By Nicholas Wyman.
The nature of work is in transition as a consequence of globalization, new technologies and the growing impact of Artificial Intelligence. Young people are leaving our education systems, and these young people who are charged with educating are ill prepared to face the future of work.
Do you consider vocational education a unviable alternative to university or college? You are not alone. However, you need to think again. I would like to invite you to put aside your pre-conceived
beliefs about vocational education and training (VET) and let me explain how misconceptions about VET are hurting the next generation’s chances of a meaningful future at work.
We have all heard the old adage ‘perception is reality’, but when it comes to VET, nothing is further from the truth. Here’s my premise: Skills-based education gives young people the chance to get experience and gain confidence early. It can catapult them into steady jobs, a great pay packet and, more than likely, a future-proof career.
Have you ever thought or believed any of these common statements? Well, allow me to bust these myths.
Myth 1. Apprenticeships are old fashioned – they aren’t funky
Actually, they are. And they’re really coming into their own in major economies.
For example, in the US, after waning and being restricted to a narrow range of fields over the past few decades, apprenticeship programs are coming back in a big way. There are more than 505,000 people in the US currently enrolled as apprentices – the highest rate in eight years, and US apprenticeship programs are increasingly offering the entry key to careers in a vast array of growing fields such as IT, health care, hospitality and advanced manufacturing, to name a few.
Despite that, 8 of 10 people surveyed by the US National Association of Manufacturers said they would not encourage their own children to enter the manufacturing field.
Those same people said they view manufacturing as critical to the prosperity and security of the US (90% of those surveyed actually ranked manufacturing top of the list of important industries!).
The same ‘it’s essential work, but not for my kids’ dynamic exists in Australia. Various research shows parents overwhelming respect the importance of manufacturing as a national priority, but not when it comes to wanting their children to pursue a career in that sector. Go figure.
Meanwhile, among northern and central European countries, between 40 and 70 per cent of high-school students opt for vocational education. After completing three years of combined on-the-job and classroom learning, students graduate with a qualification that carries real weight in the labour market, and a pathway to even higher levels of education and earnings.
Read More:
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/59231d8ae4b0b28a33f62e54
Áine Cai, 10 May 2017
‘Job interviews are a piece of cake’
Understandably, plenty of recent grads are terrified over the prospect of applying for gigs and lining up job interviews. It’s a stressful process, especially if you’ve never done it before.
But sugarcoating reality and telling grads not to fret over job applications is not a good option.
“Job interviews are generally terrifying,” says Nicholas Wyman, CEO of the Institute for Workplace Skills and Development and author of “Job U: How to Find Wealth and Success by Developing the Skills Companies Actually Need.” “Practice makes perfect. Preparation is the key to a successful interview.”
Instead of giving empty reassurances, well-meaning friends and relatives can help grads by offering to practice the art of interviewing with them. And recent grads should channel their worry into studying up and thoroughly preparing for every interview.
“Practice with a family member or a friend to get comfortable with your responses,” Wyman says. “Become an expert. Read industry magazines, online news and blogs to keep up with developments in your field of interest. Knowing the latest trends will help set you apart from other candidates in an interview.”
‘College prepared you for everything’
This well-meaning attempt to boost a recent grad’s confidence can really backfire. Just because you have a diploma doesn’t mean you’re necessarily ready to go out and conquer the world. In fact, grads who lack work experience still have a lot to learn as they enter the workforce.
“Many college graduates are finishing their educations lacking in both practical work experience as well as in the soft skills needed to land a job, be part of and work on a team, and navigate the day to day rigors of a modern workplace,” Wyman says.
So, where can you learn these elusive skills?
“They can be learned in one place — a workplace,” Wyman says. “Get a job, preferably in your area of interest and start learning, and practicing, the skills employers need.”
Read up on more of the worst pieces of career advice – full article here:
http://www.businessinsider.com/worst-advice-for-new-grads-2017-5//?r=AU&IR=T#go-back-to-school-1
Photo: Flickr/Samuel Mann
By Nicholas Wyman, May 5, 2017
When a room full of passionate apprenticeship advocates met in Washington yesterday for the first day of the Apprenticeship Forward conference, the mood was understandably upbeat and optimistic.
Why? Because calls for the U.S. to expand apprenticeship programs seem to be gaining more traction daily. And overnight the news had come through that Congress’ omnibus budget compromise would again expand funding for apprenticeships, to $95 million over the next year.
Now more than ever, Americans need educational options and career pathways which are cost effective and oriented to delivering skilled careers and stable employment. That common ground was found to expand appropriations in the budget bill, is a strong signal that interest in apprenticeships is not expendable.
This column recently threw its support behind an audacious plan for the Trump Administration to adopt a nation wide target to hire five million apprenticeships in five years. Since then, a range of influential people and organisations, from Ivanka Trump to the Fed Chair, Janet Yellen, Company CEO’s including Sales Force Marc Benioff to the National Skills Coalition, have come forth to endorse this proposal.
The five million target may have started as a “man on the moon” goal, however given these endorsements span so many points of our political compass, the cautious optimism of the apprenticeship advocates, employers and educators present was understandable.
Debates about how to address issues around next generation jobs, economic mobility, educational opportunity and college affordability were key themes of last year’s election cycle.
Apprenticeships and vocational/technical education and can play a key role in addressing each of these problems.
The current abiding narrative of Washington, D.C. is of hostility and corrosive political division. However when it comes to career and technical education issues, congressional consensus seems to be the norm. Even at the vicious height of last year’s election campaign, Republicans and Democrats united to support the $1.1 billion Strengthening Career and Technical Education for the 21st Century Act, (also known as the Perkins Reauthorization Bill) which sailed through the House with a 405-to-5 vote.
Unfortunately it was not considered by the Senate before the end of the 114th congress. However, when an equivalent reauthorization bill was introduced in the House this week, Chair of the Committee on Education and the Workforce, Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-NC) was quick to state that “Strengthening career and technical education continues to a leading priority for our committee” and that she looked forward to “advancing this important bipartisan proposal in the coming weeks” with hopes to get it done this year.
So is a target of five million U.S. apprentices in five years achievable? Obviously, the level of support in Congress and commitment amongst the Trump’s administration and how it translates into funding and other legislative measures will be crucial.
There will be no shortage of conventional analysis from naysayers who will tell you its impossible to achieve, and would require the greatest expansion of apprenticeship programs in US history, and could create a significant start-up burden on employers and the Department of Labor. However, the more one considers the question, the more the scale of the challenge seems achievable.
True, reaching a five million target it would involve a 10-fold increase in our current apprenticeship enrollment of 500,000. But we are nation of over 320 million! As Andy Van Kleunan from National Skills Coalition explained to me: “Five million may seem like a lot, but its only one working apprenticeship for every four college students.”
Also, consider that right now there are six million vacant positions across America which remain open unfilled due to our nation’s endemic skills gap, and that the Bureau of Labor Statistics forecasts another 3.4 million manufacturing jobs (i.e. skilled workers) will be needed over the next decade.
As few as five years ago, a goal of five creating million apprenticeships would have been met with a mix of confusion and quiet laughter. Many people would not have even known what an apprenticeship is, exactly, much less how it can address so many of the economic and educational challenges of this time. But today, it feels like a stretch goal; hard, yes – impossible, no.
Simply fixing this supply side skills gap through high quality apprenticeship programs could help employers meet their immediate workforce needs whilst preparing the next generation of productive workers, and would get us pretty close to the target.
Finally, there is a current, live case study example of what can be achieved in through apprenticeships with genuine top-down government commitment: the United Kingdom.
In 2010, the U.K.’s Conservative Government introduced a national target of two million apprenticeships by 2015. It was dismissed by many as political puffery at the time, however the target was met with a year to spare. This fantastic result was achieved through a combination of political commitment, wholesale industry engagement and expanding of the professions offering apprenticeship pathways to include future-focused and growing fields like cybersecurity and carbon composite technicians.
In 2016, the U.K. Government subsequently announced a target of an additional three million apprenticeships by 2020, which it is currently on track to meet. Apprenticeship enrollments are up 82%, to 509,000, over pre-target announcement levels.
The U.K. offers an enviable example of what is possible when the ship of state is fueled and focused: the U.S. and U.K. currently have near identical apprenticeship enrollments, but the U.S. population is roughly five time the U.K.’s. So, on my back of the envelope math, the U.K.’s two million achievement would be the equivalent of a U.S. ten million target.
Still think five million is a pipe dream?
U.S. industry will face a range of significant challenges in the coming decade: automation and Industry 4.0, skills shedding from the retirements of baby boomers and increased global competition in low complexity manufacturing to name a few.
If we are to build the workforce of tomorrow and remain competitive, we must stop allowing our trade competitors to steal a march up the value chain, grasp the potential of apprenticeship programs and leverage the manufacturing multiplier effect to unleash a new economy wide surge in productivity.
Source:
https://www.forbes.com/sites/nicholaswyman/2017/05/05/apprenticeship/2/#6eb4c8701c8e
By Nicholas Wyman, 29 April 2017
At the recent White House roundtable discussion on vocational education attended by president Trump and German chancellor Angela Merkel, Marc Benioff, chairman and CEO of Salesforce, called on the President to “take a moonshot goal to create 5 million apprenticeships in the next five years.”
Given the president campaigned on a promise to deliver 25 million new jobs over the next 10 years, Beinoff’s go big or go home attitude was perfectly pitched for his audience. In response Trump readily agreed, stating “let’s do that, let’s go for that 5 million.”
That statement pricked up the ears of vocational training advocates across the country who have been hoping his administration will seize the untapped growth potential for apprenticeship programs in this country, and issue an official announcement soon. The time is right to pursue a Benioff’s goal, which could potentially offer a myriad of new opportunities to millions of Americans to have better, fulfilling careers, whilst making a significant down payment on the President’s 25 million jobs promise.
While we have been getting used to regular good news on the labor front, with over 450,000 new hires across January and February, with unemployment near nine year lows at 4.7% and the economy inching towards full employment, these figures mask two chronic, nagging problems.
The first is persistently high youth joblessness—a consequence of too many young people completing high school (and college) without gathering meaningful work experience or marketable skills. US youth unemployment is around 10% percent nationally, and twice that in many urban areas. The second problem is of employers who are unable to find people with the skill set required to get the job done—the “skills gap” is harder to measure, but it is conservatively estimated that upwards of 5.9 million jobs are currently unfilled.
The power of apprenticeship programs in reducing youth unemployment and narrowing the skills gap by creating custom skilled workers has long been demonstrated in northern Europe, where this centuries-old form of learning remains strong and enjoys both business and societal support. (Germany’s leadership in this domain was the key reason for Merkel’s attendance.)
There, the majority of high school students graduate with substantial vocational training and work experience under their belts. Of those who do not go directly to university, a large percentage enter apprenticeship programs, which are widely available across many industries. The transition between the world of school and the world of work is much more integrated than what we typically witness here in the US. Apprenticeship programs provide these young people with the skills they require to get and keep well-paying jobs, and businesses get to access the skilled workers they require.
An apprentice is an employee who earns as they learn, both on the job and, in a community college or tech school classroom. Learning under the guidance of an experienced tradesperson, the apprentice masters a valuable and often highly paid occupation. Several years of hands-on learning equips the worker with exactly the skills and experience they will need for a productive work life and career. As an approach to making people employable and boosting the skilled labor supply, the apprenticeship model delivers the greatest bang for the buck.
The term apprentice however still conjures up images from earlier times, of a young person in a leather apron making barrels, hand-looming cloth, silver smithing, or shaping a red-hot piece of iron on an anvil. However, if that’s what pops into your mind, think again.
Twenty-first century apprenticeships are more sophisticated and progressive, and are found in modern fields beyond the blue collar such as IT and cyber security, advanced manufacturing, energy, construction, healthcare, transport and logistics and hospitality. Indeed, many of today’s most attractive knowledge economy jobs can be learned through apprenticeships.
One of the great strengths of an apprenticeship is the unique relationship it creates between mentor and learner. This multigenerational ‘pay it forward’ relationship is more personal and interactive than anything we find in the academic world of professors. Apprentices do not sit passively in lecture halls. Instead, they engage in active exchanges that involve diagnosing problems, forming and testing opinions, receiving direct feedback and collaborating on solutions. These experiences develop the apprentice’s workplace sophistication, maturity, sense of accountability, and problem-solving power—virtues that benefit both apprentice and employer.
So how could the Trump administration begin to tackle Benioff’s ‘moonshot’ target of 5 million apprentices? One way would be to better reallocate existing dollars from ineffective academic only programs to apprenticeship and other cost-effective strategies which directly deal with identified skill mismatches and shortages at a local level. With this reallocated funding, the government should seek to provide market-targeted incentives to private training organizations, community colleges, state and local agencies to market and provide financial support for the rapid nationwide expansion of apprenticeships.
Apprenticeships offer a solid bridge between school and the world of work, attack the root causes of youth unemployment, and create a pathway to successful and rewarding careers.
It’s time. Apprenticeship has never been more relevant, or more necessary.
Source:
https://qz.com/943818/apprenticeships-can-be-the-key-to-trumps-promise-to-create-millions-of-new-american-jobs/
‘Job U: Find Your Path To A Successful Carer in a Tough Job Market’
by Nicholas Wyman
‘Job U – How to Find Wealth and Success by Developing the Skills Companies Actually Need‘ (US Edition) quickly shot to #1 on the Amazon Hot New Releases in Job Hunting and Career Guides. It has been awarded Best Business Careers book in the International Book Awards and won USA Best Book Awards, Business: Careers category.
Get ready to relearn everything you thought you knew about what a successful career path looks like.