Disconnected America

Reflections on a sloppy educational system

“U.S. job openings hit record high as employers struggle to find workers”

Reuters September 8, 2021

“There is not an available, skilled construction worker out there. They're all working. They're working overtime.” said Andy Van Kleunen, CEO of the National Skills Coalition, about the shortage of skilled workers needed to fulfill President Biden's infrastructure plan. 

In a September 12th interview on NPR, Van Kleunen lamented that there had been a huge shortage of workers before the onset of Covid. Now with the heightened demand for construction, projects will be delayed simply for the lack of skilled workers. This shortfall of employees may be escalated by an epic infrastructure plan. A plan that will be stalled out needlessly.  

How lame. How ridiculous. There is a vast swath of American workers unemployed due to outsourcing and mostly, automation. Factory closings and jobs replaced by technology have been the seeds of discontent all across our nation. Isn’t this the root of much of the right-wing anger at the “elites”…. at the “system”?  

We have failed to connect people with employment. We have let our system of education glide aimlessly with very little attention to the ways we could train people to perform highly valued work. There is a guy in Ohio whose factory job vanished. He could be helping to expand our Internet. There is a kid in Indiana who has no clue what his future of work will be. He may attend college and have a head full of interesting stuff but he won’t know how to code or build a robot.  

The National Skills Coalition is attempting to connect the dots. Read how they are working to knit together education and employment. This is laudable beyond words. What makes me crazy is that this initiative is not completely woven into our education system. We have school and we have jobs. But students float until they find some luck and/or a mentor. I was lucky. Many are not.  

In a classic “American Exceptionalism” manner we regard the success of other nations with dismissal. But Germany has this problem figured out. It could provide us with a model – but “we know better”. Perhaps if we humbled ourselves in the face of this enormous problem, we might learn from others. Read about the “dual studies” program in Germany. Is it perfect? Of course, not. But it works well and could be adapted to our country if we had the will to do it.  

Of course, there are internships and work study programs as well as apprenticeships here. A school like Northeastern University has always been a fine example how to actually prepare students for meaningful employment. But it really should be the standard of our educational process. And I would make the case that preparing a young person for employment should begin in high school – not just college.  

When my Dad was a kid, there were three high schools to choose from. One was “business” focused, another was “college preparatory” and the third was “trade school”. Dad went to “Trade”. He learned a skill that served him well after returning from WWII. As I was growing up, a “trade school” didn’t exist. High schools worshiped college. I had to go to college or be a flunky.  College did nothing for me. But that’s a story for another day.

I recently read a popular novel where the central character has graduated from college with a degree in “Norse Mythology”. The school was Harvard. The book was whimsical but the truth is that going to college to “broaden one’s horizons” is a luxurious and antiquated notion. The fellow in the book might have been happier and more “successful” if he had apprenticed as plumber or carpenter. Try to find one of those right now when you have a project around your home. A disconnected society, indeed. 

I end with an applicable irony. One of the first lessons we learn in business is that when the other company has a successful idea, you adopt it. You take that idea and make it yours. When I was running “big box” stores that was a common practice and just common sense. We are proud of our “capitalistic, market driven” country. But we fail to apply the basic principles of competition to our educational system. Other nations are beating us at what we could be the very best at. We certainly have the money to educate and prepare every young person in the United States. And we have the money to retrain those who are displaced by a changing workplace. The money is just in the wrong pockets.  

In the meantime, Congress will argue over an infrastructure bill that could transform us. But if passed, it will be handicapped...knee capped actually, because the money won’t have anyone to hire. Dumb and dumber, I think. We can do much better.