There is no shortage of talent.
College is a highly-valued educational path - as it should be. Many people want to be on this path, or even start down this path, but life gets in the way. They run out of money, face family complications, lack reliable transportation, or face shifting schedules on the job which conflict with class schedules. For the non-affluent, there are many life-altering forces which put college completion out of reach for so many. Fortunately, college is not the only way to gain valuable skills. Military service, community college, workforce training, and on-the-job learning are all powerful ways to gain valuable experience.?
Skills gained by such pathways are certainly valuable, but their value is often not recognized in hiring, harming job seekers and employers. In the latest Opportunity Wrap, Opportunity@Work ’s Cheston McGuire shares insights which smart employers are using to broaden their talent pools with the more than 70 million U.S. workers who are skilled through alternative routes, rather than bachelor’s degrees:
There is no shortage of talent, but there seems to be a shortage of imagination and insight into the myriad ways in which working learners can gain and demonstrate valuable skills for middle-wage jobs. When hiring managers set algorithms on auto-pilot to exclude applicants without bachelor’s degrees, they exclude millions of STARs, many of whom are proven to have the skills needed for in-demand jobs.?Shut out for years from better paying jobs, millions of STARs are now voting with their feet in the Great Resignation. They’ll look to work for employers who value their skills, not where they got them.?
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It’s about time.
All the best,
Byron
Founder @ The Superpower Accelerator | Transformational Business Celebrity Influencer
2 年Thanks for sharing!
Executive Director at New York Association of Training & Employment Professionals
2 年100%
Vice President, Government Affairs & Partnerships at Lightcast
2 年There's certainly a labor shortage. But combining the current labor shortage with antiquated hiring processes makes for a tsunami of labor challenges that employers are left scratching their head. I absolutely agree that too many employers are still looking for the "perfect" candidate, often related to educational attainment and screening candidates with the skills to be successful out of the job because they don't fit in the educational requirements box. While trends are finally changing in this area, there's still much work to be done. But education looks different for everyone (not over/under valuing a specific degree). We're up for a very interesting few years.
The problem doesn't solely lie with TA. It starts in middle school and continues on through. We aren't properly preparing people for roles needed now or in the future, and if you think middle school is too young it's only 6 years until HS graduation. There needs to be a partnership between the world of work and education on a global scale. But to fix the immediate challenge all people involved need to work together. This includes ALL of HR, hiring teams and even outside services that provide compensation and requirement benchmarks.
Chief Economist at The Burning Glass Institute
2 年What makes you conclude that there is no shortage of talent? Most talent acquisition leaders I know, are quite imaginative and resourceful, yet are now struggling to fill positions more than in any other time in recent decades.