Recruitment

Clinton’s Plan To Expand Apprenticeship Makes Good Dollars And Sense

| by Nicholas Wyman | Published on Forbes | 3/08/2015 |

During a recent forum at South Carolina’s Trident Technical College, candidate Hillary Clinton proposed a tax incentive to encourage employers to take on more apprentices. With unemployment among 18 to 34 year olds at 7.8%, and nearly 15% among young African-American adults, the need for more apprenticeships and other forms of skills training for young people is clear.

Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton speaking at Trident Technical College in S.C. (AP Photo/David Goldman)

Under Clinton’s excellent proposal, employers would receive a $1,500 tax credit for providing on the job (OJT) training opportunities for young Americans.

Politics aside, expanding the number of apprenticeships in the United States makes good economic sense for businesses and organizations of any kind. Recent research shows that for every dollar spent on apprenticeships, employers realize a $1.47 return through increased workforce productivity. That’s about four times the rate of return that American corporations typically earn on invested capital! Apprenticeships are equally beneficial for young workers, of course, providing them entry to the world of employment and setting them on well-paid career paths that many college grads would envy. Accredited apprenticeship programs provide participants with the skills to master an occupation whilst learning under the direct supervision of an expert.

Why More Apprenticeships?

But expanding the number of apprenticeships in our country isn’t just beneficial for individual employees and employers – it’s good for the greater economy at large. First off, it will redress two critical, related problems facing American business and society: a shortage of “middle-skilled” workers in most sectors of the economy, and high youth unemployment. Ask any executive what is holding back business growth, and you’re likely to get this answer: “We can’t find enough people with the skills we need.” At the same time, America’s high schools (and colleges) are turning out too many graduates with no marketable skills and no relevant work experience. Many will end up in low-paying, unskilled jobs. Others will join an underclass of “unemployables” and rely on the public purse for life’s necessities. And left unresolved, it will grow worse as skilled baby boomers march off to retirement.

I call this paradoxical situation “jobs without people, and people without jobs.” Others call it the “skills gap.” Whatever you call it, this labor market mismatch is stifling innovation and economic growth, and undermining America’s competitiveness on a global scale.

What are the middle-skills in short supply? These are the practical, technical and vocational skills that businesses and companies desperately need – but that are not being taught in the vast majority of four-year colleges. I’m talking about skills like how to wire a circuit board, how to weld an electric car motor, how to operate state of the art medical and dental equipment, how to install photoelectric roof panels, how to program and repair industrial robots, and more. It’s a long list. Apprenticeships are the most powerful tool we have for closing the middle-skills gap, combatting youth unemployment, and stemming the declining fortunes of the middle class. Dollar for dollar, no other form of job training packs as much punch. The best part of apprenticeship training is that it is not simply a well-meaning jobs program that purports to increase the talent pool and boost employment; instead, it directly connects young people to real jobs beginning on day one. Apprentices earn while they learn, and they gain experience in doing a real job every working day.

An apprenticeship is also an effective system for bringing young people into the world of working adults. Because apprentices and their adult mentors work together at close range every day, these young people can’t help but observe and learn how adults communicate, plan, work in teams, solve real-world problems, and more. This is much different than the typical classroom experience, where the social distance between student and teacher is often large and rigorously enforced. That kind of intergenerational cooperation imparts a maturity, confidence, and work ethic not always seen among Millennials. And making them a boon to any employer or manager who has ever bemoaned the lack of communication, time-management and problem-solving skills among young people right out of high school or college.

Of all the developed Western economies, America is at the bottom of the heap in terms of apprenticeships per thousand workers. Not coincidentally, it is also falling behind in manufacturing. One thing worth noting is the German companies with lots of apprentices are pulling ahead. America needs many more apprentices in order to close the middle-skills gap and tame high youth unemployment. Incentives like candidate Clinton’s $1,500 tax credit may not solve the problem entirely, but they can help set us on the path towards closing the skills gap and increasing the pool of skilled talent for our companies and employers to draw from.

Read Online at Forbes:

http://www.forbes.com/sites/nicholaswyman/2015/08/03/clintons-plan-to-expand-apprenticeship-makes-good-dollars-and-sense/

Tips for Recent Graduates Struggling to Enter the Job Market

By Tara Lynn Wagner
Thursday, July 30
TIME WARNER CABLE NEWS

So you graduated from college but haven’t landed that dream job, or any job for that matter. Starting to panic? Don’t.

“A lot of people really say, ‘Well, I’ve had this map of where I’m going to go,’ and if things don’t fall into place straight away, they start to feel this pressure,” says Nicholas Wyman, author of Job U.

Wyman is also the CEO of the Institute for Workplace Skills and Innovation. He says rather than wait for a specific opening, young graduates should look out for any opportunity to get their foot in the door -even an entry level position, since being in the building could be half the battle.

“You get to network with people within the organization and you really get to take on these, what I describe as, real world workplace skills,” Wyman says. “So you’re actually getting to work with groups of people, you’re getting to see how the dynamics and personalities, and also learn about the culture of the organization, and decide if it’s an organization where you can see yourself mapping out a career.”

“It doesn’t matter if you’re in real estate, in law, in finance,” Wyman says. “Employers are looking for people who can communicate and who can work well in group situations. So these interpersonal skills are the skills that I’d personally be brushing up on.”

Read More and Watch Online here:

http://www.ny1.com/nyc/all-boroughs/money-matters/2015/07/29/tips-for-recent-graduates-struggling-to-enter-the-job-market.html

Talking Jobs and Career Preparation with Jim Bohannon

The Jim Bohannon Show | June 23rd, 2015 |

There are many pathways to a successful and rewarding, well-paying career, and college is just one of them. Author of ‘Job U – How to Find Wealth and Success by Developing the Skills Companies Actually Need’, Nicholas Wyman talks about the ‘college for everyone’ myth, how to successfully target the position you are interested in, and the things you can do to ensure you are giving yourself the best head start.

Listen here:

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Original Posting

http://www.jimbotalk.net/programhighlights?date=20150623

US Jobs Unfilled As Millions Remain Unemployed

from ‘Voice of America’ June 26, 2015 | By Jim Randle.

The U.S. job market has millions of unfilled jobs, particularly those requiring technical skills. At the same time, the Labor Department says 8.7 million Americans are unemployed and another 6.7 million can find only part-time work.

Employers say many of those jobs are vacant because they cannot find people with the necessary skills to do the work. A study by Careerbuilder, a firm that helps match employers and applicants, says more than half of employers report having trouble filling certain jobs, and six out of ten have had to hire under-qualified people.

But one researcher says employers are not offering enough money to attract the best qualified workers.

Experts call this paradox the “skills gap” and a number of efforts are underway to better understand and solve it.

Rethinking training

Author Nicholas Wyman calls it “a labor market mis-match … people without jobs and jobs without people.”

His book is called Job U. Because unemployment for new college graduates is high, and traditional four-year colleges are very expensive, Wyman says a combination of technical classes and on the job training — an apprenticeship — would be a better choice for many people.

“An apprenticeship is where you learn from a specialist, you are provided mentoring, you learn in an on the job environment, the old cliche is that you are actually paid to earn and learn,” he said.

He says apprenticeships are misunderstood in the United States, where “success” is often defined as attending a four-year college. But he says that is changing as apprenticeships spread beyond traditional areas like construction and manufacturing and get a boost from government funding.

And Wyman, who was once an apprentice, says opportunity is growing in some previously troubled areas like manufacturing.

Wage problem?

But new research from Iowa State University is raising some questions about the definition, size, and nature of a skills gap. Iowa State’s Liesl Eathington and colleagues examined employment, education and population data and found the evidence of a skills gap is weak.

She says many policymakers and employers say there is opportunity in “middle skills” areas, like welding or machining. But Eathington adds that the most recent recession hit some of those job areas hard, and that students should be cautious because “our economy really isn’t adding that many jobs that require the middle skills or middle educated territory.”

Employers could get a more well-qualified applicants if they offered higher wages, says Eathington, who points out that graduates of two-year training programs still generally make less money than graduates of four-year colleges.

The U.S. unemployment rate stood at 5.5 percent in May, and will be updated next Thursday for June.

Source location:
http://www.voanews.com/content/millions-us-jobs-unfilled-millions-remain-unemployed/2838814.html

image:
Job seekers listen to prospective employers during a job hiring event for marketing, sales and retail positions in San Francisco, California, June 4, 2015.

The Employers Role in Skills Building #theDIYLearner #jobs #jobubook

The DIY Learner | 23 May 2015 |

In this discussion, Nicholas shares some practical tips for new graduates, including the importance of networking and being organized. Nicholas highlights the importance of employers taking on the role of educator, illustrated by companies who are currently looking for creative ways to retain and develop their employees skills.