Importance of Workforce Development in the USA

What is Workforce Development?

In short, it is an organized means of developing skills in the workforce. It is an approach intended to enhance economic stability by focusing on the workers marketable work skills rather than business development. Often, workforce development is regionally focused.

Workforce development tends to focus on disadvantaged workers, long-term unemployed, or on matching displaced workers’ existing skills to existing job openings. Workforce development also entails assisting would-be workers (such as high school and college students) acquire the training needed to meet the specific needs of their region.

Why Workforce Development?

Workforce development is based on the common-sense concept that a better educated workforce is more likely to create success for their employer. In an era where workers have more advanced degrees than ever before, there is also a widening skills gap that is already creating labor shortages for highly skilled positions.

In addition, education and skills are being used to determine income, more so than tenure. This is a shift in Human Resources policy that has taken place over years. Working with one company for an extended period is no longer a guarantee of making more money than a new hire. Employers reward skills and performance, not loyalty.

Employers are also seeing the link between education and high-performing employees. In fact, employers are demanding higher and higher levels of education for new employees. In an effort to maintain their organizations, many also are requiring that existing employees continue their education by offering ongoing training or helping to pay for formal education.

Workforce Development for STEM and Highly Skilled Workers

Another deficit with development is in STEM and highly skilled workers. Workforce development programs include initiatives to assist in the development of both of these categories of workers. Highly skilled workers include people trained in specific aspects of engineering to do things such as assist with oil and gas operations, electrical engineering, manufacturing, and more. STEM based workers include people trained in science, technology, engineering, and math. People trained in these skills tend to work in bio-engineering, space exploration, computer engineering, and other highly technological jobs.

A Looming Challenge: Retiring Baby Boomers

As baby boomers retire, they will be taking a lifetime of skills with them. Industries are looking at approximately 40% of their skilled labor forces retiring in the next five years. Because of the deficits in education, younger workers simply do not have the skills required to fulfill all the gaps created by retiring baby boomers.  Businesses have to engage in careful succession planning in order to ensure that their businesses do not suffer because baby boomers are retiring.

Workforce development plays a role in this succession planning process as companies identify pools of candidates to replace retirees. Specifically, it assists them in developing their skills so they can successfully fill the soon to be open positions. Companies utilize both internal and external means of workforce development. They provide on-the-job training opportunities as well as facilitating worker development through outside programs through workforce training centers, community colleges, and nonprofits.

This is a massive problem because there is no back-fill of skilled workers to fill both highly skilled and STEM – based positions. In short, it means companies will have to spend more hire skilled workers, potentially from foreign countries, invest more heavily in workforce development, and try to find ways to do without the skills. Companies all over the country are scrambling to address the problems that retiring baby boomers present.

The Solution

The solution is obvious. Education and training need to be fully accessible to all. There are plenty of people out there who would jump on the opportunity to learn the skills required for these stable, well compensated positions. However, the costs of education prevent many from pursuing the needed skills. In addition, college graduates are not landing the jobs for which they have trained. It is shockingly common to find servers and retail clerks with Masters degrees in the US.

The problem appears to be a vast disconnect between employers and would-be workers. Employers need to find ways to recruit these college graduates and develop them into the workers they need them to be. In addition, the cost of education needs to be mitigated so that people interested in pursuing these careers are not held back by the costs.