Panel, Fireside Chat
Training the 21st Century Workforce: Strong Skills for Great Jobs
- The US faces a critical convergence of rising workforce skill deficits in other OECD nations and global competition from emerging economies, with the US potentially losing its relative advantage.
- Significant retirement risk looms for major corporations, such as Boeing, where 50% of the workforce will enter retirement windows within five years across a global employee base of 169,000, with potential cuts impacting 200,000 supporting jobs.
- There is a projected demand for approximately one million high-degree occupations in the coming decades, while demand for roles requiring high school or associate degrees is expected to be double that amount.
- A severe shortage of STEM talent exists within engineering pipelines, prompting strategies like Boeing's partnership with 16 California universities and $1.2 million in funding to attract youth, while 75% of Harvey Mudd graduates enter computer science and engineering fields.
- California hosts the largest venture capital market and a high density of research universities and Nobel laureates, yet its investment in education remains uncompetitive compared to other states and nations.
- Global talent acquisition is hindered by H-1B visa wait times of up to seven years, creating urgency for policy reform to capture foreign talent from countries like Korea, Japan, and China before they are recruited elsewhere.
- Educational institutions are implementing structural changes, such as mandatory computer science curricula and co-op work terms, to address the issue where half of students entering science and engineering fields do not graduate.
- Public sector leadership is deemed essential to resolve workforce training gaps before private entities can effectively operate, with federal programs like Pell Grants supporting over 70% of students at institutions like Fresno State.
- Corporate strategies are evolving to include upskilling programs, such as Boeing spending nearly $6 million on employee advanced degrees, and restructuring work environments to attract women and millennials.
- State and institutional plans include establishing new research facilities, utilizing MOOCs for teacher training, and leveraging tax revenues from tech companies to underline educational needs, with a focus on growing specific colleges like California State University, Fresno.
- Future competitiveness relies on fixing the skills gap to grow GDP, with projections that the US will remain globally relevant for at least 100 years due to its innovation capacity if these educational and workforce challenges are met.