This is an atypical post today. I couldn’t help myself . I needed to speak my truth over an article that hit me like a tsunami!
The article was published in the Financial Times and titled, Skills Gap Hobbles U.S. Employers.
The article began with a story about a steel-wire product company unable to find qualified workers. This gap was hampering his company’s growth and the article stated, “He is trying to train some of his unskilled staff but says none has the ability or drive to complete the training.”
The article went on to share stories about other companies also “crying wolf” about the same issue.
Luckily, before I really blew my stack, there was a quote from Peter Capelli, professor of management at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton Business School who stated in the article, “The skills gap is largely a figment of companies’ imagination,” says Mr Cappelli. “They cannot find workers to do the very specific tasks they want done. That is different from not being able to find capable workers.”
After reading more than enough of the “crying wolf” company comments, I speedily replied to the Financial Times article. (Forgive my poor spelling and grammar caused by the steam shooting out of my head as I typed.):
I’m in quite a quandry . . . one of these companies states in their company brochure that economic events have masked the skilled labor shortage (stats from U.S. Labor of Statistics), and that they are committed to recruiting and training the next generation of multi-skilled workers.
If they are training these workers to supply an outsourced service, then why are they having difficulty finding qualified workers? Why aren’t they taking educated, more than willing to learn new skills unemployed individuals and retraining them to learn this highly critical skill? Are they sticking too selfishly close to the qualifications for these jobs?
Seems to me to be a self-fulfilling prophecy about the shortage of skilled labor. This is one statistic that keeps showing up in these articles riding the wave of the predictions from the U.S. Labor Statistics for 2015. It’s 2011-2012 and we can turn this around if only we can stop promoting this negative press.
From my perspective, it is about companies who use this excuse to their advantage to keep costs down while still appearing to be a goodwill ambassador for lowering the unemployment rate. I guess I need someone to prove me wrong – any takers?
I’m sorry to see this as many, many people on the unemployment line are very capable of being retrained. The majority of the American people aren’t all unqualified for anything if trained willingly and properly for the task. I do understand that there may be some limitations, but this surely can’t be the majority of the unemployed. How willing are any of these companies with the same hiring cry, to take a risk to attempt to retrain?
I’m sorry, Americans deserve better than this! Articles like this, weakening America, serve no purpose in helping our economic future. I pray companies quit passing the buck to educational institutions and take responsibility to create our world as a highly-educated, productive, willing, powerful and peaceful place for all to prosper.
Thank you for allowing me to share. I’m going to meditate now to see where this energy came from. It just might be energy stored from a corporate layoff I experienced in 2003. I’m thankful for finally releasing this emotion.
I am hopeful that tomorrow will be a much more typical day in blogging about my journey to self-transformation.
From me to you, I send my blessings and wishes for a prosperous, peaceful and abundant life!
Moment to Moment 