Real People, Real Skills Training
When it comes to addressing the skill and competency needs of the American workforce, there is a plethora of ideas, studies, and frameworks – too many, in fact, to distinguish which one will provide the best results. Fortunately, in all those studies, there happens to be a fair amount of consensus on describing those skills and competencies which employers would seek to have in their new and current employees.
The terminology varies a bit based on whether those competencies are being described by academic, government or business entities, but on the actual content all parties seem to be in broad agreement. Often, the skills and competencies are presented in a hierarchy or “pyramid” kind of construct with common “foundational” skills at the bottom, working their way up to very specific occupational and industry skills at the very top.
51% of manufacturers report that their skilled production and personal and supporting team members lack the skills they need to maintain high production and quality levels, which negatively impacts development and innovation (Deloitte Development LLC and The Manufacturing Institute, 2011).
It’s certainly not a new concept that there is a skills gap that is influencing day-to-day performance on many levels, but the question is what are we doing to solve it?
