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‘A Healthcare Company Finds The Right Medicine’ – Forbes, Online

By Nicholas Wyman.

Rhode Island-based CVS Health (CVSH) is a major U.S. employer, with nearly 300,000 people on its payroll. It is also the first American employer to have initiated a registered apprenticeship program for pharmacy technicians. Since 2005 over 8,000 individuals have signed on to that earn-while-you-learn program, making CVSH one of the most experienced U.S. sponsors of a non-traditional occupation apprenticeship. It has also launched apprenticeships for aspiring retail store managers, logistics supervisors and prescription benefits manager pharmacy technicians.

The company’s beginning apprentices, according to David Casey, vice president, workforce strategies and chief diversity officer, CVS Health, come from a diverse swath of the population: recent high school grads, youngsters who haven’t found a way into the workforce, middle aged people seeking a career change and military veterans.

View this article on Forbes

CVS Health has doubled down on its initial commitment in November 2017 when it announced its intention to hire 5,000 new apprentices by 2022, and to expand its programs from 11 states to 18. That expansion coincides with the U.S. Department of Labor’s call to vastly increase the number of apprenticeships across industries. A growing number of companies in manufacturing, hospitality, telecommunications, IT, energy, transportation and other industries are answering the call–skilling up a new generation of employees who will help to narrow a national “skills gap” that currently stands at six million unfilled positions—the highest on record.

What’s good for the nation is, in this case, also good for participating companies. The measurable financial benefits to CVS Health, for example, have been very positive. “Apprentice training brings our people up to full productivity more quickly,” according to Casey. Perhaps the greatest beneficiaries of programs like CVSH’s are the apprentices themselves. Each receives mentor-guided entry into the workforce, and earns a wage as he or she learns a skill that companies clearly value. When their term of training ends, there is no job-hunting. They already have a job! Nationally, more than 90% of apprentices who complete their programs stay with their employers. Many go on to additional post-secondary education, and most employers provide tuition assistance if the course of study is aligned with their business needs.

Facts And Figures

Ninety-eight percent of CVS Health registered apprentices are trained to become licensed and certified pharmacy technicians. The typical training period is one year.
On average, CVS pharmacy stores employ five or six pharmacy technicians.
In retail settings, pharmacy technicians must demonstrate strong consumer service skills, keep track of inventory, and achieve 100% accuracy in filling and recording prescriptions.
Some 400,000 pharmacy technicians are currently working in the United States.
Jobs for pharmacy technicians through 2024 will increase “faster than average.”

Like other sponsors, CVS Health has discovered that attracting qualified candidates isn’t easy. “Apprenticeships in this country,” says Casey, “have a branding problem,” and lack of awareness is part of it. Few American households have any experience with apprenticeships. Others only associate apprentice work with the building trades, and with electricians, plumbers and carpenters—not with white-collar vocations such as health care, banking, information technology, and management. The list of apprenticeships registered with the U.S. Department of Labor is broad, covering over 1,000 careers! Nor will many parents or high school counselors recommend an apprenticeship as a pathway to a working career. To them, a college education is the only reliable path to a good paying job and a secure future. In an era of high college dropout rates (roughly 50%) and crushing student debt, that sort of thinking is dangerously out of date. Yet, it dominates the advice given to young Americans today.

CVS Health has risen to the “branding problem” through pre-apprenticeships that it instituted in collaboration with state and local governments, public workforce agencies, community colleges, youth-focused nonprofits, and faith-based organizations. Those partners, about 1200 nationwide, connect the company with promising recruits and often assess applicants’ reading, math, and computer know-how to assure that they have the skills needed to succeed. The pre-apprenticeship program builds on those capabilities and helps participants to develop the soft skills that work in a consumer retail workplace requires: good communications, the ability to work with others, timeliness and a strong work ethic.

CVS Health has used pre-apprenticeship since the program’s inception in 2005 as one of the ways to recruit diverse talent into the apprenticeship program. Incorporating pre-apprenticeship:

Assists in keeping a full diverse talent pipeline
Improves outcomes: pre-apprentice graduates becomeproductive employees more quickly (50% more quickly by one estimate) than employees recruited by traditional methods
Helps the company meet its goal of hiring more people from communities served by its over 9,800 stores and 1,100 walk-in health clinics

Like leading firms in other industries, CVS Health has learned that it must take ownership of its unique training needs. “We can’t expect our school systems to equip people with the workplace habits and unique skills we require,” says Casey. Nor can it passively put out the “Help Wanted” sign and expect people with all the right stuff to appear on its doorstep. CVS Health’s commitment to doubling its apprentice ranks by 2022 is a clear signal that the healthcare giant has a human resource strategy for the future and that it’s on the right course.

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

‘Sampling The World Of Work In A Four-Hour Adventure’ – Forbes, Editors Pick

By Nicholas Wyman Forbes Contributor.

There was a time when kids had ample opportunities to experience the adult world of work. Farm family children pitched in whenever needed: they built fences, learned how to tend animals and fix broken tractors, and dozens of other handy skills. City kids worked part-time in hardware stores, grocery stores, or restaurants run by their parents or relatives. Or they passed wrenches and parts to dads and uncles as they repaired the family car under a shade tree. High school “shop” classes gave everyone a chance to try their hands at electrical work, wood crafting, plumbing, machining, cooking, auto repair and more. Those experiences opened their eyes to a range of future possibilities. Read the full article on Forbes Here

KidZania London pit lane experience where children have the opportunity to learn by doing. – Supplied: KidZania

‘3 Myths About Vocational Education You Need to Know Are Untrue’ – Newsmax Finance, Online

Do you consider vocational education a unviable alternative to university or college? You are not alone. However, you need to think again.

I would like to invite you to put aside your pre-conceived beliefs about vocational education and training (VET) and let me explain how misconceptions about VET are hurting the next generation’s chances of a meaningful future at work.

We have all heard the old adage “perception is reality,” but when it comes to VET, nothing is further from the truth.

Here’s my premise: Skills-based education gives young people the chance to get experience and gain confidence early. It can catapult them into steady jobs, a great pay packet and, more than likely, a future-proof career.

Have you ever thought or believed any of these common statements? Well, allow me to bust these myths.

Myth 1: Apprenticeships are old fashioned

Actually, they are. And they’re really coming into their own in major economies.

For example, in the US, after waning and being restricted to a narrow range of fields over the past few decades, apprenticeship programs are coming back in a big way. There are more than 505,000 people in the US currently enrolled as apprentices – the highest rate in eight years, and US apprenticeship programs are increasingly offering the entry key to careers in a vast array of growing fields such as IT, health care, hospitality and advanced manufacturing, to name a few.

Despite that, 8 of 10 people surveyed by the US National Association of Manufacturers said they would not encourage their own children to enter the manufacturing field.

Those same people said they view manufacturing as critical to the prosperity and security of the US (90% of those surveyed actually ranked manufacturing top of the list of important industries!).

The same ‘it’s essential work, but not for my kids’ dynamic exists in Australia. Various research shows parents overwhelming respect the importance of manufacturing as a national priority, but not when it comes to wanting their children to pursue a career in that sector. Go figure.

Meanwhile, among northern and central European countries, between 40 and 70 per cent of high-school students opt for vocational education. After completing three years of combined on-the-job and classroom learning, students graduate with a qualification that carries real weight in the labour market, and a pathway to even higher levels of education and earnings.

If you look to countries where apprenticeships are the preferred way of training young people, like in Switzerland and Germany you will see the superior economic performance, with impressively low unemployment, and youth unemployment rates. It’s no coincidence.

In Australia, government data shows 9 out of the ten occupations predicted to have the greatest jobs growth over the next five years can be entered into through vocational education and training programs. If you want to get and keep a job, it would seem VET training is your best option.

So, naturally, I was flummoxed with the results when my organization surveyed Australians on their attitudes towards VET. Three out of five Australians agreed with the statement “in a globally competitive world we need university education more than VET”. Moreover, nearly half of respondents also suggested VET is no longer as relevant as university or college. Ouch.

The reality is that two-thirds of tomorrow’s jobs will not need a four-year degree. That is the low down from Georgetown University’s Center for Education and the Workforce. (Check out my previous post, 5 Signs Skills Training Might be Right for You, to get some clarity around whether university or vocational training is the best fit for you or your kin. We will show you where the money, and a secure future, can be found.)

Myth 2: University graduates walk into top-paying jobs.

Perhaps that was the case twenty years ago, but increasingly, that is not the reality. If you talk to the average person, you would think VET graduates earn between $AUD10,000 and $AUD20,000 less annually than their uni peers. Is that what you think, too? Let’s explore that with a couple of stats.

Did you know that VET graduates have higher starting salaries than university grads, on average? The median full-time income for a VET graduate is $56,000 a year, which beats the median graduate salary for those with a bachelor’s degree of $54,000. It might be only $2,000, it is still a win for VET, as that is a lot of money for a young person starting out in their career.

In Australia, some VET graduates will start their first job on $AUD85,400. That is the average starting salary for those with a Certificate IV in Hazardous Areas – Electrical, which beats even the starting salary for a dentistry graduate, who’ll earn $80,000 a year after a 5 or 6-year program.

Myth 3: Uni grads get jobs quicker than vocational education grads.

Three in ten people we surveyed believed the main reason Australians chose university over VET is because university graduates found work more easily, but graduate employment outcome data from the Dept of Employment reveal this is another total furphy!

Did you know VET graduates who did their training as part of a trade apprenticeship scored 92% for post-program employment? Also, 78% of VET grads find work straight after graduating.

Meanwhile, only 68% of bachelor degree grads found work four months after completing their course in 2015 – down from 86% in 2008. Yet, despite employability falling to near its lowest level in three decades, and increasing tuition costs, university enrollments continue to rise – and are currently at record high levels!

Why? University has an aspirational aura of prestige, but it might not be the best route to stake out a career. We all want our kids to have a better education than we did, but ask yourself – what is the right choice for them? Are you nudging the next generation to attend university because you did or because of a belief a degree it will be an open ticket to wealth and career success?

However, in reality, there are plenty of unemployed and underemployed people who have university degrees. Think of the glut of qualified teachers who have to make do with casual shifts here and there, some for their entire career, all while waiting to land a permanent job and pay off that HECS debt.

Can we afford to be dazzled by career options involving universities or should we get real and focus on skills-based training? Research shows that completing a VET qualification means you are less likely to be unemployed in the long term. (Just being armed with Australian Certificate I or II qualification, decreases your likelihood of becoming long-term unemployed by nearly 50% in comparison to a person with no post-school education)

Australia’s unemployment rate is nudging 6%, but for youth aged 15 to 24, it is more than double that at 13.1%. It has been stuck there since February, according to the Australian Bureau of Statistics. Overall, about 750,000 Australians are unemployed, which costs the Australian Government almost $11 billion annually in Newstart benefit payments!

However, in almost all sectors, too many jobs remain unfilled because there aren’t enough people with the practical, real-world skills that companies need. It is a phenomenon I call people without jobs, and jobs without people.

Employers are struggling to find skilled workers across the economy. In Australia, one in three vacancies for skilled trade workers go unfilled (one in three!), and that number rise to as high as 55% for jobs in construction, 59% for automotive trades and 65% and 67% for food trades and building professionals respectively.

In fact, the Australian Government’s Skills Shortages report from March this year, show over 27 ‘Traditional Trades’ are in shortage, mostly nationwide. We are talking about Mechanics, Electricians, Fitters, Plumbers, Chefs, Butchers, Hairdressers and Cabinetmakers. These are jobs not only there now, but they will also be there in 50 years, and all can be trained for via vocational programs.

Now I have laid it out for you, isn’t it time you revisited your views about university/college and sharpened your focus on skills-based training to meet the demands of our vibrant, innovative 21st-century economy?

If not for yourself, do it for your children.

(This article originally appeared on LinkedIn).

Nicholas Wyman is author of “Job U: How to Find Wealth and Success by Developing the Skills Companies Actually Need” and the CEO of the Institute for Workplace Skills and Innovation, a global enterprise committed to skills and workforce development in today and tomorrow’s workplace. He has spent the last 20 years consulting, writing, speaking and leading the conversation toward helping organizations and individuals map a pathway to a more secure and prosperous future.

‘Apprenticeships – Skills For Life’ – NewsMax, Onlne

By Nicholas Wyman

When a room full of passionate apprenticeship advocates met in Washington last week for the first day of the Apprenticeship Forward conference, the mood was understandably upbeat and optimistic.

Why? Because calls for the U.S. to expand apprenticeship programs seem to be gaining more traction daily. And overnight the news had come through that Congress’ omnibus budget compromise would again expand funding for apprenticeships, to $95 million over the next year.

Now more than ever, Americans need educational options and career pathways which are cost effective and oriented to delivering skilled careers and stable employment. That common ground was found to expand appropriations in the budget bill, and is a strong signal that interest in apprenticeships is not expendable.

I recently threw my support behind an audacious plan for the Trump Administration to adopt a nationwide target to hire five million apprenticeships in five years. Since then, a range of influential people and organizations, from Ivanka Trump to the Fed Chair, Janet Yellen, company CEO’s including Salesforce’s Marc Benioff to the National Skills Coalition, have come forth to endorse this proposal.

The five million target may have started as a “man on the moon” goal, however given these endorsements span so many points of our political compass, the cautious optimism of the apprenticeship advocates, employers and educators present was understandable.

Debates about how to address issues around next generation jobs, economic mobility, educational opportunity and college affordability were key themes of last year’s election cycle.

Apprenticeships and vocational/technical education and can play a key role in addressing each of these problems.

‘The best advice that college grads never hear’ – Business Insider, Online

It’s graduation season, which means one thing: lots of unsolicited advice for grads. So, what can we make of this flood of insight? Well, some of it’s good. Some of it’s bad. Some of it’s downright ugly. And then there’s the stuff that’s quite spot-on, but seldom heard. Business Insider spoke with a number of career experts to get their insight. Here are the great pieces of advice that recent college grads rarely hear:

‘It’s okay to feel totally lost’

It’s okay to feel like college got you nowhere, says Nicholas Wyman, CEO of the Institute for Workplace Skills and Innovation and author of “Job U: How to Find Wealth and Success by Developing the Skills Companies Actually Need.” If graduation’s got you feeling unprepared and adrift, channel that uncertainty into something productive. “Go out, experience life, see the world,” Wyman says. “Have a year off. That’s what my father, a professor, told me to do. Wyman says taking a version of a ‘gap year’ is a great way to explore opportunities outside a traditional classroom, gain self-knowledge, and, critically, get some practical, real-world experience.