Tuesday, February 05, 2008

Education and the Talent Shortage

Kiplinger.com published an article entitled "Employers Seek to Improve Education" in which they discuss something that HR managers have been aware of for quite awhile now and that is the U.S. educational system is just not making the grade. Businesses are suffering and are not able to hire the talent needed to effectively compete in the world market today. This lack of talent stemming from a lack of education is most visible in the areas of math, science, engineering and technology. But it is also there in language and communication skills as well as in critical thinking.

So what are businesses doing to address this shortfall of educated talent? They are pressuring governments at the federal, state and local level to improve. They are teaming with school systems to help develop curriculums. They are pressing presidential candidates for an educational platform. But alot of companies are pushing ahead on their own to provide incentives to professionals who would like to teach and incentives for students who would like to learn, especially science and math.

Because many companies are relying more and more on immigrant labor, both legal and illegal, companies are having to offer basic education in English and arithmetic and grammer in order to get willing workers to a level of being functional workers.

HR knows this is a problem, we see it day-in and day-out as our hiring managers push us to get them "quality" workers. But this is a battleship that will not be easily turned around.

Anyone have creative ways you are dealing with lack of education in your workforce? If so, leave a comment and let us know.

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