Nov 21, 2014, 2:03 PM ETPanel, Fireside Chat

Training the 21st Century Workforce: Strong Skills for Great Jobs

Critical Retention Risk: Boeing reports that 50% of its workforce is within the retirement window over the next five years, necessitating aggressive global hiring.
Global Competitiveness Warning: A 2013 OECD report projects that unless the U.S. significantly alters its direction, workforce skills in other industrialized nations will overtake U.S. skills just as all OECD nations face competition from emerging economies.
Talent Pipeline Gaps: Despite the crisis, 50% of Boeing's recent hires in California originated from within the state, though specific shortages exist in engineering fields.
STEM Specificity: There is a distinct shortage in engineering, computer science, and math; biology and chemistry graduates do not satisfy the technical demands of major tech employers like Google or Microsoft.

Occupational Spectrum: The 21st-century workforce requires a two-tiered approach: highly skilled researchers (PhD/Master's) for innovation and a "lower two-thirds" workforce (high school/associate degrees) that must also possess elevated science and technology skills beyond rote instruction.
Degree Projections: Bureau of Labor Statistics projections indicate a demand for over one million workers requiring bachelor's degrees, with a number twice that size requiring high school or associate degrees.
Core Competency Shift: Economic success is increasingly tied to being highly educated, highly skilled, highly mobile, and possessing a platform for continuous lifelong learning.
Career Entry Disparity: Engineers and coders can expect starting salaries near $150,000 with comprehensive benefits, whereas liberal arts graduates may start at $50,000–$80,000.

Harvey Mudd Model: The college achieves high diversity and employment outcomes by requiring 70% of credits in math, science, and engineering (with CS being the largest major at 40%), while maintaining a 30% liberal arts requirement.
Recruitment Success: Harvey Mudd increased female enrollment in computer science from 15% to 40% by reframing the subject as "creative problem solving" rather than programming, countering stereotypes of the "dorky" computer scientist.
K-12 Integration Challenges: California currently ranks in the bottom 20% globally for the share of the population studying mathematics and science, necessitating immediate intervention at the elementary level.
Instructional Quality Control: A new nonprofit, EdReports, aims to provide a "consumer report" for instructional materials to ensure K-12 textbooks genuinely align with Common Core standards, addressing the issue of publishers merely labeling materials as "aligned."
Teacher Shortages: Implementing universal computer science in K-12 is hindered by a teacher pay gap; computer science teachers could earn double their K-12 salary in the private sector, discouraging them from public education roles.

Financial Sustainability: The California State University (CSU) system faces a disconnect where state funding is insufficient to support high-cost engineering programs, leading to near-closure of engineering colleges during the Great Recession.
Private Endowments: Bill and Linda Lyles provided a 25-year commitment to sustain the engineering college at Fresno State, highlighting the necessity of deep business partnerships to replace insufficient state models.
Boeing's Ecosystem Investment: Boeing partners with 16 California universities, contributes $1.2 million annually to the state's education system, and spends $6 million annually on employee advanced degree programs.
Research Facilities: Governor Davis cites state-led research initiatives (e.g., QB3, Nanosystems at UCLA) as successful models for leveraging public funds to attract global private capital and talent.
Federal Aid Dependency: The CSU system relies on Pell Grants for over 70% of its students, many of whom are first-generation college attendees.

Internship Incentives: Experts recommend companies offer early internships (post-first year) to students, as these roles are higher-paying than traditional summer jobs and significantly increase retention rates in STEM majors.
Student Loan Restructuring: Proposals suggest allocating student loans based on major and job market demand, potentially covering 100% of education for high-demand STEM fields while reducing aid for fields with high default rates and lower wages.
Visa Reform: There is an urgent call to expedite H-1B visa processing and residency pathways to retain foreign talent, preventing companies from relocating operations to Canada or other nations due to bureaucratic delays.
Community College Alignment: Community colleges are identified as the primary vehicle for workforce training, requiring rapid curriculum prototyping and direct industry input to align with the "certificate" needs of employers rather than just degree programs.
Tax Incentives for Repatriation: Suggestions include creating tax compacts to encourage tech companies to repatriate profits and manufacturing design work to California in exchange for funding educational initiatives.

Addressing the "Girl" Factor: The decline in women in computer science is correlated with the rise of gaming-oriented personal computers in the home; the solution involves rebranding the field as creative and socially relevant.
Role Model Outreach: Boeing utilizes female employees to visit elementary schools, using activities like "paper airplane building" to demonstrate engineering relevance to young girls.
Work Structure Reform: To retain women and millennials, companies must restructure work environments to better accommodate life objectives, moving away from rigid traditional corporate structures.
Alternative Pathways: Proposals include two-year "top-up" bachelor's degrees in computer science for those holding existing degrees in other fields, leveraging industry funding to support career-changers.

California's Innovation Dominance: The state receives more venture capital than the remaining 49 states combined and holds more research universities (13) than Massachusetts (7).
Patent Output: The University of California system alone generates four times as many patents annually as the next highest state's entire university system.
Talent Density: California hosts 30% more Nobel laureates than any other state, providing a unique "DNA" for collaboration and innovation that attracts global investment.
Economic Multiplier: Closing the skills gap for the bottom 60% of the workforce (those needing only certificates) could increase their incomes by 20-30%, directly boosting GDP and tax revenue.