It Still Begins With Education

This week, Salon Magazine went into the science fiction business, sketching out several bleak near-future scenarios ( “How America will collapse (by 2025)”) in harrowing detail.

And while the fictional futures the article outlines are just speculation, the sobering reality behind them — that America needs to take swift action in certain key areas now to avoid disaster in the future — is no longer new or even very controversial:

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Significantly, in 2008, the U.S. National Intelligence Council admitted for the first time that America’s global power was indeed on a declining trajectory. In one of its periodic futuristic reports, Global Trends 2025, the Council cited “the transfer of global wealth and economic power now under way, roughly from West to East” and “without precedent in modern history,” as the primary factor in the decline of the “United States’ relative strength — even in the military realm.”

In his acclaimed book, “The 2010 Meltdown”, international workforce development expert Ed Gordon touched on some of these same themes:

“The 2010 Meltdown” issues a wake-up call to overcome the twin economic shocks of baby-boomer retirements and too few younger well-educated people. It details how these trends are creating a labor vacuum in a rising tide of high-skill, technology-related jobs.

That’s the bad news.

The hopeful new is that these problems are man-made, and as President John F. Kennedy said almost half a century ago:

Our problems are man-made, therefore they may be solved by man. And man can be as big as he wants. No problem of human destiny is beyond human beings.

And underlying every solution to America’s domestic problems are three elements: rebuilding our education system, our manufacturing and export economy and our energy infrastructure to meet the new demands of the new century. Siemens President and CEO, Peter Löscher, outlines what a 21st century education system must look like and accomplish if it is to succeed:

Education Is Key to Youth Employment

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The impact of both of these gaps is evident in the UK and throughout the world. Siemens currently employs 16,000 people in the UK, and we are already seeing that there are not enough qualified young people to replace the highly-skilled older workers who are approaching retirement. We cannot close the demographic gap retroactively, but we certainly can close the skills gap – through education. Clearly, education is the key to youth employment, and this is where both government and industry must take action to engage and inspire young people.
Government can help by creating labor policies that guarantee young people equal opportunity and adequate job security and by ensuring that its educational system promotes interest and excellence in math, science and engineering from early on.

Industry must make recruiting, hiring, and educating the young people entering the workforce a top priority. What counts here is to reach out to them in new ways, to provide educational opportunities that appeal to them, to offer them attractive and secure entry-level positions, and to give them long-term employability perspectives through lifelong learning.

What we at Siemens have learned is that industry should be just as concerned about youth unemployment as political leaders. Allowing the skills gap to widen even further jeopardizes the competitiveness of both countries and companies. And, for all government and industry can achieve individually, we can achieve so much more working together.
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In Chicago, the Manufacturing Renaissance Council (CMRC) was brought into existence five years ago to take up these very challenges.

Using the Center for Labor & Community Research’s paradigm-shifting reports “Building the Bridge to the High Road” and “Creating A Manufacturing Career Path System in Cook County” as a blueprint, a consortium of Chicago business, labor, government and education leaders came together to form the CMRC in order move manufacturing to the center of the economic debate —

In the Chicago metropolitan area manufacturing employs over 400,000 residents. The average wage in manufacturing is $64,000 including benefits. With few exceptions, these are the highest paying jobs in the economy. And because each manufacturing job creates three more jobs in related industries, manufacturing is the true engine of employment and growth in the overall economy, creating over 1.7 million jobs! No other sector matches manufacturing in its ability to drive the creation of good jobs.

Globalization doesn’t mean these jobs and industries will inevitably move off-shore. Succeeding in the global manufacturing economy requires a determination to lead the race to the top—to be the best in innovation, research and development and the production of sophisticated, complex products. This requires the creativity, engagement and talent of all the stakeholders in the regional economy: business, labor, communities, government and education. This is why the Chicago Manufacturing Renaissance Council was formed.

and to help lead the charge on pragmatic, career-based education reform.

Austin Polytech was founded by the Chicago Manufacturing Renaissance Council in 2007 to educate the next generation of leaders in advanced manufacturing. Students learn about careers in all aspects of the industry, from skilled production and engineering to management and company ownership — plus related sectors like intellectual property law.

We work with over 60 committed industry partners to provide students with mentoring, field trips, work experience, and other enrichment opportunities. Find out how you can help us educate the next generation of leaders!

This fight for America’s economic future is not lost.

In fact, it is only just beginning.