Continued Focus on Education

Continued Focus on Education Deemed Crucial

In its recent retreat,the Centralina workforce Development Board  examined the many challenges facing our future workforce. Futurist Ed Barlow shared alarming statistics with the board including the fact that the average kindergartner will experience four different careers and nine jobs,and that 80% of the jobs today’s kindergartners will occupy sometime in the future,don’t yet exist.  In this accelerated pace of learning,technology and information,the Centralina Workforce Development Board is keenly focused on preparing the workforce for the future.

One of the documents that support the continued focus on education was recently released by the  North Carolina Commission on Workforce Development and the North Carolina Department of Commerce. The State of the North Carolina Workforce: An Assessment of the State’s Labor Force Demand and Supply,2007-2017,is a comprehensive analysis of the patterns and trends in state and regional economic and workforce development.

The goal of the report,explained Workforce Commission Chairman Chris Rolfe,is to identify the most critical policy challenges and opportunities for our state to compete successfully and to meet the continued challenges of our economic transformation.

Some of the key findings of the report include:

• The future prosperity of all North Carolinians depends on achieving higher educational levels. Workers with no college training or post-secondary skill certification will find it increasingly difficult to compete for jobs in high-wage occupations.
• As the state’s economy continues the transition to a more diverse,knowledge-based,service-oriented economy,it is losing "middle jobs" - jobs that paid a family-sustaining wage but required minimal formal education or training. The low-sill jobs that are replacing those lost "middle jobs" pay lower wages that cannot support a family.

The report is available online at https://www.nccommerce.com/workforce/SWR. Hard copies can be obtained by contacting Beth Lucas at (919) 715-4298. 

Tags: Workforce and Education