Sunday, January 08, 2006
Worker training is also becoming an increasingly important challenge for economic developers. Three trends are converging.
The first comes with the accelerating retirement of the Baby Boom generation. As baby boomers retire, skills are lost.
Second, the general skill levels of most jobs are going up. Increasingly, even entry-level workers need some basic understanding of information technology, for example.
Finally, our education system is underperforming. Too few of our young people are moving on to postsecondary education. Despite all the the effort spent on education reform, performance improvement is minimal.
As a consequence, more and more industries are facing a shortage of skilled workers. Here's an article from Montana that explores how the state plans to respond to the pending shortage of construction workers. Read more.
posted by Ed Morrison |
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Some Background on EDPro Weblog
The purpose of this weblog is to help economic development professionals -- EDPros -- keep up with the changes sweeping our profession. Strap on your goggles. It's a whole new game. There are no experts any more. The only place to learn about economic development is from other EDPros who are doing it.
One other point: the prevaling approach (paradigm, if you like) in economic development is shifting from competition to collaboration. There are a lot of reaasons underlying this shift, but here's the important insight: You, your community, and your region will do better by collaborating and sharing information.
If you are using a news reader, here is the link to syndicate this site:
Here's the link if you are a bloglines subscriber:
Speaking and workshops on Open Source Economic Development
As the idea of Open Source Economic Development starts spreading, more people are asking about it. Visit the I-Open web site to learn more. My colleagues and I are happy to explain the basic concepts in a talk or a workshop. E-mail Susan Alshuler if you'd like to learn more about workshops and speaking.
Background on Ed Morrison
Download some background information on me here.
Worker shortages on the horizon
