Editorial: The Forgotten Workforce
Buffalo
News: 12.28.2019 by News Editorial Board
On
one side, Buffalo is home to significant population that has graduated or
otherwise left high school unable to read at a 10th-grade level.
On
the other, we see a stable of local employers struggling to fill jobs with
qualified candidates, a problem that threatens the health of Western New York’s
revived economy.
Any
ideas?
The
match may not have been made exactly in heaven – making it work will be
challenging – but it’s an obvious one: Buffalo needs to train its unemployable
workforce to fill jobs that now go begging. It’s good for those who would land
new positions, good for employers who need those workers and really good – make
that necessary – for a region that needs to protect its improved economy from
stalling.
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It
begins with literacy. The inability to read
is a slamming economic door. On one side is the possibility of success, while
on the other is a guarantee of failure. Illiteracy makes prosperity all but
impossible, taking with it the likelihood of good nutrition, good health and
general stability.
How
do you write a rent check or even open a bank account? How do you read a recipe
or a prescription bottle, let alone understand how to use sophisticated job
machinery? How do you avoid putting succeeding generations at the same
educational disadvantage?
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State
and local governments, economic developers and the private sector need to make
a mission of focused job training and, where necessary, they need to begin that
work with literacy. That requires funding and commitment.
It’s
not as though the area is unequipped to provide that help. While job training
programs in the area attract millions of dollars, little of it goes to literacy
problems such as Literacy New York
Buffalo-Niagara. That’s a frustration for its executive director, Tara
Schafer.
“Emphasizing
the missing link of that literacy piece has been a real challenge for us,” she
told Watson. “So when funding gets to our community, we feel left out.”
Workplace
2019:
Global Skills Index, Coursera
2018: A
Stronger Nation: Learning beyond high school builds American talent, Lumina
2017: UpSkilling
Playbook for Employers, Aspen
Institute
2015:
Skills Gap Report, NAM-MI
2010:
Literacy & The Entry-Level Workforce - The Role of Literacy and Policy in
Labor Market Success, Employment
Policies Institute
2008:
Reach Higher America: Overcoming Crisis in the U.S. Workforce, NCAL
2007:
America’s Perfect Storm, ETS
2007:
Can California Import Enough College Grad's. Meet Workforce Needs?, PPIC
2007:
Mounting Pressures: Workforce . . . Adult Ed, NCAL
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