Aligning education with workforce needs – nwitimes.com

Higher levels of education lead to elevated wages, a more equitable distribution of income and substantial gains in productivity. As a result, education is more valued and more necessary than ever before in today’s global economy.

Consider this – the U.S. currently ranks third among the top 30 most developed countries when it comes to adults 25- to 64-years old with an associates degree or higher. However, we rank 10th when you look at 25- to 34-year-olds with the same credentials. Competing countries are now outpacing the U.S. when it comes to the educational attainment of the next generation of adults.

While just 12 percent of U.S. jobs required some post-secondary training or an associate’s degree 35 years ago, it is estimated nearly 80 percent of U.S. job openings will require post-secondary training or education in the next decade.

This evidence clearly illustrates the importance of college and career readiness for all U.S. high school graduates.

“In order to be successful after high school, all graduates must possess the knowledge, habits and skills that can only come from a rigorous, rich and well rounded school curriculum,” said Linda Woloshansky, president and CEO of The Center of Workforce Innovations (CWI). “In the workforce development world, we’re working with employers all the time. We have employers who are ready to hire workers right now – if the workers have the skills that the employers need – and we have workers in large number, both employed and unemployed who want these jobs but lack the skills and education level to access them.”

Emphasizing the need to align the work of high schools with the needs of regional economies has never been greater, CWI and READY NWI – the Regional Education/Employer Alliance for Developing Youth Initiative – partnered with the College Acceleration Network (CAN) to host the third annual College and Career Acceleration Summer Institute at Hobart High School last week. Also supporting the event was the Northwest Indiana Workforce Board and the Works Council.

Simply put, “college and career readiness” refers to the content knowledge and skills high school graduates must possess in English and mathematics – including, but not limited to, reading, writing communications, teamwork, critical thinking and problem solving. Stressing the fact college today means much more than just pursuing a four-year degree at a university, three local businesspeople who are intimately involved with the hiring process for their companies provided some real-world insight for the attendees. Those attendees included a group of dedicated administrators, counselors and teachers from 13 local READY NWI Partner School Corporations on the first day of the week long STEM workshops for science and math teachers organized through CAN.

Moderator Roy Vanderford, the director of strategic solutions at CWI, began the lively panel discussion by explaining how in today’s economy, a career is not just a job. A career provides a family-sustaining wage with pathways to advancement that require post-secondary training or education. Panel members Yvette Saxer-Perez, human resources Manager at Aloca Power and Propulsion in LaPorte; R.D. Parpart II, team leader of the Steelworker for the Future program at ArcelorMittal USA in Burns Harbor; and Bruce C. Bechtel, president at Tri-State Automation in Hammond, wholeheartedly agreed.

“Construction is underway on a state-of-the-art $100 million facility, which will use the latest in advanced manufacturing technologies including digital X-ray, 3-D printing and robotics,” Saxer-Perez said of the new 320,000-square-foot facility that will expand Alcoa’s reach from structural engine components for business and regional jets to large commercial aircraft, including narrow- and wide-body (the top selling jet engines in the world) and military planes.

“Aerospace growth is soaring. We have orders for the next eight years, and we are looking for our next generation of employees. Currently we are just shy of 500 employees and are looking to add 329 positions by 2019. Along with the connections we make through WorkOne, we want to capture graduates out of high school. Since they don’t always have experience in the workforce, we look for examples of teamwork and community service where they have been growing and learning outside of school. We coined the phrase PUPS for the characteristics we’re looking for: passion, urgency, personality and soft skills.”

Underscoring Woloshansky’s earlier comment, Parpart related his experience from a job fair earlier this year.

“ArcelorMittal had 50-100 positions to fill, and 10,000 people applied,” he explained. “We are a product of the consolidation of the local steel industry. For many years we were downsizing rather than hiring people. Now, we are globally strong and vibrant with 20,000 people employed the U.S. alone. Indiana Harbor and Burns Harbor are two of the top three largest manufacturing facilities, and our biggest challenge is finding craft people.”

In partnership with Ivy Tech Community College, ArcelorMittal introduced its Steelworker for the Future craft training program to our region in 2008. The 2 1/2-year associate degree program in either a mechanical or electrical concentration includes four semesters of classroom training plus 16 weeks of paid, on-site training. During the on-site portion of the program, students have the opportunity to apply what they learn in class while earning credit toward their degree plus enough in wages to pay for their tuition.

“The current average age of our skilled craftsman is 57, and quite honestly 30 percent of our workforce could come in and say they want to retire at any time,” Parpart added. “We’re looking at an average of 60-70 hires per year, and for that you need to cast a wide net. We also work with WorkOne, and I can say that at this point we are guaranteeing a job to anyone who completes the training program, earns an associates degree and passes the craft entrance exam. We need you.”

While he works at a more specialized small- to mid-size company, Bechtel experiences the same workforce issues.

“We would be a supplier to one of these larger companies,” he said. “As a technology leader in the world of welding and robotics, we help companies improve quality, productivity and grow their business. Like everyone else, we have experienced our share of challenges from overseas competition, and we are proud to have recently ‘reshored’ a client who came back for our quality and service. That’s a reflection of the people who work here.

“The market needs people trained in both engineering and technology, which is more hands-on. A four-year college degree is not for everyone, and I’ve seen my share of engineers who would rather interact with technology than design it. It’s important to make young people aware of these opportunities. I recently had a father call and ask if he could bring his children in for a tour of our facility. That’s the kind of personal touch we can provide, and he was happy to see that jobs like this exist in Northwest Indiana.”