Congrats

Congrats on this accomplishment. It's great to see this money going toward programs that will have a real impact on the community.

Skills gaps are emerging in the economy, and they have a tremendous impact on several levels - businesses, communities, the nation and of course individuals and families. It's imperative to act now before they get significantly worse.

One way that we all can work to bridge these gaps is to invest in education, specifically career and technical education (CTE). CTE has evolved over the years to cover most career paths out there today, and has proven to deliver many benefits: improved student achievement, more business production, more open jobs being filled, etc. These programs work particularly well when businesses work with educators to devise and implement programs, so that the programs most closely match their skills/needs and can help them today. Corporate America needs to be on board.

The Industry Workforce Needs Council is a new group of businesses working together to advocate for CTE and curb skills gaps nationwide. For more information, or to join the effort, visit www.iwnc.org.

Jason Sprenger, for the IWNC

By Jason on Nov 14, 2012 10:38