Our Chapter’s communications director, Nicole Forward, alerts us to a report (link here) issued two months ago by the Washington Roundtable, a non-profit public policy organization composed of senior executives from the Evergreen State’s major employers.  The report, prepared for the Roundtable by the Boston Consulting Group, is entitled “Great Jobs Within Our Reach: Solving the Problem of Washington State’s Growing Skills Gap”.

As the title indicates, these key executives, who oversee thousands of jobs in our state, are very concerned about the skills gap and its impact on their businesses and the state’s economy, current and future.  Here are some of the key findings from the report:

• ·      There are an estimated 25,000 unfilled jobs in Washington state due to the skills gap, a deficit that is forecast to grow to 50,000 jobs by 2017 unless corrective action is taken
• ·      If successful corrective action is taken and the skills gap is eliminated by 2017, then the forecast changes to a net increase of 160,000 new jobs being added to the state’s economy
• ·      The closing of the skills gap, if it occurs, would reduce the unemployment rate by as much as two percentage points, reducing state expenditures for unemployment payments by $350 million; it would also generate an added $270 million in badly needed state tax revenues and $80 million in local tax receipts

We are talking about real money here!

Here is the point I believe needs to be stressed for ASTDps.  We, as WLP professionals, frequently talk about the need “to have a seat at the table” with business executives to prove our mettle and demonstrate the value of learning to organizations.  Well, we are not going to get a much better invitation than this one.  Are we as an association of professionals and as concerned citizens going to step up and show the way to closing the skills gap?  The future is in our hands.

If you would like to get involved and make a difference, contact me at governmentaffairs@astdps.org.

William “Bud” Wurtz, PhD

ASTDps Manager of Public Resource Information