Posted on 10/01/2012 8:32:58 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
It isn't just high tech positions in American manufacturing that aren't being filled. The consultant company Deloitte surveyed the industry and found 600,000 perfectly good jobs going unfilled because of a lack of "soft skills."
What are soft skills?
Wall Street Journal:
At a recent dinner in Washington, D.C., with representatives from major American manufacturing companies, I listened as the talk turned to how hard it is to find qualified applicants for jobs.
"What exactly are the skills you can't find?" I asked, imagining that openings for high-tech positions went begging because, as we hear so often, the training of the U.S. workforce doesn't match up well with current corporate needs.
One of the representatives looked sheepishly around the room and responded: "To be perfectly honest . . . we have a hard time finding people who can pass the drug test." Several other reps gave a knowing nod. Applicants were often so underqualified, they said, that simply finding someone who could properly answer the telephone was sometimes a challenge.
[...]
American manufacturing has become more advanced, we're told, and requires computer aptitude, intricate problem solving, and greater dexterity with complex tasks. Surely if Americans were getting STEM education, they would have the skills they need to get jobs in our modern, high-tech economy.
But considerable evidence suggests that many employers would be happy just to find job applicants who have the sort of "soft" skills that used to be almost taken for granted. In the Manpower Group's 2012 Talent Shortage Survey, nearly 20% of employers cited a lack of soft skills as a key reason they couldn't hire needed employees. "Interpersonal skills and enthusiasm/motivation" were among the most commonly identified soft skills that employers found lacking.
(Excerpt) Read more at americanthinker.com ...
That’s what “apprenticeships” are for. The most experienced pass their knowledge down to the next generation as the most experienced prepare for retirement. Everybody starts somewhere, and it’s usually at the bottom. Lacking “soft skills” is code for the female HR rep taking an instant dislike to you at the interview, for whatever emotional reason that rules at the moment.
You just have to use the right drugs
Alcohol and benzos are accepted drugs
When I was driving to work today, I drove past the entrance to the university. There was a sign there that said “Diversity Job Fair”. That explains it all. When you exclude the white males from your work force in a nation where the majority of the working age adults are white males, you are going to have a problem filling positions.
Then, when you tell the “diversity” hires that they are destined for management in the interests of fairness, you compound the problem.
In today’s America, “Work is for suckas” because you are either climbing the ladder on your diversity qualifications or you are shut out for the sins of your great-grandfathers.
You forgot initiative. As in if you don’t specifically give them a task they will stand around and do nothing rather than look for something to do.
And don’t let them know that they are stealing if they take a 16 minute break rather then the 15 minutes allotted. Who cares if everything shuts down because they took to much time.
Add to that the fact that many who are looking for that first job out of college think that entry level jobs are beneath them. They fully expect to be offered mid-level management postions. How else can they pay off their huge student loans??
“I don’t have skills, but I got bills, man.”
Yo yo, dawg. I'z on break. Blank this, I ain'ts got time fo' youse.
We need less college and more trade schools and apprenticeships.
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-chat/2650612/posts
It is not only the low skill people that are not getting paid worth a damn, but higher skilled people too....
it is an employers market right now, and if you don’t want to take a 25% pay cut, we will just hire someone else..
This has happened before ( twice in my lifetime )..
The problem these newbie managers do not see is that the pendulum always swings back the other way..
loyalty pays off in the longrun..
I luv our kids. As I’ve said before, they will be leaders among their peers. Especially since their peers are lacking the skills our kids take for granted....and employers are longing to see in applicants.
Wotchu mean I ain’t got dem “soft skilz”? Watch yo mouf, m-fkr.
It has NEVER been easy to get good employees. Where does this bizarre idea that industries are entitled to them come from? Why would they think it is governments’ duty to supply them?
“I can easily tell you what soft skills are missing.
1. They cannot show up on time.
2. They do not give a days work for a days pay.
3. They do not know that lunch hour is an hour.
4. They call in sick any time they don’t feel like working.
5. If they are hired to stock shelves they are insulted if you ask them to clean a toilet.”
Absolutely right!!!
Add “not insurable on auto insurance policy to the list”. Lots of DUI’s and suspended licenses due to the number of infractions or child support.
I was rotating the tires on the truck at 12 and out in the woods cutting firewood at 14.
Was discussing something along these lines with my family over the weekend.
I really think schools (and parents) need to step back from the “everyone must go to college/be academic” meme. There is nothing wrong or shameful about heading down the tech-school or secretarial skills track. Plumbing, electrical, HVAC, mechanics, receptionists, even so called “menial” jobs are out there, needing to be filled and they’re not just for so-called “dummies”.
They used to “track” kids when I was in school, and by high school some of them were encouraged (not forced) to take tech courses and pass up on the higher maths and sciences. I guess that’s not “PC” these days.
A friend told me one problem he had was that a lot of people he hired had their wages garnished for one reason or another and it cost him extra to to pay the garnishment, and keep accurate records of it.
was that before or after hiking to school in a blizzard in 2 ft foot deep snow?
We were told it was to foster "creativity." More and more I think it was to eliminate the idea of form and logic in favor of chaos and to eliminate the notion that there is right or wrong. Sadly, we now have two generations of this free-spirited attitude. Many teachers today cannot correct their students' spelling and grammar because they don't know proper English themselves. They have degrees in "Education," not in the subjects they teach. And to think high school students once studied Latin, Greek, logic, and rhetoric.
bt nw they cn txt on thr "smartphones" so its all gd
I would make a great employee. I was until recently. Having a little trouble at the moment. It appears that I lack diversity.
“”Interpersonal skills and enthusiasm/motivation””
Meaning, heppy to be working for liberals, be a liberal, and be excited to work for low pay at a crap job.
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