The skills gap remains one of the most challenging and important public policy issues facing our society and economy today – and one the workplace learning and performance profession is uniquely qualified to address.  National ASTD continues to be a leader in bringing attention to this issue as it seeks to engage local chapters in addressing the gap at the grassroots.

The gap profoundly affects our nation in many negative ways, not the least of which is by hindering our ability to innovate.  People who lack essential skills cannot be hired, thus retarding U.S. businesses’ ability to keep up with global competition, much less best it by coming up with new ideas and products

In my continuing efforts as the Chapter’s public policy representative to provide ASTDps members with the information they need to become knowledgeable and articulate advocates for change, here is a very accessible “Sixty Minutes” story on the issue.  The story is useful because it presents two sides to the skills gap story.  The first side is that even in the midst of continuing, substantial and devastating long-term unemployment, there are thousands of unfilled jobs.  The culprit: a gap between the skills what the employer needs versus the skills many potential out-of-work applicants possess.  

The other side is the position of Peter Cappeli, Professor of Management and Director of the Center for Human Resources at the University of Pennsylvania’s Wharton Business School.  He, along with many economists, say that if there is a skills gap then wages should be rising for those who do have the needed skills and who are being hired.  This is not happening. 

In my estimation, the manager of a manufacturing concern featured in the story gives a very good retort to this second view.  He says that training is not a core competence of his small business, and the plant can’t be in the business of remedial education in STEM subjects – a big part of the problem – when it struggles to find ways, even with government funding and other assistance, to train people on the advanced numerically-controlled machines it uses to manufacture its products. 

What are your views?  I believe strongly that government action is essential to closing this gap and putting people back to work.  But are our nation’s current policies the right ones?

Dr. William “Bud” Wurtz

Manager, Public Policy