A recent article by Adam Davidson in The New York
Times Magazine entitled “Skills Don’t Pay the Bills,” explores the wage versus
skills gap in advanced manufacturing. Machines have replaced more manufacturing
jobs than outsourcing, and now machines can do the jobs of anywhere from 10 to
100 workers. But running these machines requires considerable skill including “a basic understanding of metallurgy, physics, chemistry, pneumatics, electrical wiring and computer code" (Davidson, 2012). . Politicians
are claiming there are thousands of manufacturing jobs waiting to be filled,
and there are not enough workers to fill them. However, according to Davidson’s
research, wages for these positions are in the $10 per hour range, less than
the wage earned by a new shift manager at McDonalds. If there is a shortage of
skilled workers, the law of supply and demand would mean the wage should be driven
higher.
So what exactly is going on here? Are we, as
educators, missing information to best prepare our students for the workforce? At
least some educational institutions may think we are. An article in The
Hechinger Report indicates some colleges are investing in “artificial-intelligence spiders” that sift through thousands of online job postings to determine
employer needs long before federal bureau of labor reports are released.
Educational institutions are becoming increasingly involved in economic
recovery and are paying more and more attention to workforce readiness. For
example, Northeastern University has adopted an “experiential learning” approach
which requires students to work for as many as 18 months in a “real world” work
setting while in training. The success of this program has been noticed. Over
50% of these students are hired full time by the participating company, more
than 90% are either employed or in graduate school within nine months after
graduation, and as a result, applications to the university have increased by
46% over the last five years (Marcus, 2013).
Perhaps we, as aspiring community college
administrators, need to stay abreast of recent trends, especially if we want our
community colleges to thrive economically. Apprenticeship is no longer just for
the workplace. Experiential and cooperative learning just may be the answer to
closing the skills gap, the wage gap, and ultimately improving the economic
outlook.
Resources:
Davidson, A., (Nov. 20, 2012), Skills don’t pay the bills.
The New York Times Magazine. Retrieved
from http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/25/magazine/skills-dont-pay-the-bills.html
As usual Sheri you have prepared a thought provoking synopsis. We concentrate on developments affecting the demand for labor of different skill levels. Unskilled labor has declined relative to that of skilled labor, by itself not unusual. Its development should have operated to narrow wage differentials by skill level, it did not. The supply of skilled labor grew rapidly in the 1970s than in the 1980s, however, the actual wage differentials narrowed. You could argue that only one major difference between the two decades was the weakening of these supply factors. Supplying and preparing students for the workforce is great, however, we also need to have the wages keeping up with the skill levels. I agree as new community college administrators we do need to keep abreast of business in our rural area as well as globally. I included a YouTube video of the exact issues we face here in the US and affect others globally.
ReplyDeleteIn another article, the collaborative learning model had proved to be successful. By developing the critical thinking skills, the disparity narrows. My research supports your thoughts that collaboration narrows the disparity from skill and unskilled workers through learning and improving critical thinking skills. The ability to synthesize, analyze and work independently collaboratively is critical to the goals of the community colleges of the future.
Gokhale,A.A.(Fall 1995) Collaborative learning enhances critical thinking: Journal of Techonology Education; Vol 7 Number 1
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qQxbFM0YTEY
Brauer,D.A. and Hickok,S (Jan 1995)Explaining the growing Inequality in wages across skill Levels: FRBNY ECONOMIC POLICY REVIEW http://data.newyorkfed.org/research/epr/95v01n1/9501brau.pdf
I have to agree with Sue. You have done an outstanding job again with this post. I found the section about the Northwestern University requirement that all students in their skilled worker programs work for a factory while in school. I love that idea. I wish Lenoir had the same requirement. I would be working right now. Sounds a lot better than an internship (I'm assuming they receive compensation while working) where you observe and work with no pay. The results obviously speak for themselves. Awesome Post!
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