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Institute for WorkPlace Skills & Innovation America

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‘True Leaders 2017’ Australian Financial Review, BOSS Magazine

 

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Maybe you’ve never heard of one of the nation’s 2017 True Leaders as listed by the Australian Financial Review, Nicholas Wyman. He’s a behind-the-scenes mover and shaker whose achievements and focus on vocational education is “really powerful”, say the AFR’s judges. Nick is co-founder and CEO of Skilling Australia Foundation, a driver of innovative programs getting young people in emerging careers.

The Australian Government Department of Education and Training has engaged Skilling Australia Foundation to assist local stakeholders to work together to implement P-TECH learning programs at all 14 P-TECH pilot sites. P-TECH Australia has been recognised as part of Boss Magazine’s True Leaders list for 2017, follow the link to find out more.

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‘True Leaders 2017’ Australian Financial Review, Online

P-TECH Australia has been recognised as part of Boss Magazine’s True Leaders list for 2017.
The True Leaders judging panel for 2017 includes heavy-weights like Kate Burleigh, Managing Director, Intel Australia; David Thodey, Chairman, CSIRO; Simon McKeon, Chancellor, Monash University; and Catherine Livingston, Chairman, CBA, to name a few.

Livingstone says True Leaders are willing to be controversial, to back the principles they believe in. “It’s putting yourself at risk. It’s standing up and knowing that whatever you say is not going to be popular or endorsed by everyone,” she says. “There are too few people who are doing that.”

The Australian Government Department of Education and Training has engaged Skilling Australia Foundation to assist local stakeholders to work together to implement P-TECH learning programs at all 14 P-TECH pilot sites.

Read the full article on the Australian financial review website or check out the full list this Friday

 

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‘How Paid Internships Are Putting Unemployed Youth in Manufacturing Jobs’ – Forbes, Online

By Nicholas Wyman.

Youth unemployment is a global issue. According to a McKinsey & Company report, young people worldwide are three times more likely than their parents to be out of work. In the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries, more than one in eight of 15 to 24-year-olds are NEET (Not in Employment, Education or Training). The International Labor Organization estimates globally, 75 million young people are unemployed. Yet many entry-level jobs around the world remain unfulfilled because companies cannot find employees with the right skills.

Add to this crisis the misleading narrative that to secure a good, long-term job, you need a four-year college degree. Sure, a college degree is an asset in the United States and abroad, but there are other ways to secure a sustainable career, especially in manufacturing.

Minding The Skills Gap In Manufacturing Through Paid Internships

As the manufacturing sector shifts towards more highly skilled jobs, Arconic Foundation and Legacy Alcoa Foundation are working on innovative solutions to provide the training and experience necessary for young employees to fill these positions through its Global Internship Program for Unemployed Youth.

Since the program’s inception, more than 700 unemployed youth (aged 18 to 24) in Australia, Brazil, Canada, France, Russia, Spain, the United Kingdom and the US received workforce readiness training and paid internships with local manufacturers. An often-overlooked source for building the advanced manufacturing talent pipeline, unemployed and underemployed youth are critical to our local industry’s future success.

Under the watchful eye of their employers, interns are learning skills on the job to serve them for decades to come. A mid-program evaluation of the program revealed some startling discoveries:

• before their internship, interns often struggled to build confidence; 90% of participants said they gained confidence in their abilities because of the program;

• their experience allowed them to learn skills to feel better able to contribute;

• among the top takeaways from their intern supervisors was the importance of time management, which interns honed during their workplace experience.

Recognizing The Power Of Soft Skills

While new and emerging technologies are redefining the nature of today’s workforce, relationships are important. That’s particularly true for industries not usually associated with offering soft skills or opportunities such as genuine mentorship.

For example, intern Elizabeth Kaehr said mentors were an integral part of her internship experience – she had several while at work at the City of Lynden’s waste and water treatment plant. She secured her internship while a student at Bellingham Technical College in Washington. Kaehr learned how to collect water samples, collect compost, do pressure washing as well as how to clean out pump stations and sedimentation basins and retrieve and test samples.  She says her mentors helped guide her on hard career decisions and appreciate opportunities new to her. The relationships she developed through her internship, she says, will help her advance her career.

Similarly, oceans away, Caitlyn participated in a six-week paid internship at Accredited Distributors, an industry partner of Northern Futures, which works with Legacy Alcoa Foundation. Living in supportive youth housing, Caitlyn was able to access resources and training through the partnership. It meant she was job-ready to apply for warehouse roles after the program. What got her there was learning a range of tasks and receiving one-on-one attention to do so. She developed confidence and skills in picking and packing with a scanner and also driving a forklift and unloading a truck.

When she graduated, she learned she was selected to take part in a year-long full time employment project, 180 Degrees at Cotton On Group Distribution Centre, an Australian clothing retailer with almost 1,200 stores in 12 countries, and 17,000 employees worldwide. Caitlyn tapped into skills she developed while an intern during the 2014 project.

Employers Benefitting Through Partnerships

In many cases, it’s not just the mentees and interns who benefit. Manufacturers gain motivated interns eager to learn and show their worth to prospective employers. That helps them increase their bottom line. Also, manufacturers can learn new ways to tackle issues they may not have considered.

Youth unemployment might be a global issue. But it can be solved with innovative programs and partners who are willing to work together to provide the necessary soft and hard skills to our youth.

Investment in our youth goes beyond feeling good about being a good corporate citizen, although an argument could be made that it’s an important consideration.

Investments in manufacturing have contributed to better standards of living and more jobs and they’re having a ripple effect for the broader economy. According to The Manufacturing Institute’s Skills Gap Report, every dollar spent in manufacturing adds $1.37 to the U.S. economy and every 100 jobs in a manufacturing facility creates an additional 250 jobs in other sectors.

Manufacturing and supporting our youth matters.

 

View Online:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/nicholaswyman/2017/09/28/how-paid-internships-are-putting-unemployed-youth-in-manufacturing-jobs/#348aa4127f33

 

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‘A Career Pathway To Educational And Employment Success’ – Forbes, Online

Bu Nicholas Wyman.

New and emerging technologies are redefining the nature of work and job skills at a pace that demands a parallel transformation in education. Sixty-five percent of children starting school today will need skills for jobs that don’t yet exist, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Youth unemployment runs high even as jobs stand empty, in part because people are graduating from high school and college without the skill sets they need for the digital age. To be prepared for the jobs of the future, today’s students need to view learning as a lifelong process.

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How can our schools transform education to make it applicable and adaptable to the future? How can they foster the capacity for lifelong learning that young people entering the workforce today need for future success?

Stephen Spahn, chancellor of New York’s preschool-12 Dwight School, has been asking these questions for 50 years. As the longest serving head of an independent school in the U.S., he has a unique view of the present and future of American education.

Chancellor Spahn believes that curriculum must evolve constantly to keep pace with the realities students will face as they transition into the world of work—and that means learning by doing.

Education should equal applicable, usable information and skills. Students need to be able to ask questions, solve problems, pursue projects and outcomes that interest them, and apply what they have learned in a real world context.

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‘When will automation take over the trucking industry? Scientists now have an estimate’ – Mic, Online


Image: Uber-owned Otto is perfecting the technology that will let trucks drive themselves.
Source: Tony Avelar/AP

There’s no shortage of studies and analysis suggesting that robots can potentially take our jobs. But exactly how far away are we from losing our livelihoods to automation?
Artificial intelligence experts with the BBC surveyed 352 scientists about automation, including some of the world’s leading experts on machine learning. According to the BBC analysis, there is a 50% chance that machines can take over all human jobs in 120 years.
But some fields are at greater risk than others. Let’s focus on one big one: trucking.
Truck drivers may be replaced by automated technology as early as 2027. According to the researchers, artificial intelligence could be maneuvering trucks on the road within the next decade.
“All jobs are being impacted by technological change — some more than others,” said Nicholas Wyman, CEO of the Institute for Workplace Skills and Development and author of Job U: How to Find Wealth and Success by Developing the Skills Companies Actually Need. “Driverless trucks are now used extensively in the mining industry

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and it’s certain this technology will impact other parts of transport and distribution.”
Estimates from the American Trucking Association suggest there are 3.5 million professional truck drivers in the United States and the industry, as a whole, employs more than 8.7 million people. According to the Los Angeles Times, 1.7 million American truckers could be replaced by self-driving trucks over the next decade.
Trucking jobs are the most common jobs in 29 out of 50 states in the U.S., and there are millions of people working for the trucking industry in non-driving positions.
It’s not such a far-fetched idea, as progress is being made in automating truck driving. Take self-driving truck company Otto, which was created by former Google employees and acquired by Uber last August. The company’s system lets trucks drive for long stretches of time without needing a human driver. The technology was successfully tested in Colorado in October when a self-driving truck delivered 50,000 cans of Budweiser.

 

If perfected, autonomous trucks could offer heightened efficiency and safer roads; one in seven fatal truck accidents is caused by driver fatigue. For those currently in the trucking industry, it’s not all bad news. How much of a threat self-driving trucks pose to drivers depend on the level of automation: if drivers are still required to be in trucks, then jobs are secure, MIT Technology Review reports.
Wyman says truck drivers need to be open to adapting to the changing landscape of their field. “They need to embrace change — it’s happening so hoping it will go away is not an option,” Wyman said. “Truck drivers should look for opportunities to refresh and reboot their current skill sets.”
Article:https://m.mic.com/articles/180310/when-will-automation-take-over-the-trucking-industry-scientists-now-have-an-estimate#.wEFiIXVUA