Talent Development Is a Key Ingredient for Economic Development (cont.)

But while much of the focus in government, in the media, and by ordinary Americans remains on grade school and high school education, it is really what happens after high school that determines the opportunities available to individuals. It is the post-high school education and training where talent development occurs.

As the Assistant Secretary of Labor for Employment and Training, it is my job to oversee the public investment in workforce preparation—and our focus is on post-secondary education and training. Each year, the government invests over $15 billion in job training services that are delivered through a nationwide network of 3,500 career centers.

This system was created back in 1933 as one of the many New Deal programs, and, in too many areas, it still reflects its roots as a social services program. For example, the process of helping an individual is still more important than the results of our services. This is evident from the language of the law, which describes in painstaking detail how and in what order services should be delivered.

This situation leads rather naturally to a system where employers are regarded merely as the end of the process rather than customers or even partners. This mentality must be overcome if the public’s investment in talent development has any chance of showing a positive return.

The Administration has moved to reform the system by creating the High Growth Job Training Initiative. By partnering with employers and engaging educational institutions, the High Growth Initiative demonstrates to our system how to put employers back in charge of talent development. Through the process of engaging employers, it became clear that many face the same challenge; they are unable to find the workers they need to fill their available jobs. It isn’t that there are not people looking for work, but rather that those people do not possess the skills that are needed in today’s workplace.

The best example of this can be found in the manufacturing industry. The first Friday of each month we learn that manufacturing has dropped several thousand more jobs. Yet at the same time, the Purchasing Managers Index reports that manufacturing activity is expanding and employers are planning to hire additional workers.

That is because manufacturing is in the midst of an historic transformation. Since Henry Ford invented the assembly line, good jobs were available in manufacturing for unskilled labor. But in the last five years, those jobs have been replaced by robots and automated systems. As a result, the jobs that are now available require individuals with the skills to create, program and repair those automated systems. In effect, jobs in manufacturing are now available only to skilled labor.

Of course, it isn’t just manufacturing. Energy, construction and transportation all are seeing their jobs change rapidly while new industries like biotechnology are growing and rapidly hiring.

That is why a cornerstone of the High Growth Job Training Initiative is to engage educational institutions, especially community colleges. Individuals must now learn more specialized skills to work in any industry and they must do so prior to employment because traditional employer-based training programs are a thing of the past.

The success of the High Growth Initiative was not missed by the President. Recognizing that many of the job opportunities available in the 21st century economy begin with an associate’s degree – and building on the model of partnerships among educators, employers and the workforce system – the President created a similar but new initiative called Community-Based Job Training Grants.

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