? Employers, governments and individuals can take steps to ease transitions and leverage the advantages of automation to benefit workers and their communities.

Innovative, proactive programs are already putting people into rewarding, good-paying jobs. The programs focus on skilling and reskilling workers with apprenticeships, and key to them are partnerships between community colleges and local industry. The result? We’re successfully closing a gap for once-despairing employers who’ve been crying out for skilled candidates.

Automation will pave the way for more people to gain real satisfaction from their work. It’s about giving their human potential a platform to flourish. In so doing, we’re genuinely changing the world in astounding ways with robots and automation by our side.

Caption – Main Image: A humanoid robot stands on display during the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, Feb. 2018. Photographer: Simon Dawson/Bloomberg.

View this and other articles on Forbes:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/nicholaswyman/2018/06/13/fear-not-the-job-stealing-robots/#6b88ad8e5f5a

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New Developments in U.S. Apprenticeships: Federal, State and International Perspectives

APPAM National Research Conference  – November 2018 ,Washington D.C.

Round table with Dr  Robert Lerman, Urban Institute, employer Mr Matthew McKenney from Hypertherm, Nicholas Wyman, CEO IWSI America and special guest Mr Derrick Ramsey, Secretary of Labor, Commonwealth of Kentucky.
The 2016 election heightened an ongoing debate about how best to deal with stagnant wages and weak job options for American workers without at least a bachelor’s degree. One increasingly prominent and bipartisan option for dealing with the problem is to scale up the U.S. apprenticeship system. Policymakers are coming to recognize that expanding apprenticeship is a cost-effective strategy for raising productivity and wages, improving the transition from school to careers, upgrading skills, widening access to rewarding careers, and achieving positive returns for employers and workers. The panel will hear about how the Commonwealth of Kentucky is leading the nation with many apprenticeship program firsts. The introduction of the intermediary model through to creating apprenticeship programs in new and emerging industries.

President Trump called for expanding apprenticeship at a White House ceremony last year. His first steps toward achieving this goal were signing an executive order titled “Expanding Apprenticeship in America,” doubling the funding for apprenticeships to $200 million, and establishing a task force on apprenticeship. Meanwhile, demonstrations sponsored by the Obama administration are well under way and a bipartisan group in Congress has sponsored apprenticeship expansion legislation. Nonetheless, the United States is far behind Australia, Canada, and England in scaling apprenticeships. The apprenticeship share of the workforce of these countries is about 9-10 times the apprenticeship share of the U.S. workforce.

U.S. official (or registered) apprenticeships have long been dominated by the construction trades and have operated in a highly complex world. Recently, renewed efforts have emerged to extend apprenticeship to a wide range of other occupations, to simplify the registered apprenticeship system, and to create “industry-recognized” apprenticeships. In addition, many states are developing their own initiatives to shift skill development policies toward apprenticeship.

This round table of top state officials, apprenticeship practitioners, and national and international experts will assess the new developments in the U.S. aimed at scaling apprenticeship. They will discuss initiatives taking place at the state and local levels, barriers and opportunities for apprenticeship expansion they are experiencing, lessons from other countries and from U.S. states that have led to apprenticeship expansion, and federal and state policies that can strengthen the role of apprenticeship in the U.S. while maintaining high quality. The conversation will also examine and discuss the findings and recommendations of the President’s Task Force on Apprenticeship Expansion that were published in the summer of 2018.

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“World Class Training: Australian Group Provides Training to Kentucky Registered Apprenticeship Team and Businesses” – Frankfort, KY

October 26, 2018—Frankfort, KY.

Australia’s WPC Group is providing ongoing training to the Kentucky Registered Apprenticeship team and members of the Commonwealth’s business community. The WPC Group was established in 1982 for the purposes of advancing an apprenticeship training model. Since their establishment, they have placed nearly 15,000 apprentices in stable careers throughout Australia.  WPC Group is part of the IWSI Group.

The Kentucky Registered Apprenticeship Program team members are working to establish Employer Partner Networks throughout the Commonwealth in order to expand apprenticeship availability to better meet the contemporary needs of businesses. Also known internationally as Group Training Organizations (GTOs) and intermediaries, the Employer Partner Networks work with businesses to thoroughly assess workforce needs and develop a labor force of apprentices to meet current skills gaps. The Employer Partner Network members provide comprehensive services to apprentices as well, such as career assessment and placement, locating appropriate Required Training Instruction, providing intensive mentoring, and offering wrap-around service providers to further support the needs of the apprentices.

The Kentucky Registered Apprenticeship team has established four Employer Partner Network members this year, including the Kentucky Science and Technology Corporation, Organic Grassroots, Corp., Independent Insurance Agents of Kentucky, and C-TECH, Inc. Organic Grassroots, Corp. and the Independent Insurance Agents of Kentucky joined the training class held October 25 & 26, along with Edwards Rigging, who desired to learn more about the Registered Apprenticeship Program in general.

The CEO of IWSI, Nicholas Wyman, was on hand to provide the training along with veteran apprenticeship manager, Janine McPhee. Wyman has spent the last twenty years consulting, writing, and speaking about the apprentice careers. He is the author of Job U: Find Your Path to a Successful Career in a Tough Job Market. He is also a regular contributor to Forbes magazine. McPhee is an experienced trainer with more than ten years of experience in managing large-scale apprenticeship placements for companies such as Mercedes Benz, Nissan, Esso and Exxon Mobil in Australia.

The Kentucky Registered Apprenticeship team members are Diana Jarboe, Tracy Osborne Clay, Brenda Demic and Stephen Tressler. The Program is housed under Secretary Derrick K. Ramsey at the Kentucky Education and Workforce Development Cabinet, Department of Workforce Investment, and is directed by Dr. Deborah Williamson. Dr Robert Lerman at Washington D.C. Urban Institute is providing technical expertise and support to the Apprenticeship and workforce programs.

The training was funded in part with the State Apprenticeship Expansion Continuation Grant awarded to Kentucky from the U.S. Department of Labor, Employment and Training Administration.

Publication for State Journal, Shelbyville Sentinel, Bullitt, Anderson and Pike County Papers and National Newsletters & Maher and Maher Publications.

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‘Hiring Is On The Rise, But Are College Grads Prepared For The World Of Work?’ – Forbes, Online

By Nicholas Wyman, Forbes

McGraw-Hill Education’s (MHE) survey on readying college graduates for the workforce is hot off the press. With the school year just around the corner, a new crop of graduates gearing up for their job search after summer break and a robust economy, this survey is timely. In fact, for the class of 2018, 44% of employers will increase hiring of new college graduates.

Essential career readiness skills are not what you think.

MHE reports that only four in 10 college students feel very or extremely prepared for their future careers. Even though this figure is better this year than last, it is still low.

Whereby over half of college graduates surveyed believed they were well prepared for the workplace in “essential career readiness skills” like professionalism and work ethic (77%), critical thinking and problem solving (63%), and oral and written communication (61%), employers’ perception of career readiness was lower, namely (43%) for professionalism, (56%) for critical thinking and (42%) for communication. That’s divided thinking. Technical skills don’t seem to be a big issue for either students or employers. Interpersonal skills are. Only in teamwork and collaboration did college grads (73%) and employers (77%) see eye-to-eye.

Student throwing graduation hats in the air
It’s time for the newly minted crop of graduates to gear up for their job search after summer break. (AP Photo/Matt Rourke)

It is important to note, says Susan Gouijnstook, VP of Learning Solutions Strategy at McGraw-Hill, that a gender disparity around confidence in workplace skills showed up again this year in McGraw-Hill’s Future Workforce Survey. In fact, 50% of men compared to 36% of women feel like they are “career ready.”

Where does the ball drop in providing college grads (and all young adults for that matter) with essential career readiness skills?

Whether it’s early college high schools, community colleges, apprenticeship programs, or four-year colleges everybody is stepping up to the plate. All are embarking on endeavors to facilitate the pathway from school to work. MHE’s findings have important implications across the board for America’s nascent workforce.

Assessing problem-solving abilities replaces standardized testing.

And four-year colleges are gearing up to provide their graduates with career-ready skills. MHE, explained Ms. Gouijnstook, is using survey results to inform product development and help college instructors zero in on essential career readiness skills – to “unlock the potential of each learner” – by leveraging learning science to create tools that support application of learning and authentic assessments. If you don’t know the term, authentic assessment, it’s one you should become familiar with. “Through our products, we seek to help students improve critical thinking skills, learn to communicate more effectively and perform real-world tasks through meaningful application of fundamental knowledge,” said Ms. Gouijnstook. The classroom becomes a laboratory for applied knowledge. MHE is a significant player in bringing these kinds of skills to schools and making students work ready.

Practice makes perfect.

Finally, in addressing MHE’s findings on college grad’s confidence levels, Nick Corcodilos (CEO, Ask The Headhunter) observes, “By being exposed to the workplace early, whether by internship, apprenticeship, volunteer opportunities or authentic assessment, young adults develop a clear sense of expectations and increased confidence. Experience speaks volumes.” Along these lines, just over half of all students surveyed by MHE believed professional experience and internships would better prepare them for the workforce. Adding fuel to this fire, in the MHE survey, nontraditional students (those who did not enter college within a year of high school) were more likely to feel prepared for the workforce than traditional students, 49% to 34%. A pretty big difference.

By Nicholas Wyman, Forbes: https://www.forbes.com/sites/nicholaswyman/2018/08/03/hiring-is-on-the-rise-but-are-college-grads-prepared-for-the-world-of-work/#735ecb0e4e7e

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‘Don’t Be So Quick To Dismiss Service Jobs’ – Forbes, Online

Where are the jobs?

Today, most are in the service sector. And that’s the forecast for tomorrow, too. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, service jobs will continue to outpace employment in all other sectors for the next quarter century.

Let’s put some figures around that. Three service industries that will see an incredible 7.5 million new jobs by 2026 in the U.S. are healthcare and social assistance, professional and business services, and leisure and hospitality. In fact, the bureau says more than 90% of the 11.5 million expected new jobs to be created by 2026 will be in service-providing industries.

A waiter lays a table in the main dining hall on board the Royal Caribbean cruise ship. Photographer: Chris Ratcliffe/Bloomberg

Does Service Industry Equal Bad Jobs?

Ugh, service jobs? Don’t most service jobs offer low pay, casual shifts and next-to-no opportunity? No, actually. The fact is, many service sector jobs pay very well and are practically immune to automation or offshoring.

How much did you pay your plumber to install that new toilet and sink? What is the likelihood that a robotic electrician will come to your home to replace your 1950s wiring? Ask the same about the nurse practitioner you visited recently (instead of an MD), or the horticulturalists who designed and installed the plan for your new garden, or the chef who cooked up an amazing restaurant meal for you and your friends. All service jobs. All in demand. All well paid.

In short, the service sector is about supplying intangibles rather than goods. The sector is one of two major sectors in the U.S. economy. Reference for Business offers these sub-categories where the service jobs reside:

  • Transportation, communication and utilities
  • Wholesale trade
  • Retail trade
  • Finance, insurance and real estate
  • Public administration
  • Other services.

When you drill down further, the service sector is something you’d come into contact with throughout your life. Teachers, nurses, housekeepers, tour guides, lawyers, mechanics, tax agents, hairdressers, hoteliers, zoo keepers and gardeners are just some of the few trades and professions offering “services.”

Dead End? Just The Beginning!

Even so-called “dead end” service jobs have value. I prefer to call them “stepping stone” jobs to something better. Low-end service positions give unskilled young people a point of entry where they can develop workplace skills, a network, and eventually move up to something more challenging and rewarding.

The Service Sector Served Me

I’m speaking from experience. My stint as a chef served me well. After several engaging years of striving to perfect the art of cookery, I felt satisfied with my accomplishments and was ready for more. If working in kitchens taught me anything, it was that being a successful chef involved more than cooking. I also needed to learn about team work, marketing, customer relations, people management, and running a business. So I went back to school, eventually completing a master of business administration.

At first, I feared the years spent out of school would put me at a disadvantage to my conventionally educated peers. Instead, I found that the self-confidence and operational problem-solving abilities I’d developed through my culinary apprenticeship and work experience gave me unique perspectives and a point of difference in the classroom.

My stint as a chef wasn’t a “dead end” for me. I wasn’t settling for a mundane job. It was a great teacher, preparing me for bigger and better things. And it certainly didn’t close the door to academic learning and other possibilities.

So, don’t be so quick to dismiss the service sector. It offers more than you’ve probably been told, and it beats pulling the covers over your head and letting opportunity and life march by without you.

By Nicholas Wyman, Forbes Contributor.

Leave a comment or join the conversation with me on Twitter. My Book, Job U How To Find Wealth and Success By Developing the Skills Companies Actually Need can be found here

https://www.forbes.com/sites/nicholaswyman/2018/07/18/dont-be-so-quick-to-dismiss-service-jobs/#1f33623c41bb