BY BARBARA COOK
barbara@theballstonjournal.com
Recognizing the need for workers for middle-skills jobs, the Center for Career and Technical Education at the F. Donald Myers Education Center is launching a new program called the Industry First Campaign to train not only high school students but also untrained or unemployed adults.
In a press conference Jan. 12, Congressman Chris Gibson, Senator Roy McDonald and Assemblymen James Tedisco and Tony Jordan toured the Saratoga BOCES facility, along with representatives from the offices of Senator Betty Little and Assemblywoman Teresa Sayward. They visited classrooms devoted to HVAC, welding and culinary arts, speaking with students and faculty about the programs.
Eric Vanwagenen explains the HVAC classroom to Assemblyman James Tedisco, Congressman Chris Gibson and Senator Roy McDonald Jan. 12.
District Superintendent of Schools James Dexter later explained that many of the employers who hire graduates of the Career and Technical Education program have told him they have openings for skilled and trained workers but can’t find people to fill the jobs. They have said if they can’t hire enough quality employees, they might have to move out of the region or even out of New York State.
Middle-skills jobs are those requiring more than a high school education, but not a four-year degree. They include automotive mechanics, chefs and welders, among many others. “These middle skills are critical to our economy, they don’t get outsourced and they pay well, yet they continue to go unfilled,” Dexter said.
He said the issue is less educational than one of regional economic development.
Gibson described a business owner he had recently met in Delhi whose company manufactures sports equipment. He had a need for workers with advanced welding skills for goal posts, but couldn’t find anyone who was fully qualified when hired.
“There’s more overhead that they have to put into training, and of course that squeezes profit,” said Gibson.
Welding student Cody Design talks with Congressman Chris Gibson and Assemblymen Tony Jordan and James Tedisco.
Douglas Leavens, director of Career and Technical Education, explained when a lack of jobs is cited as an example of the poor economy, the point that is not expressed is that the world of work in 2012 is not the same as it was 10 or 15 years ago. Not only have the jobs changed, but the skills necessary for them have also changed.
Although professionals with four-year degrees are still needed, they aren’t the ones who will fill the middle-skill jobs. “We’re not advocating for less education,” Leavens said, “but education that fits where the jobs happen to be.”
“What’s exacerbating this problem is that there are jobs available but they don’t have the skill sets,” said Tedisco. “In times of a recession we have to take a second look.”
Leavens cited a statistic that in 2009, 46 percent of jobs in New York were middle-skill, but only 39 percent of the workforce had the training and education to fill them. In 2011, 52 percent of employers reported difficulty in filling those types of positions, up from 14 percent in 2010. “There’s a mismatch between what’s required and who is actually able to do that type of work,” he said.
Gibson said following World War II, the United States had an intact industrial base while that base had been destroyed in much of rest of the world. Domestic industry was able to make goods that other countries couldn’t. “Right at the center of that is our workforce,” he said.
Senator Roy McDonald speaks at the Industry First Campaign launch.
Leavens said the need for middle-skills workers will increase as the Baby Boomers who have those skills retire. “So the question is whether there are enough people to come in and backfill them, and if there are enough people, do they have the skills?”
McDonald lauded the practicality of the Industry First Campaign. He said training students, whether high-school age or older, for the middle-skills jobs is like the Chinese proverb, ‘Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.’
Gibson said the program is “spot-on.” He said it recognizes the wide variety of skills that everyone is born with and provides the mentors to help them rise to their “God-given potential.”
Loading ...
