Skills-Based Learning: Closing the Skills Gap With New-Collar Professionals

Every day, in communities across our nation and in Virginia, workers seek out opportunities to ensure their families can thrive. At the same time, businesses are anxious to hire skilled workers—people trained for jobs in growing industries like healthcare, medical technology, IT and software, and advanced manufacturing who will require new-collar professionals —as well as trades professionals like plumbers and electricians.

These new-collar professionals will require education and training that falls between a high school diploma and a four-year degree, are the backbone of the American economy and they depend on a skilled workforce ready to fill them. With the increasing cost of education, nontraditional learning paths are now more favorable, allowing students to develop a targeted skill set and enter the workforce.

To ensure students are getting the most out of their investment, traditional institutions are now prioritizing skills-based learning. Students, adult learners, and educators need to engage in a skills-based learning approach, often referred to as skill-based, worked-based, or competency-based learning. Skill-based learning is the acquisition of knowledge through practice and application. Through this approach, students are actively gaining hands-on experience as they journey towards mastery in their desired fields. Historically, skills-based learning was prioritized in trade and vocational schools for students who wanted to get out into the workforce without investing in traditional learning paths.

With the new focus on skills, employers are now introducing skills-based hiring practices as a method of talent acquisition and development that prioritizes skills over traditional qualifications such as college degrees, titles, or years of experience. The goal is to help businesses and employers find employees who are better fits while giving overlooked talent opportunities to apply their valued skills and reach their full potential.

Currently, 70 million workers are skilled through alternative routes, meaning they don’t hold a bachelor’s degree, but are active in the workforce, and have a high school diploma. To prepare and graduate skilled new-collar professionals. Communities should take a “cradle to career” pathways approach by starting at an early age to replenish the talent pipeline with career-ready citizens with the needed employability skills.

Traditional learning often follows a more linear path, with students acquiring knowledge through lectures and textbooks, and then demonstrating their understanding through tests and assignments. In contrast, skills-based learning is more flexible and adaptable, allowing learners to focus on the skills that are most relevant to their career aspirations and personal interests.

Closing the Skills Gap

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce reports as of August 2023 Virginia is grappling with a severe workforce shortage, with only 47 available workers for every 100 open job positions. Virginia Department of Labor Industries predicts the average unfilled demand for skilled tradesmen in Hampton Roads to be 35-40% from 2020 through 2026.

To address these challenges Virginia is deploying the 12 CTE High-Quality Work-Based Learning (HQWBL) programs that comprise experiences related to students’ career interests based on instructional preparation and take place in partnership with local businesses or organizations. CTE HQWBL enables students to apply classroom instruction in a real-world work environment and promotes the following: Career awareness, Career exploration, and Career preparation as shown below:

Apprenticeships

Apprenticeships enable companies across the country to bridge the skills gap helping workers with high potential, but who are often overlooked, develop skills critical to high-demand industries through on-the-job learning. The result is people are given a chance to reach their full potential based on their aptitudes, while employers hire talent that meets their specific business needs. Investing in apprenticeships pays off. Out of every dollar spent on an apprenticeship program, employers get $1.50 in return.

Typically, there is no expenditure for tuition and lifetime income is comparable to university graduates. Opportunity America and the Brookings Institute analyzed outcomes for Federation for Advanced Manufacturing Education (FAME) apprentice graduates. “$59,164 one year after completing the program…. After five years… about $98,000.”

The Newport News Shipbuilding (NNS) Apprentice School is gearing up for its Youth Builders Pre-Apprenticeship Program 2024-2025 cohort. The Apprentice School is a degree-granting and accredited institution with over 100 years of history with Newport News Shipbuilding. This enrichment opportunity allows high school pre-apprentices to participate in The Apprentice school’s World Class Shipbuilder Curriculum (WCSC) via virtual classes during a portion of the school day.

The program is open to 11th and 12th grade students in public, private or home schools throughout Hampton Roads who have an interest in shipbuilding careers. The Youth Builders vision is to encourage, empower and recruit the next generation of leaders in digital shipbuilding by improving their job readiness skills to become high-performance craftspeople in the shipbuilding trades. Harry Moser, CEO and Founder of the Reshoring Initiative has led U.S. apprentices and shop owners on four tours to study the Swiss system and has been consistently impressed by the maturity, knowledge, technical skills, and multilingual capabilities of 16- to 20- year-old apprentices. Typically, senior company managers started their careers in the company apprentice program --- much like Newport News Shipbuilding Apprentice School.

Skilled new-collar professionals are becoming wealthy while closing the skills gap --- by using their CTE education along with their hard work, skills-based learning, and entrepreneurial talents to make their “American Dream” a reality in the communities they live in and serve.

Prepared by: Glenn Marshall (with feedback from a host of citizens and businesses) is a member of the Association for Manufacturing Excellence (AME) leads an initiative for an Educational Renaissance by graduating skilled career-ready citizens, is also a member of the Reshoring Initiative, Job Creators Network, and Industry Reimagined 2030. Contact Glenn at marsh8279@aol.com

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The Association for Manufacturing Excellence (AME) is the premier organization for the exchange of knowledge in enterprise excellence. Members come together to explore lean thinking and other enterprise improvement methods, exchange best practices and network to advance their careers and improve the competitiveness and overall value of their organizations.

AME is led by volunteers from business and academia who relentlessly provide their support, energy, and resources from their organizations to help your company prosper in today’s challenging global marketplace. There is also the opportunity to stay ahead of the competition by reading Target Online, which is full of case studies and how-tos of practitioner-implemented process improvements. We hold an annual international conference and more than 100 summits, workshops, tours, seminars and events each year.

We invite you to ---

Join AME in Atlanta, Georgia, on October 28 - October 31, 2024, to celebrate the 40th anniversary of the AME International Conference. At AME Atlanta 2024, we will CONNECT. EVOLVE. TRANSFORM.

For more details go to https://www.ame.org/ame-atlanta-20 24-international-conference

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