The Business Roundtable has issued a report—Work in Progress: How CEOs Are Helping Close America’s Skills Gap—that delves into the workforce skills gap “that is holding our economy back and threatening our economic future.” The report emphasizes three particular types of skills deficiencies:
• A lack of workers with fundamental employability skills, like basic math and communication.
• Insufficient workers with specialized trade skills, such as tool & die makers and welders.
• Not enough applicants with the needed STEM skills for today’s jobs.
The issue is worsening because the working age population is growing slowly, labor force participation is down, and baby boomers are leaving the workforce in droves. “No amount of automation or technological innovation can overcome these headwinds if our nation does not take action to ensure that our labor force holds the skills needed for today’s jobs and for the future,” the report states.
The organization—an association of CEOs that leads companies with nearly 15 million employees and more than $6 trillion in annual revenues—says its members are not sitting on their hands. Across multiple industries and markets—manufacturing, finance, technology, and others—member companies are stressing both training and reaching outside the company to encourage and recruit STEM talent.
For example, Inge G. Thulin, 3M chairman of the board, president and CEO, reports that the firm’s Science Training Encouragement Program (STEP) targets St. Paul, MN, public high-school students for mentoring by company scientists and summer employment in company laboratories. In finance, BlackRock Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Laurence D. Fink cites its Student of Technology program, in partnership with Coursera, which offers employees online courses from 140 global university partners.
IBM’s Veterans Employment Initiative provides veterans who want to become data analysts with software training, certification and job placement assistance; Ginni Rometty, IBM chairman, president and CEO, says Big Blue Big Blue has pledged to hire 2,000 veterans of America’s armed forces. Qualcomm CEO Steve Mollenkopf relates how his company addresses the issue through initiatives like its Thinkabit Lab program—a combination engineering lab, makerspace, and classroom that provides students with hands-on exposure to STEM—and support for FIRST (For Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology).
Business Roundtable CEOs are also doing their part to close the skills gap for women and minorities. BlackRock has hosted a Girls Who Code summer immersion program to teach high-school girls how to code. Qualcomm supports Women Enhancing Technology (WeTech). IBM is working with North Carolina A&T on recruiting women and people of color for an enterprise computing/mainframe apprenticeship. Jaime Dimon, Chairman and CEO of JP Morgan Chase & Co., reports that the company partners with ZIP Code Wilmington, which offers 12-week coding boot camps for individuals from diverse backgrounds to prep them for software jobs.
“With the working age population growing at half the rate of previous decades, it is imperative that all demographic sectors obtain the education and skills training needed to fill today’s jobs,” the report says.
Editor’s Note: To learn more about what Dassault Systèmes to create a STEM-equipped workforce, please see our recent posts about promoting robotics to students, supporting K-12 engineering education, our partnership with STEMconnector, and the recent establishment of the Dassault Systèmes U.S. Foundation.
