Business Community Colleges

2483 Words10 Pages
Abstract The American economy is driven by business and industry and the ability to create jobs. As technology advances, demographics change, and globalization occur it is of the utmost importance for America’s business and industry to examine their workforce needs. Businesses will need to ask themselves important questions regarding how they will keep up with current technologies, train existing employees, find and hire new employees that meet their needs - both educationally and technically - and continue to keep up with worldwide fluctuations that occur within their trades. One of the major realities facing business and industry is the shortage of a high-skilled, well educated workforce. America could face losing many more jobs. Business…show more content…
Without technical education, the gap will continue to add to the workforce shortage. This is where the community colleges can make a difference. Community colleges are unique in their ability to educate, train, and retrain (1994). Some of the potential shortage areas include fields such as nursing, technicians, and various skilled trades. These are specific majors to which the community colleges have degrees, certificates, and apprentiships available; whereas many larger four year institutions may have the same programs, there are some that do not (Kasworm et al., 2010). Along with the fact that many larger institutions have no programs to address Adult Education as definied by this workforce crisis and the need for specific work skills(Kasworm et al., 2010). As a result, it makes the role of the community college the most critical piece of the solution in our nation’s workforce dilemma. It marries the need for highly skilled laborers with an established training system that is already available in hundreds of communities across…show more content…
It is imperative that communities, business and industry, and education systems - both K-12 and higher education - realize the evolving workforce needs (2005). The necessity to understand the dynamics of these changes from technology to demographics to globalization is very important (Merrow & Shulock, 2007). It is important for America to realize the importance of education and of having highly skilled and highly educated workforce. It is time for America to seize the day and revolutionize our education system so as to create a continuous learning environment from K-12 through higher education to continuing education. It is time for business and industry to take notice of the importance of education and training. It is time for communities to stand up and demand an education system committed to educating, training and retraining. The education, training, and work skills of the nation’s workforce define who Americans are as people (Gordon, 2005). It is the fabric of our culture and is what sets our workers apart from global workers (2005). Training, re-training, and adult education is what will keep America a world class economic power throughout the entire 21st
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