During last week's Future Workforce Solutions Summit, hosted by ITT in Orlando, I was expecting to hear "the usual" from employers -- they are having a difficult time recruiting skilled talent, they have far more jobs than appropriate candidates, they're not sure how to use Web2.0 tools to their advantage, etc etc etc...What I didn't expect was the eye-popping, red-flag-raising, three-alarm emergency that is facing our country's major employers: the lack of science, technology, engineering, math & manufacturing (STEM) talent coming out of US schools.
For a real wake-up call, check this out...
I also wasn't expecting the incredibly creative ways that our country's leading organizations are putting aside competition, and are instead choosing to collaborate to solve the problem together. The FutureWorkforceSolutions coalition is harnessing the power of Boeing, Schlumberger, NASA, Intel, AT&T, Dell, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and others are organizing mentoring networks, funding education programs in high schools, finding ways to highlight role models for women interested in science, and lobbying our government to shape legislation that will invest in our education system -- and reduce the large-and-growing gap between the skills that our students are acquiring and those that our employers need.
I also wasn't expecting the incredibly creative ways that our country's leading organizations are putting aside competition, and are instead choosing to collaborate to solve the problem together. The FutureWorkforceSolutions coalition is harnessing the power of Boeing, Schlumberger, NASA, Intel, AT&T, Dell, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, and others are organizing mentoring networks, funding education programs in high schools, finding ways to highlight role models for women interested in science, and lobbying our government to shape legislation that will invest in our education system -- and reduce the large-and-growing gap between the skills that our students are acquiring and those that our employers need.
These leaders realize that today's struggle to recruit skilled talent is just the tip of the iceburg... and that it's a much bigger issue than any single organization -- or government -- can solve on its own.
I'd love to hear your ideas for how schools, employers and the government can work together to give the next generation the experience needed to be successful... Thoughts?
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