EDUCATION - Getting Students Ready For Work

Yes, you do not need collage to get a good job.  You need skills.

"Certification test focuses on readying students for work, not college" PBS Newshour 1/22/2014

Excerpt

SUMMARY:  For American industry, finding employees who have all the requisite skills is a big challenge, and hiring people who don't stack up can cost businesses a great deal of money.  Special correspondent John Tulenko from Learning Matters reports on a certification test that aims to boost U.S. students' workforce readiness

GWEN IFILL (Newshour):  Next: the challenge of getting students ready for the working world.

While most high schools focus on preparing students for college, businesses in one community outside Chicago are rallying around a different approach, preparing students for work.

Special correspondent John Tulenko from Learning Matters has our report.

JOHN TULENKO, Learning Matters:  From the outside, Hoffer Plastics in Elgin, Illinois, looks about the same as it did when it was founded back in 1953.  Inside, it's a different story.

Bill Hoffer is the CEO.

BILL HOFFER, Hoffer Plastics Corporation:  We have got job after job that 20 years ago would be a full-time operator.  Now it's a robot.

JOHN TULENKO:  There are fewer workers, but they're required to do more.

BILL HOFFER:  They need to be able to read blueprints.  They need to follow procedures, document what they're doing.  And that's all very important.

JOHN TULENKO:  Right now, finding employees who can do all that is a challenge for Hoffer Plastics and for 40 percent of U.S. companies.  The result?  A revolving door of workers that cost businesses billions.

PAT HAYES, Fabric Images:  Why do we keep spending money to solve the same problem over and over and over again?