DC Velocity - December 2013

16 DC VELOCITY DECEMBER 2013 dcvelocity.com Training workers for tomorrow, not yesterday

Letters should be written exclusively to DC VELOCITY and may contain thoughts, comments, suggestions and criticisms of both DC VELOCITY and developments in the supply chain field. They should not exceed 200 words and may be edited for clarity. The decision to publish or not to publish is solely at the discretion of the editor.

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Letters to the editor
If it’s farewell to drudgery, we need to take care that it’s not hello to unemployment. In the
abstract, over time more skilled and better-trained individuals will gradually replace the
unskilled component of today’s workforce. Of course, we’ve been saying something like that
for 40 or 50 years, and the reality has yet to match the abstract.

In Ohio, our well-intentioned governor thought for a moment that our 80,000 open jobs could easily be filled by 80,000 of the unemployed. Channeling Lee Corso, “Not so fast, my friend!” The available skill sets were not even close to the needs of the open positions.

The solutions are: 1) elusive; 2) lengthy in development and implementation; and 3) vulnerable to reality. One must-do approach begins with exposing high school students to supply chain career options, then educating and training them to fill new-century jobs.

The education and training must be on or ahead of the wave, in preparing human resources for emerging jobs and requirements. Frankly, the primary/secondary education establishment is more comfortable addressing the needs of the past than it is imagining the future. It’s a pity, because so many jobs will not require university degrees and can be filled based on some mix of vocational secondary education, functional certification, and associate degree programs from community colleges and for-profit schools.

Somehow, we need to solve the challenge, though. Today, we are short both numbers and skills; tomorrow will demand that we develop both if we are to lead global competitiveness.