Quartz: At last, unemployment is easing. But the latest low rate—hovering below 6%–obscures a deeper, longer-term problem: “skills mismatches” in the labor force, which will only worsen in years to come. According to the most recent figures, 9.3 million Americans are unemployed, but 4.8 million jobs stand empty because employers can’t find people to fill them. With new technology transforming work across a range of sectors, more and more businesses are struggling to find workers with the skills to man new machines and manage new processes.
9 comments:
The apprenticeship model of training has always been interesting to me, especially since it has been around for so long in so many different cultures, but is not very prevalent in America today. While it seems a little counterproductive (in my simple economic mind) to pay someone for learning and then hiring them for the same position. At the same time, this specialized work force would evidently last longer in their positions and ultimately become the person to train the new apprentices with the same, but improved from experience, skill set.
No doubt that Germany is better at training its workforce, we dont even try and train ours. There is the stigma here that "Training" means that you stand at a station on an assembly line and put three screws into a part all day long, what it should mean is giving people the knowledge and the tools to problem solve in their field. Our education system is not qualified to make anyone an expert in anything, it can only let us know the problems that need solving are there, it is not until lugging our way, debt riddled, though college, then more college, that we can become actually proficient.
Not that we are not getting a great education there are some days were I think it may be more beneficial to get more real world experience in my day to day life. I like the the idea of dual training where you spend time in class but also in a company. I think here we have a loose version of this where we have classes and then have crew. This however is not quite the same because the methods of CMU are not exactly what the real world is like and we can miss out on some valuable experiences not getting adjusted into the real world. We will also get trained in a very specific way by one or two instructors and they may have a particular method of doing things. The best example I can think of is working for electrics, Todd likes things to be one in a very specific way and that might be a habit we have to break once we work for a larger company.
It seems like apprentinceships work really well in Germany, but I agree with the article that with the system we have set up here it would be really hard to implement them in America. To start with, they clearly have a totally different system of education (choosing your career path at 10??? I was completely unprepared at 17!) and a lot more government control over businesses in general. With that being said, I think apprenticeships could really help a lot of our industry. There seems to be this attitude in America that you either go to college and get a degree and work a white-collar desk job for the rest of your life, or you're stuck in minimum-wage low-skill jobs forever. This is clearly not true- the world needs people who can make things and people who can fix things, and there are ways to be a valuable and productive member of society without a college degree (I'm reminded of an article I read a while ago about a town in Maine where they're desperately advertising to to find anyone who's willing to learn to be a plumber, because the one guy who knows anything about plumbing is retiring all of the young people are going to college and no one has the skills to actually fix anything). If we had apprenticeships, maybe it would bring some recognition that these jobs actually are demanding and valuable, and occupations that need serious skills and training. Maybe if we had apprenticeships, our culture would actually respect and value these people a little bit more and it would seriously benefit our economy and society.
This article reinforces most things I have thought about for our work force. Personally think the sentence in the article, “And in Europe, what’s often called “dual training” is a highly respected career path. (in Germany)” explains a lot about how this type of program will be very difficult for this to take on in America. Plumbers, Carpenters, Line Workers, Cable repair, Electricians, and the list goes on and on. All of these jobs do not require a college degree but do require training.
Even when I was teaching the IB, AP, college prep were for the “smart” kids, the non delinquents, the “good” kids. It was strange for a “good” kid to be in the tech classes and a “delinquents” to be in the college prep. In my view this country only values certain types of education.
Finally just want to say, this is exactly the subject matter Mike Rowe is promoting and has been promoting through Dirty Jobs and all of his campaigns for Work. Look some of them up, they are great.
Having worked in Germany, albeit only for 3 months, I can attest to the merits of the apprenticeship program. The guys who I was working with would be so much more prepared going into the entertainment industry than someone who just jumped in and started at the bottom. By doing practical work in the shop and out on gigs while at the same time learning all of the theory in a classroom, they got so much more out of the training than if they just worked in the shop. They loved what they were doing and the path they were taking was actually a difficult and somewhat prestigious one to get into. One of them started out as an apprentice to an electrician but didn't like that job so he switched to the event production path. This is a clear example that the argument that there is no mobility in a system like that is untrue. As the article says, there is even the possibility of going back to school to move up even higher. One of the best parts of the apprenticeship program, and also what makes it such a challenge to implement in the US, is that they were being paid for all the work they did. The state and companies covered all the costs of schooling and paid them even while they were being trained.
In the US there is such a stigma against the whole idea of apprenticeships and vocational programs in general. You are seen as inferior or dumb if you don't go to college and instead train for a vocational job. This is absolutely the wrong attitude. Demeaning people for realizing their strengths and doing something they actually enjoy or are interested in is absurd. All of those "blue-collar" vocational jobs are vital to the economy and the country as a whole. We should treat those who choose to do those jobs with more respect. Vocational programs shouldn't just be for the screw-ups, delinquents, or drop-outs. Those jobs should be respected and those who do them should be celebrated.
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Another thing I love about the educational system in Germany, and most of Europe, is the "tracking." I would have loved being able to choose a vocational track over an academic high school early on. I felt like I was wasting my time for most of high school. Some of the classes that I should/would have enjoyed, like auto shop and electronics classes, were marred by the other students in them. They were seen as classes that delinquents and remedial track students could be dumped into because they clearly weren't meant to be taken by the "smarter" kids. This attitude really saddens and also angers me. Working with your hands and getting dirty shouldn't be reserved for those who are judged to not have the mental capacity to do more. I couldn’t tell you how many times I had teachers who told me I was wasting my talents or brains because I wasn’t applying myself in my academics because I was more interested in doing stage crew or working on non-academic projects. Those interests and skills should be nurtured, not destroyed. When I look back at high school, I consider what I learned doing stage crew as the most important things I got out of my entire schooling. I have pulled more from the problem solving and practical skills I learned than what I ever learned in a classroom. The pressures to go to college, get a desk job, and be miserable your entire life are incredible and ridiculous. I agree with Mike Rowe who said not to follow your passion but instead realize what your strengths are and play to them. Just because you are smart enough to go into business doesn’t mean that you should or will be good at it, maybe you’re also incredibly skilled at woodworking or dedicated enough to be a garbage man or clean septic tanks and you shouldn’t be judged for making that choice.
All that being said, I understand the challenges with implementing a system like the one in Germany. Are those challenges insurmountable? Of course not. It will take a lot of work, legislation, and money to make it happen but it absolutely should. The only lose in this situation is the short term profitability of companies which sadly means that they will likely be the ones who fight this change the hardest even though they have the most to gain. As much as I want the system to change, I don’t have high hopes that it will.
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I genuinely agree, however it’s apparent to me that we’re completely choosing to ignore the number of companies that employ interns in the U.S., and at the very least attempt to encourage something that resembles even a mediocre apprenticeship program, especially in the entertainment industry. While I both understand and agree that an internship is entirely different than the structure that the European-apprenticeship model promotes and executes efficiently. It is still a strong and reliable training and recruiting tool for a number of companies. But it’s totally different, because then there’s a different stigma to be overcome, the dreaded “intern” label. When you’re an intern it’s hard to escape that label, you’re seen more as menial labor, and often get stuck with shit jobs that don’t teach you as much as you would like to be learning. That’s not always the case, and I’ve certainly been in situations where I’ve been treated exactly the opposite, it depends on the company, it depends on the people you’re working with, it depends on the company, and most importantly it depends on how much you’re willing to put in. I’ve worked for more than one company as intern now that is known for a) hiring their own, and b) teaching up and recruiting thru their learning programs. PRG, Cirque, the Shakespeare Theatre in Washington, DC, TAIT Towers, Hudson Scenic, Disney…these are just a handful of companies that promote this idea and this culture in the entertainment industry. Now their programs aren’t perfect, and most of the internships are limited to the summers in between semesters, so they can’t provide the dual-training model that the European model does, but they do the best with what they can within the structure of American education. I agree that there is a way to better implement an apprenticeship program like that of Germany’s and that the U.S. should strongly consider doing so, but it’s going to be quite some time before that happens…
This is an interesting thought. It is, however, unlikely that Americans will change their minds when it comes to the way we are educated. It is the truth that people in apprenticeships or trade school are seen as "stupid." Ok maybe not stupid. But in high school, there were a group of students that would go to a sort of trade school for half of the day. Although no one said it, we all thought they were losing out on their education. WE automatically assumed that because they were going off to learn a trade, they weren't smart enough for a "real" education. But after reading this article, I realize that couldn't have been more wrong to think that way. High school teaches you valuable lessons in responsibility and relationships and what not but I don't remember or need to remember 90% of the shit I learned. It seems America has the wrong idea. We put so much focus on passing the tests and getting the best Math scores. Not everyone tests well and those people often drop out. And then what? They don't have anywhere to go. You can't have any sort of promising career without a high school diploma. So they're stuck. It is encouraging to think that maybe America will start to take a turn for a different view of education and training, but I don't believe it will happen anytime in the near future. It would involve a complete change of mind set of the country and as stated in the article, a whole lot of money.
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