What Is Your #WorkforceWednesday Story?

"If you are going to be an advocate for Technology, you first need to be an advocate for People."

For those that know me, know that I am a BIG technology geek. I love talking about and showing off new pieces of technology regardless if they are in my industry or not. I am a firm believer that the purpose of technology should always be at its core exist to make people's lives easier. That could be to take the person out of unproductive / non-value add tasks or the tasks we talk about in the robotics industry that fall under one of the three D's: Dull, Dirty, or Dangerous. It could also be technology that simply makes the person's life better by allowing them to advance themselves and make their personal lives better.

Unfortunately, we have a lot of people that focus on how technology hurts people's lives by taking jobs and their livelihoods away from them. This is why I also try to stress how we can, when done right, address that concern through workforce development efforts.

Let's Hear Some More Stories About Workforce

"Automation and Workforce Development are two sides of the same coin."

LinkedIn is by definition a business and employment-orientated social networking site, so where else are you going to have a great place to talk about workforce efforts. I know a lot of my content is about automation, robotics, and other cool technology, but I want to start stressing the workforce side of the automation equation more. Hopefully, that will start (in a small way) put a dent in the "Technology Kills Jobs" crowd's sails. I know here on LinkedIn, I have talked about training programs like the ones at RAMTEC in Ohio and the eKentucky Advanced Manufacturing Institute to future one's such as the Advanced Automation & Robotics Center here in my hometown of Memphis, Tennessee. However, I know there are more out there and I want to help put a spotlight on them as well.

So I want to see and hear more stories around Workforce efforts that are out there, but I need your help. To help find these stories and help amplify them, please use hashtags like #workforcedevelopment, #upskill, #reskill, or better yet let's have a whole workforce amplification day using #WorkforceWednesday every Wednesday. This will help all of us to find them through the river of posts not only here on LinkedIn, but other social media sites like Twitter and Facebook. Then let's all work together to help get those stories in front as many people by doing the Big Three Things in social media: Like, Comment, and Share.

So what are some examples of great stories to tag on #WorkforceWednesday?

• Workforce Development Programs and the Impact They Are Having
• Student Success Stories, especially non-traditional students
• Your Own Personal Journey of Success through non-traditional pathways
• Best Practices in Training and Workforce Development
• How Technology created new jobs that now need to be filled
• Highlighting someone that is looking for a new adventure

There are probably a lot more out there, but I know many of us have a story that falls into one of those categories. SO LET'S HEAR THEM!

My initials are AMP (Aaron M. Prather) and I am ready to AMP these stories up and I know there are others that are ready to as well. So tell us all your #WorkforceWednesday story today and every Wednesday starting today. During the week, continue to but use other hashtags that allow us all to find them. Let's make sure we are not only telling the stories about great technology, but great people that are using and growing because of that technology.