There is a growing crisis in the job
market. Well-paying full-time jobs with good benefits are going unfilled, with
owners and managers of blue-collar employers (factories, farms, trucking firms,
the building trades) having a difficult time finding skilled workers or even
apprentices interested in that line of work.
It’s an outcome of a couple decades
of misplaced priorities in society and education. Adults, whether in the home
or in the classroom, had purposely driven kids away from the trades, thinking that
such careers are demeaning and low-paying, on the path to extinction, and that
college is the unquestioned key to success.
None of those beliefs are true nor
have they ever been. Now, the adults who once believed them are waking up to
that, especially since recent college grads find themselves crushed by debt and
unable to find a good job due to an overabundance of college degrees, alleged
over-qualification, and a tipsy economy.
Teachers, counselors, policy makers
and parents now find themselves doing a 180, changing the culture that their
predecessors had put into play for far too long. They are seeing the value in
all work and all trades and doing what they can to promote them among today’s
youths. But, after decades of society going in the other direction, it’s a
tough sell and a slow one.
That’s where employers can help out.
Those same bosses who routinely
complain about the deficient workforce need to do something other than whine.
They need to do as they do in their
workplaces – get their hands dirty, get involved. They need to reach out to the
schools and put themselves out there. Guidance from real world people can go a
long ways in getting students interested in skilled work and settled on a
career that will keep them comfortable for life.
It’s an easy and effective pursuit,
one that we’ve practiced for some time at the plant and I strongly encourage
other employers to follow suit. There are three simple ways that you can do
this: speak to classes, host tours, and let kids shadow.
Speaking to a classroom is the
easiest investment of your time. You have a captive audience that you can speak
to for a half-hour to an hour and those students tend to be appreciative and
interested as it’s a break from the routine of that same room. While it’s the
easiest option, it’s the least effective, as other than a slideshow or
brochure, the kids really can’t see what you do.
Experiential learning is the best
way to garner interest and that’s why tours are a far better option. You can
give the same spiel that you would in the classroom, but the kids can also see
people working, machines functioning, and goods being produced. That
awesomeness of what you do every day can be an attention-grabber. It doesn’t
matter if you manufacture kayaks, milk cows, or build warehouses – kids will
eat it up. I’ve had fifth-graders, middle schoolers, high school seniors and
college students go through the factory, all of them with wide eyes and keen
interest.
Shadowing takes tours to another
level and to make it happen it generally requires a full day and your
willingness to share a lot of your time and knowledge -- and that of your
coworkers – with students. We’ve done this at the plant quite a few times with
students from schools like Barker and Niagara Catholic. They were able to
choose from various career paths (machining, maintenance, trucking, business)
and get to feel it out with a watchful eye as a learner, observing what our
folks do while hearing of the finer details of why they do it.
While most employers won’t directly
benefit from such activities -- the chances of you recruiting someone for your
company is slim (and it should not be
your goal) – those kids with whom you speak will. It will give them interest,
purpose, and direction.
If you are serious about the quality
of our workforce, the future of our kids, and the health of our economy, open
your doors and open your hearts and partner with our local schools. We have a
culture in education and employment that we need to transform, and it takes baby
steps like these to affect change.
From 22 May 2017 Greater Niagara Newspapers
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