Washington Monthly - September/October 2020 - 40

I, Robot Doctor: Two students in the Kentucky-FAME training program learn the art of advanced manufacturing.

WHY APPRENTICESHIPS
SHOULD GO SOFT
A novel job training program fills the real skills gap.

F

or more than a decade, economists, business leaders, and progressive writers and thinkers have waged
a wonky war over the so-called skills gap-specifically,
whether such a gap exists at all.
Employers, for their part, argue that the skills gap is real,
and complain that it makes  it tough to find qualified workers. Many progressives, however, say these gaps are a myth,
the product of businesses' own failings. They charge employers with inflating the credentials required of applicants and
skimping on worker training.
Research shows that the progressives have a point: Many
companies are indeed guilty of "degree inflation," demanding
college degrees for jobs that don't need them. Companies have
also reduced investment in worker training over the past 20
years, forcing employees to seek more training themselves at
community and for-profit colleges, often going into debt to
pay for it. According to a recent report from the Aspen Institute, less than one-fifth of workers have access to employer-

40  September/October 2020

sponsored or on-the-job training, and they tend to be the
highest paid and already the best educated.
But employers are right, too. Many entry-level workers
today are missing a crucial set of skills that most high schools
and colleges don't teach: the so-called soft skills that are increasingly important for success in the modern workplace.
These include basic workplace-survival behaviors like showing
up every day and on time, and knowing how to talk to your
boss and colleagues. They also include higher-order skills like
critical thinking, problem solving, and collaboration. While
more K-12 schools have begun teaching critical thinking and
analytical skills under the rubric of "social-emotional learning," it's hardly part of the standard curriculum, nor is the
pedagogy established about how to teach it well. As a consequence, most students don't learn in their classrooms what
life is like on the job-and it shows.
Employers, says a U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation report, are "coping with new hires who are unsure of how

Courtesy of WorkingNation

By Anne Kim



Washington Monthly - September/October 2020

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