Training workers for tomorrow: business, labor, and government must work together to plug the skills gap and keep America competitive - includes list of workplace training publications, seminars and organization - Cover Story

Nation's Business, March, 1993 by Joan C. Szabo

Business, labor, and government must work together to plug the skills gap and keep America competitive

Leonard Brzozowski, president of Robotron Corp., in South field, Mich., discovered in 1988 that 70 percent of the company's heat-treating products had to be reworked after customers put them in use. Among other problems, he found that some workers in a key operation were having difficulty reading blueprints and that overall workplace deficiencies were costing the company $1 million a year.

The 120-employee firm, with total annual sales of $18.5 million, produces heat-treatment machinery used mainly to make automotive-engine parts more resistant to wear. The machines are often custom-made, and the inability of some workers to grasp directions on assembling electronic components was undermining product quality.

The $1 million cost of poor quality was attributed to such things as work having to be redone, parts having to be returned to outside suppliers, and finance charges assessed on some of the projects that were delayed because of reworking.

Brzozowski knew that for his company to survive in a highly competitive industry, he had to move quickly to upgrade his workers' skills. To deal with problems like the one in the electronics area, the company established a broad quality-management program that included targeted programs to improve reading and math skills.

Costs of the training for 1992 and 1993 are expected to total about $500,000, but Brzozowski believes such initiatives are vital in an increasingly high-tech era. "The skills of my workers have to be continually upgraded to keep pace with the technological changes that are occurring in today's workplace," he says. Brzozowski also notes that Robotron's investment is paying off: "We've reduced by about 70 percent the number of defects per unit reaching our final test department." In addition, the company has implemented 75 recommendations from employees aimed at saving money or changing an assembly process to further improve quality.

The paradox that Robotron faced--a decline in basic skills as jobs become more high-tech--confronts companies of all types and sizes throughout the country. Employers increasingly find they need workers with analytical skills, independent judgment, and the ability to work closely with others in complex operations.

An example can be seen in manufacturing, where the practice of having workers perform simple, repetitive, assembly-line tasks is giving way to the concept of teams with interchangeable skills and broad operational responsibilities. These teams need members proficient not only in math and reading abilities but also in the application of computers to manufacturing and service operations. In the construction industry, for instance, workers now use new-generation, power-driven machines, lasers, and robots, which require levels of training far ahead of those needed less than a generation ago.

What is happening in construction reflects the widening gap between job requirements generally and the skill levels of many job seekers. This chasm is impeding growth for companies and the economy as a whole, says Jeffrey Joseph, executive vice president of the Center for Workforce Preparation and Quality Education, an affiliate of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

Projections of job needs through this decade alone spotlight the trend. The American Society for Training and Development, an Alexandria, Va., association of employer-based training professionals, forecasts that by 2000:

* More than 65 percent of all jobs will require some education beyond high school;

* Twenty-three million people will be employed in professional and technical jobs--the largest single occupational category-that require ongoing training.

In addition, the association says, almost 50 million workers need additional training just to perform their current jobs effectively.

In a related trend, the distinction between management and labor is narrowing, intensifying the need for greater knowledge and skill across a broader cross section of the work force.

As knowledge of the gap between skills and jobs becomes more widely understood, an emerging consensus holds that business, labor, and government must work together to eliminate it.

Plugging the skills gap has been a prominent theme of the Clinton administration, which sees achievement of this goal as essential to keep U.S. companies competitive with leading firms overseas and necessary to keep and create good jobs in this country.

President Clinton sees a highly skilled work force as a major incentive to encourage domestic and foreign firms to open facilities in this country. The administration believes that a top-notch work force, with its potential for increased productivity, will offset any perceived advantage for U.S. companies to go abroad in search of cheaper labor. But raising the knowledge and skill levels of the U.S. work force will take a concerted effort by all concerned, Clinton says.

Robert Reich, the new secretary of labor, who is expected to spearhead the administration's efforts to revitalize the American work force, emphasized just how important the work-force issue is to the administration during his confirmation hearings before the Senate Labor and Human Resources Committee: "The American work force is coming to be the American economy. That is the way you begin to define the American economy--in terms of skills and capacities of the people who are here."