IWSI America

Institute for WorkPlace Skills & Innovation America

Articles

‘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

‘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

 

‘How To Boost Your Online Job Profile With Terms Employers Want’ – Forbes, Online

You’re invisible unless your social profile or resume includes the term for which employers are searching.
Image: Shutterstock

Software engineer, buyer planner, editor, developer and graphic artist are the categories employers are increasingly searching for, according to recent research from the world’s largest job site, Indeed. You probably didn’t think these three – buyer planners, editors or graphic artists – were in high demand, part of the skills gaps that employers are scratching to fill perhaps? Buyer planners, by the way, source, select and procure products and services for their companies.

But, wait up, you can’t take high-ranking searches for job titles at face value.

Top searches and the ‘skills gap’ – not the same thing

Keep in mind that Indeed’s search terms are exclusive to job titles and skills – that’s all they’re looking for. The list does not characterize job market growth; rather it represents changes in search terms employers used when culling Indeed’s database (of 100-million-plus resumes worldwide) for candidates over the past two years.

Digging deeper into what search terms mean

I tried all sorts of ways to make a connection between these terms. First, I thought they might show something about the gig economy. Each can be done remotely, offers a flexible schedule and fits many of the characteristics that define the booming independent workforce. I ditched this assumption when I reviewed Indeed’s job profiles for all five terms. They were overwhelmingly full-time postings. Then I tried to tie a tech bow around them. This only made sense in certain cases. In fact, as a result of our effort to fit all of these terms into tech, I learned something about regional employment.

Make your focus more local

For starters, locality is key. When I asked some recruiters, job coaches, and employers from across the country, each person had their own definition of the job titles and skills. Sure, software engineer and developer had universal meanings.

However, for the other roles, the employers weren’t on the same page. In high tech regions, an editor does lots of technical writing; in other regions, an editor focuses on literary or news pieces. Similarly, graphic artists in one locality do mostly advertising and media; while, in others, graphic artists work on web and application design. Depending on one’s area of expertise and location, different conclusions can be drawn from this list. As Daniel Culbertson, an economist at Indeed says: “All labor markets are local.”

A fluid job market

Ranked lists aren’t gospel; even data-driven ones. In 2010, these jobs were supposed to have the biggest growth in the decade to 2020: office and administrative support, health care practitioners, sales, construction, and education, according to the Department of Labor.

But, the revised list, issued in 2016, looked totally different for the projected jobs growth to 2026. It pointed home health aides, personal care aides, software developers, medical assistants and market research analyst/ marketing specialists. It shows an extreme swing in employment growth in health services and STEM. Expect more fluidity, but keep your eye on how artificial intelligence (AI) will impact how we work.

Should skill-up be your mantra?

You’d be forgiven for getting confused about which skills to add to your arsenal as a job candidate. So does it make good sense to chase a forever-evolving list of skills? Certain trends are solid. But many are fleeting. It’s hard to resist toeing the printed line. However, job seekers should know that no single list or database draws a complete picture of the job market. A compilation of data from Indeed, the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the U.S. Census and others is a way more accurate indicator of employment trends.

Matt Youngquist, CEO of Career Horizons, says: “While I salute the effort to try, I’ve found it extremely hard to draw meaningful conclusions from these kinds of trend studies over the years, simply due to the sheer number of variables involved and all the different contexts in which the search terms in question could appear.”

What the hot search terms really mean

Back to Indeed’s list of the fastest growing search terms by employers. It may only indicate turnover or a unique spike in a certain field, says Culbertson. You’d be better off looking at a broad range of data to work out the best way to craft text for your social profile or resume. Youngquist says: “One of the reasons so many job hunters get missed in searches these days, including for jobs they’re highly qualified to hold, is they’re so close to their daily work routine that they take a ton of search words and competencies for granted. “While you’d think most resume scanning systems are smart enough to read between the lines, they’re not. You either have these words on your materials or you don’t – and if the latter, there’s a good chance you’ll have a pretty low success rate with your materials despite your years of experience.”

Use these insights to get hired

Keywords are, literally, the key to being found in a search. Recruiters and employers use these terms to find what they want in an applicant tracking system or search engine. Even if you have the experience they want, you’re invisible unless your social profile or resume includes for which employers are searching. ‘Word clouds’ will give you an insight. Try Wordle and WordCloud, a couple of the many free word cloud generators. They visually display how frequently a word appears in a text such as resumes, job descriptions and profiles on Indeed, LinkedIn, and other job boards, for example.

Soft skills don’t rank, but should

Across the board, veteran practitioners and senior managers prioritize interpersonal skills. Hence, although characteristics such as flexibility, creative problem solving, collaboration, time management, agility and critical thinking aren’t often searched for, these terms (and substantive examples) should be on your radar. Weave them into your cover letter, resume and mention them in interviews. These skills are essential to success in the 21st-century workplace.

Why you should beware of lists

Finally, in case you are wondering, Indeed research also showed the fastest-growing search terms used by job seekers over this same two-year period were nanny, shipping and receiving, registered behavior technician and budtender (a recreational or medical cannabis dispensary employee).

Our experts were correct, beware of lists. Lists are not the be-all and end-all but can often provide interesting insights along with supplemental information.

‘Google’s Tech Roadshow Hits The Skills Gap Spot’ – Forbes, Online

Late last month, I elbowed my way in to a free ‘Grow with Google’ (GwG) expo in Louisville, Kentucky. Along with 700 other attendees, I spent the day taking part in free workshops, watching demos and experiencing one-on-one coaching. What was it all about?

In short, the skills gap.

GwG’s mission is to use Google tools and resources to create job skills and opportunities for Americans, especially those left behind by technological advances. Google launched the initiative six months ago and in that time has taken its tech expo to three metropolitan areas and more are planned.

Grow with Google in Louisville Kentucky. Part traveling ‘tech road show’ and part training forum.

Digital Tech Skills Under The Spotlight

Part traveling ‘tech road show’ and part training forum, GwG aims to heighten the digital skills of educators, students, entrepreneurs, local businesses and job seekers. The tech giant is supporting that agenda with multimillion-dollar investments and up to one million hours of employee volunteer time over five years.

I saw lots of learning going on in Louisville that day, not enough to turn newbies into job-ready tech staff, but enough to give people confidence and whet their appetites for more serious training. And GwG is making that training available to all.

For educators its video-based ‘Applied Digital Curriculum’ aims to equip students with basic but practical tech skills. These include how to make a digital presentation, conduct online research, work with spreadsheets, animations and more. Some 20,000 educators around the country are now using those 18 video lessons to perform more than 82 activities total.

Jesse Haines, Director, Grow with Google showed me how Local businesses can dip into the platform to improve their business and marketing skills with ‘five-minute lessons,’ boost their profile on ‘Google My Business’ or have their site tested to hear personalized recommendations.

Would-be developers can hook into GwG to start learning how to code or to improve their skills. You can even apply for a developer training scholarship opportunity.

Developing The Skills Employers Need

For job seekers, the most powerful of GwG’s training concepts, in my view, is its IT Support Professional Certificate. This is a terrific program for anyone who hasn’t been able to latch onto the digital juggernaut, who is noosed to a poorly paid job with no prospects for advancement, or who can’t afford the time or cost of higher education.

Among its course offerings, GwG has a six-part online course, which is based on Google’s own internal training materials. It uses video lectures, quizzes, and hands-on labs to introduce people with no digital skills to troubleshooting and customer service, networking, operating systems, system administration, automation, and security.

Participants engaging at Grow with Google in Louisville Kentucky learning practical, hands-on tech skills.

Complete the course successfully and you’ll get a recognized certificate. Come again? That’s right. The certificate-holder is fully prepared for an entry-level IT support job anywhere in the country. You’re encouraged to apply to Google, Walmart, Bank of America, Spring, GE Digital and other companies affiliated with the program.

Not bad for a part-time course that takes eight months to a year to complete if you go at it for eight to 10 hours each week. It is meaty. That is a bargain considering that IT support workers enjoy a median salary of $52,000 and have many opportunities to expand their skills and earnings.

Why Louisville?

Louisville was chosen for the recent expo because, like other cities, its businesses, medical centers, and other entities are rapidly adopting digital technology, creating new programming jobs at a fast. Adding to the demand for technology jobs in the state is the expansion of manufacturing, engineering, logistics, and aerospace sectors. It’s all about the skills gap.

Customer Support Vacancies Abound

Sure, America has embraced digital devices, networks, systems, home assistants, WiFi routers and cloud storage en masse for home or business use and they’re even wired into our automobiles, so to speak. But how many of us know how to set up these devices or fix them when they’re ‘down’? Not enough, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Although 850,000 people in the U.S. are now employed in computer customer support, 150,000 positions are now empty for lack of qualified or willing applicants. And demand for support techies is forecasted to grow steadily in the years ahead.

Making Good Business Sense

Beyond the training of user support personnel, greater digital know-how would help the rest of us, particularly students and small businesses—to make the most of the technology we already have. Students are masters at gaming, texting and social media, but greater experience with productivity and presentation software would benefit their academic work and make them more employable. Small businesses also have a long way to go in reaping the potential benefits of computer applications – in marketing, operational management, and other functions.

So, hats off to Google for making this skill-building opportunity available to so many. It’s so needed. If the tech roadshow has piqued your interest, keep your eyes on this site for updates about where they’re visiting next.

Author disclosure: I have no financial or other affiliation with Google. I paid my own travel and expenses. I did partake with other participants in a free doughnut and coffee from a local Louisville vendor.

‘Apprenticeships Could Narrow the US Skills Gap’ – Bloomberg, Online

In mid-March, during one of those CEO meetings that President Donald Trump used to hold before they were disbanded, Marc Benioff, the chief executive of Salesforce.com, was asked to make some brief remarks. One of Benioff’s passions is apprenticeships; he believes that if the US had an apprenticeship system like Germany or Australia, it could make a significant dent in the unemployment rate, especially among the millions of people who lack college degrees.

After quickly introducing himself, Benioff cut to the chase. “We’d love to encourage you to take a moonshot goal of creating 5 million apprenticeships in the next five years,” he told Trump.

“Let’s do that,” replied the president, breaking into a big smile. “Let’s go for that 5 million. Okay?”

Last week, in an announcement that was barely noticed, the Labor Department unveiled its Task Force on Apprenticeship Expansion. In addition to three cabinet secretaries—Betsy DeVos at Education, Wilbur Ross at Commerce and Alexander Acosta at Labor—the panel will include several chief executives of Fortune 500 companies, some union representatives and the heads of key lobbying groups like the National Association of Manufacturers. Plus John Ratzenberger, the actor who played Cliff Clavin, the postal carrier on “Cheers.” He’s an advocate for skills training.

This is hardly an encouraging first step. Government-appointed task forces rarely make the kinds of bold recommendations needed to jump-start a new idea. That will be especially true of this panel. There are too many interest groups with too many competing agendas to reach the necessary compromises, so the final report is likely to be mush. Like so much else with Trump, it’s hard to imagine this apprenticeship push amounting to anything.

 

Which is a real shame. According to the Department of Labor, there are 6.1 million jobs that employers can’t fill because they can’t find enough skilled workers. A study conducted this summer by the National Center for the Middle Market at Ohio State University found that 44 percent of mid-market companies 1 said they had difficulty recruiting people who had the skills they needed. Some 37 percent said their growth was constrained by a lack of talent. Small businesses, meanwhile, complain that there are “few or no qualified applications” to fill job openings.

At the same time, young people who didn’t attend college are having a hard time finding jobs that pay more than the minimum wage. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, there are 5.1 million Americans who want full-time work but can only find part-time jobs. The unemployment rate for high school graduates and college dropouts is close to 20 percent. Peter Boockvar, the chief market analyst for the economic advisory consulting firm the Lindsey Group, told the Washington Post recently that nearly one out of five Americans between the ages of 25 and 54 are out of work.

This mismatch has a name: the skills gap. The solution, obviously, is to get prospective workers the skills training they need. But this turns out to be something the U.S. is not very good at. Community colleges, which should be a big part of the answer, focus more on standard college material than on vocational training, and their dropout rate is appalling high.

Government retraining programs have had almost no impact. A large part of the reason, says Nicholas Wyman, an expert on job training and apprenticeships, is that “all the supposed training takes place in a classroom” rather than on a factory floor or in a company office.

As for apprenticeships, the only U.S. industry that relies on them is construction, and that is in part because unions use them to keep non-union labor away. (Five of the 23 members of the task force represent either construction unions or the construction industry.)

Yet if done right, apprenticeships could do a lot to close the skills gap. In a good apprenticeship program, unskilled workers would be guided by mentors, get on-the-job training and take narrowly tailored classes in community college.

For companies, apprenticeship programs would mean that instead of waiting fruitlessly for skilled workers to walk in the door, they could build the workforce they need. Government’s role would be to supply enough money to help subsidize the salaries of the apprentices, certify that the apprenticeships meet certain minimum standards, push community colleges to align themselves with an apprenticeship movement, and help create a culture where apprenticeships are seen as a head-held-high alternative to a college degree.

It doesn’t take a task force to figure that out. All it takes is a look across the ocean to see what other countries have done. Put aside Germany, which has had a culture of apprenticeship for hundreds of years. Take, instead, the U.K., which in the late 1990s not only had high unemployment but had the same kind of pessimism among the unemployed that the U.S. now faces. In a bid to spur the economy, the government of Tony Blair decided to revive the country’s apprenticeships, which had nearly died out.

Between 2003 and 2012, according to Thomas Bewick, who advised the Blair government, the number of apprentices grew from 75,000 to 800,000 a year. It’s now up to 1 million a year.

What’s required beyond some government money, Bewick told me, is to get business to buy in.

“In Australia,” said Wyman, who is Australian, “apprenticeships are employer-led, with government as a partner at the table.” Australia also uses nonprofits, called Group Training Organizations, which match apprentices with companies. These organizations pay the apprentices and handle everything from teaching workplace behavior to providing insurance to managing recruitment. Companies pay the apprentice’s wage and a small fee to the nonprofit. Organizing apprenticeships this way is attractive to small and medium-sized businesses for whom running their own programs would be intimidating.

What one hears these days is that big U.S. companies that would like to try to start employing apprentices have lost hope that the Trump administration will ever do anything serious to push the issue along.

What is needed is not a task force, but a person with a vision for how apprenticeships can finally be a tool to shrink the skills gap. A person who is respected in the business community, and can get it to rally around a plan.

Thus my advice to the Trump administration: Disband your task force and give the job to Marc Benioff. And then get out of the way.

View Online:
https://www.bloomberg.com/view/articles/2017-10-24/apprenticeships-could-narrow-the-u-s-skills-gap