It’s a strange quandary: workers want jobs, companies want workers, but they can’t find each other. It seems what we have here is a failure to communicate, as the man said in the film classic “Cool Hand Luke.”
Naturally, the solution is more and better communication – and perhaps more schools like Forsyth Technical Community College. We believe leaders like Gary Green, the president of Forsyth Tech, can help solve many of the problems pointed out in a new state report.
According to the report, companies in North Carolina can’t find people with the training, experience and personal skills that employers say they want and need, the Greensboro News & Record reported recently.
According to the state report, 45 percent of all companies surveyed said they had difficult-to-fill positions. The number was equal for manufacturing and non-manufacturing companies. Hundreds of employers across the state said they want workers with training, experience, specific skills, even such “soft skills” as analytical thinking and plain, old enthusiasm. Some of the employers don’t know how to work with community colleges to find workers or train their own, and workers don’t know how to find community college programs for specific companies.
“The information we heard about hiring across urban and rural areas was not expected — the perception is it’s more difficult to hire in rural areas,” Jackie Keener, acting director of the Department of Commerce’s the Labor and Economic Analysis Division, told the News & Record.
But the problem was as likely to be felt in large towns as in small, and as likely to affect health care as manufacturing. And it’s just getting worse.
The officials studied the problem and came up with some suggestions. They include working with industry and education to develop career paths that can be established at high schools, community colleges and universities. They also suggest creating internships, apprenticeships and more business involvement in state workforce development programs.
We agree. That sounds exactly like what Forsyth Tech and similar community colleges are doing.
Green and Forsyth Tech have been proficient at working with industries in the state and creating programs that train their students for productive work in manufacturing and biotech industries, among others. Considering the need for jobs, there might be enough demand for more schools like this.
This is also a realm – job training - in which organizations like Goodwill Industries and United Way have tried to get involved.
So the will is there. What’s called for is a bit more talking and better coordination.
So, in the words of the late Joan Rivers, can we talk?
