Close the skills gap

Interesting op. ed. in the August 10th Wall Street Journal, by Senators Landrieu and Murray, titled "How to close the skills gap".

They quote a study by the National Commission on Adult Literacy that 90 million American adults "have   literacy skills so low that success in post-secondary education and training is becoming more and more challenging";  further, a Wells Fargo/Gallup survey that 67% of small businesses report that finding skilled workers is difficult, and that they hire fewer new workers as a result.

I know the feeling.  I could use a janitorial sales person, but the skill set of building a coherent (and grammatical) proposal, and doing the arithmetic needed, is lately a hard one to find.  Even a route janitor, who needs the ability to read task descriptions, and also the message line on building alarms, is quite often hard to locate.  (And we could consider the benefits of being able to read safety instructions and MSDS information).  So far, I don't have the option of whatever might be the equivalent to putting pictures of hamburgers and sodas on the cash register keys, as another industry does...

Unfortunately, the solutions offered by the editorial's authors lean to funding "...labor market policies, including work force training and job search programs...", and "...programs that provide labor-market information to students and job seekers about in-demand jobs, and the skills and education necessary to get them...".

Doesn't sound like an approach that would impact literacy and numeracy in the grade schools.

Comments

[Marla Hughes]

You make some great points, especially regarding MSDS information. Hiring someone not qualified in that area could result in large fines.
We can't address literacy on a national level unless we can make the students understand it's almost impossible to find work with at least a nominal ability to read English.
A forward thinking solution would be to have those successful in the janitorial/cleaning industry speak out in local commission meetings, participate in career days, do as you do and write about it themselves and/or to interview on local talk shows/news programs with the mission in mind to increase the literacy of future owners/ employees.
A current solution might be to check with local community colleges about their literacy programs and ask to either speak at a class or ask them to incorporate your concerns into both curriculum offerings and advertising for their services.
I certainly have been made more aware of the problem and I'm in the industry. Thanks for all you do.