Tuesday, June 14, 2011

Building the Workforce Pipeline: California's Workforce Must Prepare to Compete

From California Community College Economic and Workforce Development:

"The gap between California's need for higher-skilled labor and the lack of supply poses a serious threat to the state's economy. The Public Policy Institute of California (PPIC) released an eye opening report Educating California: Choices for the Future that sheds light on why we need strategies to groom the workforce talent pipeline. The PPIC data reveals that by 2025, 41 percent of jobs will require at least a bachelor's degree, but only 35 percent of California adults will have college diplomas. If the current trends persist, the state will face a shortfall of one million college graduates. Moreover, adults with a high school diploma or less will outnumber the jobs available to people with that level of education.

"The connection between education and earning potential has been well documented. The PPIC report goes on to state, "High-school graduates are more than twice as likely as college graduates to be unemployed, and high-school dropouts are faring even worse-one out of every five is unemployed." Given this data, is appears that if California cannot "skill-up" its workforce, we are headed for more economic challenges.

"According to The Workforce Alliance's report, California's Forgotten Middle-Skill Jobs, "middle-skill jobs represent the largest share of jobs in California (49%), and the largest share of future job openings." Middle skill jobs are those that require more than a high school diploma but less than a bachelor's degree. Although the term middle-skill refers to the level of education required by a particular job, many middle-skilled occupations require highly skilled trade and technical workers with several years of training and on-the-job experience.

"Federal funds from the stimulus bill have been helping to create new jobs and many of these are middle-skilled jobs, especially in the areas of green jobs, construction, manufacturing and transportation. Matching the skills of our workforce to meet the growing demands of California's future economy will require significant investments in both higher education and technical skills training programs.

"This is where our EWD programs and services can help greatly. In this edition of GROW California, you'll see how our statewide teams build the workforce pipeline to help businesses succeed across California. For a no-cost consultation on how we can help your business grow, go to www.CCCEWD.net."

MPICT Note: The Workforce Alliance report identifies two middle skill occupations related to ICT: Computer Support Specialist and Computer Support Specialist - Other. This is not a particularly meaningful description for informing ICT education response, and this is frequently the level of ICT related information reported by official channels like the Department of Labor and California EDD.

No comments:

Post a Comment