Our Workforce Readiness Committee is passionately committed
to the cause of creating a more work ready workforce for Central Texas. That’s
why we have bumped into this topic in so many ways.
At work
Our hiring managers are begging us to bring in talent from
abroad, and we can’t. The large corporations are lobbying Congress to expand
the numbers of foreign visas. The reason is that we can’t find local talent;
our universities are not producing enough graduates with the skillsets we need.
They haven’t for quite some time. The universities don’t have enough high
school kids who desire those fields where we need them most, whether it is high
tech, health care or CPAs. The obstacles start early in middle school.
We have also observed a change in workplace skills when
entry level candidates interview with us or start their first jobs. More and
more, we need to talk about punctuality, attendance, patience. They are whizzes
with technology, but do they teach writing paragraphs in school anymore? LOL –
OMG.
We have seen veterans coming back home and struggling to
translate their invaluable skills and experience to language that recruiters
and hiring managers would appreciate. The least they deserve is a fair chance.
In the community
We have met wonderful community partners who working to plug
the holes in the dike. Communities
in Schools looks for mentors to work with school kids who didn’t get the
greatest start in life, to meet with an adult role model once a week.
We have worked for a long time with Workforce Solutions to develop a
certificate for Central Texas area for certify candidates that they have work
place skills employers can count on. The WorkReadyAustin
certificate program has now been launched with over 400 candidates
available!
E3 Alliance works as a
catalyst to bring Central Texas education to the level to increase the pipeline
of talent for our employers. Our latest project is a Dell grant project to
create an online system to bring employers and students together and create
more opportunities for work-based learning.
Our latest discovery is Skillpoint Alliance which organizes job
training programs and career fairs for critical industries.
You will hear a lot more at our Workforce Readiness Day on
May 23. Workforce Readiness is critical for everyone in HR!
Keep Austin Work
Ready! If not you, then who? If not now, then when?
Written
by Liisa Pursiheimo-Marcks, Co-VP Workforce Readiness, Director Talent
Management at EZCORP
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