need to add title here

U.S. employers' missed opportunity

November 11, 2012 4:00 PM

Professor Peter Cappelli of the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School, tells Byron Pitts that one reason American employers have trouble finding qualified workers is that apprenticeship programs have fallen by the wayside.

Three million open jobs in U.S., but who's qualified?
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by UtilityBill November 15, 2012 6:17 AM EST
Why is it difficult to find employees that show up on time, pass a drug test and have the math and language skills to learn new things? My wife, a recently retired middle school and high school teacher, has often commented about the decline in rigor and discipline at school. Bad grades hurt their self esteem. Homework prevents them from doing other things they want to do. We want happy kids not educated ones.

One of the factors not discussed in the article was military service as a common training and maturing experience of past generations of workers. The draft and wars prior to the mid-70s required nearly every young man to spend time learning personal discipline, hygiene, nutrition, and exercise. Forced to work in a group, the young soldier learned to adapt to a changing environment. Often the experience resulted in a person with much more mature attitude and ready for the rigor required in the world of work.
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by guest173 November 14, 2012 4:32 PM EST
A new oil field with vast deposits was discovered in Colorado and Utah larger than OPEC, get a Petroleum Engineering degree!!!!!!!!! That's where the money is!!!!!! Look it up on the Dept of Labor Occupational Outlook website
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by chanceygardener November 13, 2012 9:25 PM EST
I completed a 4 year machinist apprenticeship in 1978. I worked 3 weeks every month and spent 1 week in school. I was paid for work and school. I got an increase in pay based on the hours I completed in each shop. I became a problem solver. Later I became a methods and tooling engineer and saved a company millions on one problem alone and I can prove it. The funny thing was the ideal that saved that money came from some very basic skills I learned as an apprentice. I was also a manufacturing supervisor and taught others what I learned as an apprentice. As far as the pay goes that doesn't sound very high to me. My father and grandfather and I could afford a home. The number of hours they had to work to buy a $7,000 new home or a $2,500 new car was less than the number of hours it would take to buy the current products today. Isn't 12/hour only about 24k a year?
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by HBMichael November 13, 2012 7:05 AM EST
Back in the 50's, 60's and 70's, it seemed like all unions had apprenticeship programs. The last 30 years have seen a veritable war on unions being waged by corporate America. Perhaps some of the fruits of this war are finally becoming apparent. Per Wiki:

There is a movement in the U.S. to revive vocational education. For example, the International Union of Painters and Allied Trades (IUPAT) has opened the Finishing Trades Institute (FTI). The FTI is working towards national accreditation so that it may offer associate and bachelor degrees that integrate academics with a more traditional apprentice programs. The IUPAT has joined forces with the Professional Decorative Painters Association (PDPA) to build educational standards using a model of apprenticeship created by the PDPA.

Example of a U.S. apprenticeship program
Persons interested in learning to become electricians can join one of several apprenticeship programs offered jointly by the International Brotherhood of Electrical Workers and the National Electrical Contractors Association. No background in electrical work is required. A minimum age of 18 is required. There is no maximum age. Men and women are equally invited to participate. The organization in charge of the program is called the National Joint Apprenticeship and Training Committee.

Apprentice electricians work 32 to 40+ hours per week at the trade under the supervision of a journeyman wireman and receive pay and benefits. They spend an additional 8 hours every other week in classroom training. At the conclusion of training (five years for inside wireman and outside lineman, less for telecommunications ), apprentices reach the level of journeyman wireman. All of this is offered at no charge, except for the cost of books (which is approximately $200-600 per year(depending on grades). Persons completing this program are considered highly skilled by employers and command high pay and benefits. Other unions such as the Operating Engineers, Ironworkers, Sheet Metal Workers, Plasterers, Bricklayers and others offer similar programs.

Trade associations such as the Independent Electrical Contractors and Associated Builders and Contractors also offer a variety of apprentice training programs. Registered programs also are offered by the Aerospace Joint Apprenticeship Committee (AJAC) to fill a shortage of aerospace and advanced manufacturing workers in Washington State.
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by James C. Wilson November 12, 2012 6:34 PM EST
The professor is absolutely right that the United States lags behind Europe in training our youth for employment. It is far worse than not having a trained workforce. Seventy percent of the 2.5 million in our prisons are high school dropouts.

We can solve both our need for a trained workforce and our crime probelm by implementing career academies in our high schools. I am convinced, however, that the leadership to reconstruct our schools must come from outside of education. The education leadership is too focused on trivial increases in test scores.

James C Wilson, Ed.D.
Author, Disposable Youth: Education or Incarceration? available on Amazon and Kindle
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by thomas_jon November 11, 2012 10:33 PM EST
These employers were decrying the supposed lack of skilled applicants. I believe it was an economist in your story who hit the nail on the head. The wages these companies want to pay is laughable.

The example of $12.00/hr is not a living wage, even if benefits are included. Well, sure you can live, but as indentured workers would years ago. We, the unemployed in this country, have watched our parents do everything the way they were "supposed to" as earnest, honest citizens and hard workers.

Our parents, knowingly or not, have had their dignity stolen by being referred to as "consumers" instead of the ones who were sweating and in many cases, literally bleeding while PRODUCING goods in American factories.

The lucky ones, those who weren't "downsized" in the last hours of their working career, watched powerless as their retirement pensions were systematically and effectively stolen by the switch to IRA's and other investment based retirement savings accounts. Those accounts became fodder for short term vultures.

Others were replaced in that last hour, before they could reap the promised retirement pensions earned through decades of loyal service, by temporary workers.

The end result, without going into further detail of their plight, is that we have watched our parents end up worse than when they started working. They gave their lives in the service of what might be referred to as the "American Dream," and the expected role of citizens, and are barely getting by on social security and medicare.

Meanwhile, the Republicans wonder why their messages are beginning to fall on jaded ears.

So, we, the next generation, those of us who are unemployed, underemployed, underpaid, and are being looked at as "unfit" by the slave-wage-"job-creators" of your story are effectively telling them that we would rather stay unemployed, or work in jobs were we have more control over our lives, than as underpaid, under-appreciated shift working drones while making the business class rich through our blood and sweat!

Sorry, but many of us have woken up to the conditioning. The funny thing is, if the owner class had not allowed the over indulgence and corrupt practices of greed and avarice, this country and it's citizens would be better trained bootlickers. The other choice would be to lock down society as many countries, such as China does, and create a nation of hungry people who would do anything for a 25 cent/hr. job.

Well, that is unless each person, especially those with power of influence, decides to really invest effort and sincerity to make a egalitarian society where all citizens are respected and appreciated.
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by rgordon2012 November 11, 2012 10:32 PM EST
I particularly enjoyed this segment and agree with Professor Cappelll that apprenticeships have gone by the wayside. However, this problem did in fact exist a generation ago. As a Human Resources professional who worked in the aerospace industry in the 1980's our company's senior management encouraged and supported the HR team to conduct a number of skills assessments due to a critical skills gap. Based on those results we subsequently implemented training programs for both the management and hourly employees focusing on basic writing and general math. Managers learned not only how to compose effective memos, but to write constructive employee performance appraisals while machinists learned basic math to better understand and operate sophisticated machinery and precision measurement instruments. The employee feedback was extremely positive and the results were so successful and that this training became an integral part of the workplace.
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by markg101 November 11, 2012 9:08 PM EST
The place you showed starting wage was $12.00/hr. When I started my position @ Boeing in Wichita, Ks, my starting wage was $9.50/hr in 1979. When i left in 1981I was making $13.50 /hr for a grade 3 which was a
skilled reclamation (salvage) man. I hired in as a sheer operator which was the same pay grade; their scale
was 1-10 with 1 being low and 10 being the highest.
My point is that $12.00 an hour is not very comparable in todays wages with inflation and COLA. My insurance was completely paid for,I had 2 weeks vacation, after 10 years there was vested retirement. So manufacturing is not keeping up with their pay scales; yet corporate management types pay scales have been going up by percentages that are unbelievable. The gap between CEO's and hourly workers has widened since the Reagan era.
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by markg101 November 11, 2012 8:48 PM EST
The place you showed starting wage was $12.00/hr. When I started my position @ Boeing in Wichita, Ks, my starting wage was $9.50/hr in 1979. When i left in 1981I was making $13.50 /hr for a grade 3 which was a
skilled reclamation (salvage) man. I hired in as a sheer operator which was the same pay grade; their scale
was 1-10 with 1 being low and 10 being the highest.
My point is that $12.00 an hour is not very comparable in todays wages with inflation and COLA. My insurance was completely paid for,I had 2 weeks vacation, after 10 years there was vested retirement. So manufacturing is not keeping up with their pay scales; yet corporate management types pay scales have been going up by percentages that are unbelievable. The gap between CEO's and hourly workers has widened since the Reagan era.
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