Too often, there is a back and forth between the business community and the educational system over who bears the responsibility of the training of the next generation of the nation’s workforce.
Employers often bemoan what they see as the poor state of the graduates they recruit, while the educational system argues it is not qualified to identify and train the skills most desired by top corporations and industries.
But while educational systems are frequently cash-strapped, big business often has greater resources at its disposal and, perhaps, a greater—at least more immediate—incentive to train the next generation of the workforce.
Case-in-point: the Rework America Task Force.
Big Business Comes Together
A recently announced partnership of 11 founding members consisting of Aon, Archer Daniels Midland Company (ADM), Boeing, Duke Energy, Kaiser Permanente, McKinsey & Company, Microsoft, Stanley Black & Decker, Walmart, Zurich Insurance, 21st Century Fox, and Workday seeks to deepen its talent pools of qualified candidates and expand opportunities for people of diverse backgrounds, as well as place a focus on individuals’ skills.
“Member companies also will seek to explore how companies can better utilize a skills-based approach when it comes to learning and development,” according to a Business Wire press release. “This dual-focus on hiring and continuous learning is to ensure businesses have the talent needed to compete and win, and employees have the tools and support needed to continuously improve and upskill themselves throughout their careers.”
Working Together to Meet Employer Needs
There is often tension between business and government—in the form of the public education system—surrounding which entity should bear the primary responsibility for educating future generations of work on the skills needed to succeed.
Both governments and businesses have built-in incentives to ensure tomorrow’s workforce will be productive and successful. Recent collaborations like the Rework America Task Force show how committed some of these organizations really are to making their goals a reality.