WHY DISPARITIES?

JOB TRAINING DISPARITIES FACE US ALL

Work means survival, as it represents a way to earn a living, buy food, pay rent, pay off a mortgage, see a doctor or counselor, and afford transport to access what we call the “services for surviving and thriving.” Suddenly, all of us are living in what we can call a “brave new world.” Life feels very different in this time of change and varying degrees of chaos. While we do believe that with crisis comes opportunity, we must acknowledge the magnitude of change occurring in the workforce and economy. 

In the Center for Job Training@100%, we take on a very complicated system of vocation training and higher education designed to prepare for the jobs of the present and the future. This means numerous challenges for those of us working in the areas of workforce and economic development. As you will discover with one online search, there are millions of articles and books on the topic of job training, higher education and economic development. These were all written before we saw the impact that one global pandemic can have. We now must accept that each region of the nation and planet will have its own new set of rules regarding how we increase training that leads to real jobs. 

Employment is an issue for all governments around the nation and globe. We provide an overview of some job training systems, including in higher ed, with all its solvable problems. Get ready to be overwhelmed and also inspired. We will guide you through all the steps to put ideas into action.

We believe that all people should have access to the resources needed to improve their lives, including the capacity to make money and find meaningful work. While the internet is overloaded with ideas for a nation or state to create jobs, we are often at the mercy of what are called “market forces,” as our economies lurch forward and backward. This is the nature of economics, but that does not mean we can’t build local systems of training to ensure that people can move from one work sector to another, as the jobs of today are replaced by the opportunities of tomorrow.

State and local departments of workforce development and economic development can start with acknowledging the following:

• There may not always be enough jobs for all people seeking one, so all counties need a plan of action to address parents’ and others experiencing work scarcity.
• People without jobs, but who need one, tend not to do very well in society. And problems with substance misuse, emotional health challenges, housing and food insecurity can be the consequences of unemployment (or underemployment) for them and their children.
• Children and youth living in unstable households where money is scarce, stress is high and bills go unpaid, may be at risk for neglect.
• We (as in government on every level) can create an effective system of accessible training that helps people move from one employment sector to another, where jobs exist.

A Vision

Get ready to dig deep into our options. Some projects might seem about right in the world of “order anything online” and “work from home if you can.” Together, collaborating with visionary leadership on the state and local lessons, with partnerships between the public and private sectors, your county can be guided to promising solutions. Will this be easy and quick? Far from it. But we are huge fans of the Tipping Point and a quote by author Malcolm Gladwell. “Look at the world around you. It may seem like an immovable, implacable place. It is not, With the slightest push in just the right place it can be tipped.”

In the Center for Job Training@100% (and corresponding chapter in the book 100% Community) we provide an overview of a very complicated system and its numerous challenges, as well as programs that reduce job training disparities. Get ready to be inspired. We will guide you through all the steps needed to put ideas for addressing job training disparities into action.

With literally millions of people reading articles on ending joblessness and thousands of foundations, governmental and non-governmental organizations focusing for decades on ending job training disparities in the United States, why is access to job training aligned with the job market still so prevalent across fifty states? Why are students graduating from high school without the basics of reading, writing and arithmetic?  Why do parents working full time not have enough money forto send their young adult kids to vocational ed or higher ed? Why can it be near impossible in this current economic environment for high school graduates to find or hold down a job and pay for job training?

We don’t mean to question our good-hearted leaders in political, academic and philanthropic circles, but there appears to be a complete disconnect between those who claim to have answers and the actual implementation of solutions to ensure 100% of our residents are able to access affordable job training. What are our morals, ethics and values that allow job training disparities to exist amid so much abundance?

What kind of society would allow a policy of benign neglect to doom entire zip codes to near inaccessible job training and higher education?  Why should our most vulnerable residents ever endure financial insecurity because the capacity to enroll in job training is out of reach? If we ever needed a public and private sector solution to job training disparities, this is the moment.

Truly, why are we all not asking loudly in public forums, “What is the root cause of job training disparities in the US and around the world?”

What are the root causes of the lack of access to job training in the US?

Why would finding job training ever be a challenge? Some root causes may include:

• We expect young adults (and older ones) to figure out how to attain job skills on their own.
• We expect youth and adults to fix themselves if they face challenges (like mental health problems or substance misuse) to be ready for jobs.
• We think that if people need training in vocational or higher education, they should just pay for it. If one can’t pay, one doesn’t get trained.
• Some think that it’s not the job of government to help people in a changing economy get the skills for a radically changing job market.
• Leaders may fail to see how new technologies, including artificial intelligence, will be taking thousands of jobs in the near future. This will create more turbulent changes for workers and their capacity to thrive.

“Can’t people just get their own darn education and a job?”

You might be asking, “why don’t people just figure out what job they want and if training or a degree is needed for it, just get it?” There are many reasons:

• Life catastrophe: People lose their jobs for a variety of reasons all the time. Maybe an illness or injury knocks out their current job, and they need a new way to earn money. Maybe a mental health crisis means they need to change jobs.
• Relationship catastrophe: Breakups and divorce can throw people into an unstable situation, especially if one partner was dependent on the other’s income.
• Job scarcity: There are not enough good paying jobs for everyone who wants one, at least not within a few hours drive.
• Teens in insecure situations: Teens having to leave unsafe home environments may find themselves without the resources to pay for job training or higher education.

They may not have any understanding of how the system of vocational or higher ed works. Teens may also lack financial literacy and a basic understanding of how money works, how to monitor daily expenses, how to keep debt-free and away from credit card disasters.

As for why job training is needed, the answers are easy to identify. With a college education and/or the right vocational education, people can acquire the skills to find a well-paying job. For those without resources, college may seem like a distant dream. And higher education can appear so intimidating, especially if one’s parents did not go to college.