Workforce Skills Gap
Throughout the United States, private- and public-sector companies are facing the problem of a workforce severely lacking in basic workplace skills: More than 40 percent of the U.S workforce and more than 50 percent of high school graduates do not have the basic skills required to do their job. Even college graduates suffer from the skills gap: 16 percent have inadequate basic skills.
What makes these statistics even more disturbing is that employee skills are becoming increasingly important in the face of globalization, technological change, trade liberalization, deregulation, and other external pressures on organizations today. In a recent Conference Board study of 550 U.S. CEOs, 25 percent identified shortages of key skills as a top challenge. For many organizations, one solution to the problem of a grossly unprepared workforce is to utilize workplace education programs (WEPs)—programs to develop employees that are proving to be instrumental in turning skills into profit.
Conference Board research shows that improving employee skills creates employees who work smarter and better and who cope well with change in the workplace, improves union/management relations, and increases output and profitability. James D’Agostino, chief executive officer of Mount San Raphael Hospital in Colorado, sums it up very simply:
“We have invested in our employees. They have given back. That is profitable.”
Source: The Conference Board www.conference-board.org
