America Skills Gap Essay

Higher education in America is facing many challenges, i.e., low retention, low graduation rates and less funding. Postsecondary institutions are scrambling to remain a competitive entity within society. In order to do so, students must remain in school (Talbert, 2012). The Office of the White House states (2014), educational attainment is critical to our county’s economic success. In essence, the work force is creating more jobs requiring more education and a higher level of skill than was previously achieved. Individuals with only a high school diploma will not make into the middle class sector because of

As we continue in our busy lives, we always take into account what the next days, weeks, or even months hold for us. But what do we Americans hope for in future years, as a country? There have been several events that have occurred around the world affecting our lives in a positive way. However, there were many crises that have set us back, though we try to strive and become even stronger. To continue improving America, we must have the ability to come together as a whole and progress as the days go by, setting a foundation for our future generations.

“Universities teach students how to think, but they do not provide real world experience, so people leave school unprepared for the workplace” (Smith). “More than half of all companies (60%) said new graduates lacked critical thinking skills and attention to detail (56%), while 44% found fault with their writing proficiency, and 39% were critical of their public speaking ability” (Berr). Students find it very difficult to understand what they need to do to prepare for the workforce. Instead, students could have been doing other things that could increase their techniques to help them make money in different

Throughout America, the educational infrastructure continues to under-prepare students for future positions that require highly trained individuals to complete necessary tasks. In Daniel Bruno's “Entitlement Education”, he states, “It is not that his boss puts her foot down; instead, the job does. Our student finds himself not well prepared for it. He gets cheated because he is disadvantaged at his job---a job that he paid money to learn how to do” (252). Bruno also discusses in the essay on how motivated students are not fully prepared because the educational institute is attempting to cater to the un-driven ones. What Bruno covers in “Entitlement Education” is the staggering truth behind America's educational system. There are astonishing amounts of people at jobs who simply cannot perform their jobs to the necessary specifications. Its not necessarily that the

Colleges are struggling to adapt to society’s changing requirements for adults entering the work force. John Fawell laments this change and states that humans intrinsically desire to learn more for the purpose of knowing more. However, the focus has shifted away from this and has become more career-oriented. This shift is not well supported in the current college system. The education system is aware of this change and some have modified their programs, but they are too narrow and a broad college education is lost. Even though it has become almost mandatory in society, a college degree does not prepare students for a real-world work environment and is not necessary for most occupations. Many, such as lawyers or doctors, do require further education and a system that instructs them while also training the majority of the workforce would be an improvement.

This also holds true for our construction-worker shortage. These jobs pay an average of $27 an hour, but American workers don’t want them—they are hard, unpleasant, and not steady.” (Schwartz). Also, are citizens complaining about the lack of jobs willing to go out and get the education needed to achieve them. Many immigrants are working full time and paying to go to school to claim a small piece of that American dream to do better for their families.

Going to college or pursuing nontraditional education remains a major question for today’s generation. In his article “7 Reasons Why You Shouldn’t Go to College…” Michael Price suggests the benefit of getting work experience and “skills,” than going to college. College, while started for good reasons, has become overemphasized. Students lack skills, incur massive debt, and struggle to find meaningful work. In contrast, a Pew Research Center article titled “The Rising Cost of Not Going to College,” emphasizes the need for college by examining the differences between college graduates and non-college graduates.

Preparing America for Middle-Skill Work is a short interview with Anthony Carnevale. Anthony Carnevale is the Executive Director of Georgetown 's Center on Education and is considered a "workforce guru". The article delves into the perceived shortage of middle skill workers, both now and in the future. Carnevale discusses the need for a new "paradigm" of education and what the United States can do to fill this ever-increasing need.

In search of causes for the economy’s weaknesses, Kay spoke to employers in North Carolina and came to the following conclusion, “Employers across North Carolina tell me that there is often a disconnect between the skills held by job seekers and the skills they need in potential employees” (heller.senate.gov). By listening to employers, she determined that the existence of a skills gap was a major problem preventing people from obtaining employment within the North Carolinian community. Therefore, she chose to come up with a plan that would close the gap by providing people with sufficient job training that would lead them to gain the necessary skills to obtain a job. Along with senators Heller and Donnelly, she formulated the AMERICA Works Act. This act would create a system in which community colleges and job training locations would adapt a curriculum that would enable students to learn the skills employers are in search of. Through data, it has been discovered that about 600,000 jobs are not filled because they are intended for skilled workers. With the passing of this act, such unoccupied positions would be filled and would not only assist North Carolina’s economy but the nation’s economy in general. Kay sees this plan as an evident solution from national stance and claims, “In this economy, no family should

For instance, by 2012 the median salary had only increased by a mere 7 percent sinc3 1973. Decent paying jobs are continually being moved overseas and due to an increasing need for automation, available jobs have declined at a rapid speed since lesser manpower is required in most fields. Those who have lost their jobs as a result of these changes, are often unsuccessful in finding suitable work, much less one that compares to their previous salary. Americans who have managed to remain employed, are not necessarily out of the water either. Company owners and leaders are becoming richer while the poor gets poorer; frequently underpaying their employees and keeping a larger amount of profit for themselves. With such a competitive market for much needed work, employees are often faced with the decision to accept their meager salaries or try to find better work elsewhere. Because other well-paying jobs are harder to find, American’s are becoming increasingly willing to accept the mediocre pay offered to them, even if they know that they are being underpaid

Today American citizens undeniably face some of the nation’s greatest challenges. No matter the issue, there will be consequences as a result. A great issue as voted by most Americans is believed to be the high percentage rate of unemployment. Unemployment is a distressingly bad aspect, and unfortunately it is a daily normality and struggle for most individuals. There are a plethora of reasons why unemployment is intensively high; frictional, structural and voluntary unemployment for example, serve as major purposes to the leading cause of high unemployment. Frictional unemployment occurs from the amount of time spent in finding new employment in the free market. For example, a recent university graduate may not necessarily expect to find a job of their expertise and skills right away therefore the job hunt continues. This also occurs whereas people choose to be unemployed rather than accepting the first job that comes around or are in between jobs because they have become inessential or simply looking for a better, beneficial career. Structural unemployment occurs due to inconsistent labor skills such as occupational immobility where learning a new skill required for a certain occupation is complicated. For example an unemployed mechanic will struggle to find an occupation in the medical industry because of the difference in occupational knowledge. Geographical immobility

Every child dreams about what they want to be when they grow up: every kindergarten class is full of hopeful teachers, nurses, chefs, and astronauts, desperately waiting for the day that they can go out into the real world and be whoever they want to be. However, as these children become teenagers and then young adults, these dreams seem to drift farther and farther away, clouded by pressures of college costs and student debt; and these students’ hopes are cut off just as the whole world should be opening to them. Every country relies on its next generation to take the place of the current one, and to make the country grow and thrive in the future. Educating the next generation of doctors, lawyers,

The Bridges To Opportunity Initiative helps to ready low-income under skilled adult students to obtain workforce ready skills using community and technical colleges to achieve jobs with livable wages and an educational pathway. (Ford Foundation, n.d.) The Integrated Basic Education and Skills Training (I-Best) works with adults who want to better their basic educational skills to increase employability and the opportunity to advance their education in a career development direction. (Wachen, Jenkins, & Noy, 2011) There are seventy-five million Americans that do not have higher than a high school education or who have not attain a General Education Development/General Equivalent Diploma (GED) the I-Best programs focus on increasing education, gaining employable skills to earn a livable wages. (Wachen, Jenkins, & Noy, 2011) Breaking Through Initiative goal “is to promote the development of practices and policies that connect low-skilled adults (with reading and math skills testing below the eighth-grade level) with postsecondary occupational or technical education”. (Jobs for the Future, 2010)

He laments the loss of thousands of jobs and foretells of an economic collapse as jobs grow stagnant. Berman predicted, correctly, that low skilled jobs would never return in demand, and that the economic security of all low skilled workers was at risk. And that high skilled jobs would become the new standard. We are rapidly approaching a time in which an average worker is an unemployed worker. A vast array of skillsets and creativity will become the new base requirements for even the most minimalistic of

In 1947 Dr. Martin Luther King wrote: "The function of education, therefore, is to teach one to think intensively and to think critically." Although these words were written seventy years ago they are still relevant today. Students attend college in order to become better prepared for their aspiring careers and to thrive in the real world. While many agree that the purpose of education is to learn valuable knowledge applicable to their future careers. Recent research suggests otherwise, in multiple Surveys Employers have stated that college graduates are not ready for the workplace and lack skills required to succeed including the ability to think critically.