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UNITED NATIONS - / www.MaximsNews.com/ - 10 August 2006 - “The U.S. is losing its edge as a world economic leader because it is falling far behind in preparing young people for the world,” according to Ambassador William H. Luers, president of United Nations Association of the USA (UNA-USA) in a recent interview with Agustina Guerrero of the Tampa Bay Business Journal. According to Luers “this is
where our workforce is coming from.” Ambassador Luers is very much on target. However, most would assume he is referring to an American workforce. The workforce he refers to has transitioned beyond an American workforce into a Global workforce. The boys and girls in middle and high schools benefiting from understanding the world through the UNA-USA’s Global Classrooms program are preparing to be effective and productive members of a workforce that will find opportunities in the U.S. and overseas. In order to prepare for the development of this Global workforce in the west, we must question whether sufficient is being done by respective educators, governments and employers to embrace the inevitable. It is not enough to focus on national and regional issues as if they
are separate entities, like immigration,
workforce development, and changing
demographics.
All of these interact and transform into
what is now an arrived and unstoppable Global
Workforce.
In the Does this mean that another 700,000 were added to existing numbers
requiring either education or job training?
There are increasing numbers of
immigrants, legal and illegal, educated and
uneducated, that are entering the What does this suggest about immigration reform? According to Justin Heet of the Hudson Institute, in a recent issue of
the American Outlook, the Heet concludes that “numerous factors will induce the world’s
wealthy nations increasingly to open themselves
up to labor from other countries and to compete
actively for such workers.”
He added that “less developed nations
will tolerate the resulting emigration as a
release valve for population pressure and will
ambitiously pursue foreign investment to
increase domestic employment.”
In February 2006, Pamela Tate, President of the Council for Adult and Experiential Learning (CAEL), participated in deliberations with the National Commission on the Future of Higher Education. CAEL is a “national non-profit organization serving as an intermediary between and among the workforce, employers, and higher education” (Tate, January, 2006). According to Tate, “this Commission,” known as the Spellings Commission, “was charged to develop a comprehensive national strategy on higher education at a time when strategic decisions to make higher education more accessible and more relevant are of critical importance to the national economy and the American society.” Tate went on to emphasize how American higher education has, in the past, responded to difficult challenges with the establishment of Land Grant Colleges [plus historically black colleges and universities] in the 1800’s and the Community College Systems after World War II.” In more recent years, we have seen the establishment and expansion of predominantly Hispanic institutions in the south-west and Native American institutions in the mid-west. “Now, in the 21st
century”, Tate reminded the Commission,
“higher education must respond to new
challenges [of national import] once again.”
In Tate’s address to
members of the Commission, she pointed out that
60% of newly created jobs in the In a Bureau of Labor Statistics Report entitled Employment Outlook 2000-2010: Occupational Employment Projections to 2010, the researchers pointed out that jobs requiring degrees or other post secondary certification will account for 42 % of new job growth by 2010, compared to 29% in 2000. They also indicated
that 15 million new A vast number of these
retirees will be persons classified as skilled
or with education beyond high school.
Tate reminded the National Commission on
the Future of Higher Education that industries
most affected by skills gaps will be
manufacturing, health care and the service
industry. In 2000, the National
Commission on Mathematics and Science Teaching
for the 21st Century, in a document
entitled Before It’s too Late, reported
that 85% of jobs were classified as
“skilled” or required education beyond high
school. Thomas L. Friedman, author and New York Times Columnist was quoted by Jeffrey Selingo of The Chronicle of Higher Education: Daily News, 07/12/06 saying that “Colleges need to refocus their missions in order to help American students compete in a global economy.” Friedman was
addressing the first joint meeting of the
Association of Higher Education Facilities
Officers, the National Association of College
and University Business Officers, and the
Society for College and University Planning.
He emphasized the need to prepare
students for work and influence at regional,
national, and global levels.
How are American colleges and Universities preparing to meet the needs
of this global workforce?
Community colleges have received
considerable increases in funding over the past
few years, followed by significant efforts to
meet the educational and training needs of Even though the attrition rates are high, community college programs
focusing on adult learners have multiplied
across the country, resulting in the preparation
of more graduates prepared to either enter the
workforce or expand their education and training
beyond the two-year college experience. Despite
high (42%-50%) drop out rates, these
institutions are making a difference.
Their mission remains focused on
preparation of The tricky part is defining “drop-out” versus “stop-out” for
working adults with families; particularly,
families representing emigrants, whether legal
or illegal. Most of these community college campuses have a more international culture than most four-year institutions, representing the changing face of the American workforce; while few four-year comprehensive institutions of higher education have even considered facts associated with changing demographics and the shifts in enrollment in their own undergraduate populations. For the most part, American Higher education beyond the community college system has remained focused on institutional benchmarking, competing for lowest acceptance rates, highest alumni giving, numbers of national merit scholars, and other factors that might earn the institution a place in national ratings. Not enough is being done to recruit more students of other cultures or expose American students to diverse cultures through study abroad programs. Oftentimes, when students are so exposed, the institutions they return to are not prepared to fully embrace this new more cosmopolitan citizen. Now, in the 21st century, American institutions of higher
education must look around both domestically and
at the rest of the world, see what is happening
and venture into dramatic change in order to
meet the needs of a global workforce.
A workforce that will continually look
and sound unlike what we expect to be
representative of an American workforce. The need to explore and implement newly created and more effective strategies to address access to education and training becomes even more urgent and expanded when we look at the make up of the expected “Global Workforce.” In essence, we need to look beyond the borders of the developed countries. We need to examine
education and workforce development policies,
procedures and programs of the lesser-developed
countries as well.
The focus on workforce development must
become more global and more cooperative;
otherwise, a global workforce solution for one
country could become the social, economic and
political downfall of another. While Heet sees an almost balancing act: “The dynamic that drives jobs and firms from developed economies to lesser-developed ones” as “the same dynamic that drives people away from the lesser-developed world - a shortage of people in wealthier nations and a surplus of people in poorer nations;” It is equally important that we begin to examine access and education for those who emigrated from and those who remain in lesser-developed countries prior to absorption into a global workforce. Otherwise, absorption of overpopulation from developing countries is all
that the (About the writer: Dr. Rodney D. Smith is a senior consultant on
International Education with MaximsNews.
He has served internationally in senior
education positions and as president and CEO of
American and overseas higher education
institutions. He serves on several national
boards and state agencies. Dr. Smith is working
on a related
book. He can be contacted by
sending an email to Rodney.Smith@maximNews.com
or roddavsmith@hotmail.com.
Reference: Before
It’s Too Late.
National Commission on Mathematics and
Science teaching for the 21st Century
(2000), Employment Outlook 2000-2010: Occupational Employment Projections to 2010. Bureau of Labor Statistics (2001), Grow
Faster Together or Grow Slowly Apart: How Will
America Work in the 21st Century?
The Aspen Institute 2003 Study, Justin Heet, The Hudson Institute, The American Outlook, The Adult Learner. Pamela Tate, President and
CEO, Council for Adult and Experiential Learning
(CAEL) February 6, 2006
“United Nations
experience Offered to Local Students”, by
Agustina Guerrero, Tampa Bay Business
Journal, April 18, 2006 Workforce
Intermediaries for the Twenty-First Century.
Edited by Robert P. Giloth, Published in
association with The American Assembly, ~~~~ MaximsNews.com, An Independent Voice from the U.N., provides commentary and analysis from leading world figures: King Abdullah II (Jordan), Sir Brian Urquhart, Hans Blix, Amb. Richard Holbrooke, Anwar Ibrahim, Bianca Jagger, Shashi Tharoor, Kerry Kennedy, Ian Williams, Stephen Schlesinger, Sen. Timothy E. Wirth, Marc Morial, Barbara Crossette, Amb. Pierre Schori (Sweden), Amb. William H. Luers, Mehri Madarshahi, Gloria Feldt, Jeffrey Laurenti, Rodney D. Smith, Rory O'Connor, Genevieve Stamper, Max Stamper and others.
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