Note: This blog originally appeared in the Huffington Post on 9/07/11. Its authors are Karen Elzey, director of Skills for America’s Future, and Maureen Conway, director of the Workforce Strategies Initiative and executive director of the Economic Opportunities Program.
With President Obama’s Joint Address to Congress, a GOP Presidential Debate, and Republican candidates starting to unveil their economic plans, Americans are hearing a lot about job creation this week. And while creating jobs and getting Americans back to work should be paramount in these tough economic times, an essential element often seems to be missing from the conversation.
What Americans are less likely to hear about is making sure workers have the skills and training they need to fill these jobs. Yet the truth is that unless we significantly address the preparedness of our workforce, we’re unlikely to help Americans fill the millions of open jobs that exist today, or prepare the next generation of workers for the jobs of the future.
Because while much has been made of America’s changing economy, so far we are still only on the brink of changing how we educate and train workers to meet these shifting demands.
Continue reading the full post here.
In the spring, we sat down with Maureen Conway to talk about jobs and the work of the Economic Opportunities Program. Watch what she had to say:
We also did a short Q&A with Karen Elzey and her work with Skills for America’s Future, which brings together government, the private sector, community colleges, and labor to work on putting resources into the training and development of workers.
Get to know Karen and her work here.
