TODD HIRSCH
  • About Todd
    • Books
    • Commentary
    • BIOGRAPHY and IMAGES
    • The Owl - A Daily Economic Update
  • SPEAKING TOPICS
  • Request Todd to speak
  • CONNECT
  • About Todd
    • Books
    • Commentary
    • BIOGRAPHY and IMAGES
    • The Owl - A Daily Economic Update
  • SPEAKING TOPICS
  • Request Todd to speak
  • CONNECT

Skilled workers are good, but adaptable workers are better

5/9/2014

1 Comment

 
A news story 20 years from today could well start like this:

May 9, 2034 – Victoria, B.C.: Thousands of angry, unemployed tradespeople marched on British Columbia’s legislative grounds yesterday in protest of what they see as government inaction. The problem stems from massive investments in postsecondary education made some two decades ago to train pipefitters, welders and electricians – all of which were in high demand in the early 2020s. But since B.C.’s major LNG facilities and pipelines were completed in 2031, thousands of workers – mostly male and in their mid-40s – have been thrown permanently out of work.

It’s a plausible scenario two decades from now, but one that’s avoidable if good planning is put in place today.

The “B.C.’s Skills for Jobs Blueprint,” announced in this spring’s budget, targets $160-million to “re-engineering education and training in B.C.” According to the plan, funding in four years will reach nearly $400-million annually. And over the span of the 10-year plan, about $3-billion will be redirected toward training for high-demand occupations.

It’s an ambitious plan to fill hundreds of thousands of jobs in the coming eight years, many of them in the natural gas and pipeline transportation systems. “The prospect of one million jobs in the energy sector by 2022, including openings for thousands of welders, pipefitters and heavy equipment operators to build the proposed liquefied natural gas industry and other resource projects, has the government looking to the education system to prepare a work force,” according to the government’s blueprint.

It all sounds wonderful and forward-looking, precisely the kinds of education and training programs the public sector should be fostering. But there are sure to be problems if the pipefitters in 2022 are unable to adapt to new careers in 2032.

How do you tell a 45-year-old heavy equipment operator –trained with tax dollars when he was 25 and given great job opportunities in northern B.C. – that the work has dried up and now he has to find a totally new career? Too young to retire but too old to easily go back to college, he’s in a bind.

It’s a story repeated so frequently in Canada that it questions whether we’ve learned anything about economic cycles and labour markets. Fishers in Newfoundland; construction workers in Alberta circa 1982; unionized auto workers in Ontario today – workers trained for very specific jobs can do extremely well in the short run. But if they have no built-in flexibility to transition to new careers, their long term prospects can be worrying.

This isn’t a criticism of B.C.’s program, but rather a caution about how and why we train our young people. Giving them a specific skill and sending them on their way is no longer sufficient. What postsecondary education needs to do – be it through a liberal arts degree or a polytechnic certification program – is prepare the students not for a job, but for a lifetime of morphingcareers.

Judging by a conference last week on the future of postsecondary education, the future holds exciting potential. The two-day session, sponsored by Sheridan College and the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education at the University of Toronto, explored new ways postsecondary schools should be delivering education. Themes of creative problem solving, innovation in curriculum design, and international study semesters featured prominently.

Especially encouraging was the fact that a good deal of the participants at the conference were from colleges and universities in B.C., which has been held up as an example for innovations in advanced education and training.

Another hopeful note comes from B.C.’s Education Minister, Peter Fassbender. With respect to his government’s blueprint for skills training, he says school students will still receive arts and sciences courses, but trades options will be highlighted.

There’s a danger that arts, pure sciences and humanities are cast aside in the single-minded pursuit of skilled trades. The reality is all are needed to develop the flexible, adaptable worker of the future. Without them, workers will find themselves with a single skill but no ability to adapt to changing economic landscapes.

And angry, unemployable 50-year-olds are perhaps the saddest wasted resource of all.



This column originally appeared in The Globe and Mail on May 9, 2014. 
1 Comment
Dave Redekopp link
5/12/2014 08:58:43 am

Hi Todd, I'm glad you published this article. If you ever write a corollary article, it would be great if you'd discuss the importance of career development in all this -- university education creates an adaptable thinker but it still does not teach adaptability in living (i.e., the process of career development). Career development competencies can be learned/developed at BOTH universities and trades schools so that individuals have far more agency than they currently have regardless of starting point.

Reply

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    Archives

    November 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    April 2018
    November 2017
    June 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    July 2015
    June 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    March 2015
    February 2015
    January 2015
    December 2014
    November 2014
    October 2014
    September 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    May 2014
    April 2014
    March 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    November 2013
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013
    June 2013
    May 2013
    April 2013
    March 2013
    February 2013
    January 2013
    December 2012
    November 2012
    October 2012
    September 2012
    August 2012
    July 2012
    May 2012
    April 2012
    March 2012
    February 2012
    January 2012
    December 2011
    November 2011
    October 2011
    September 2011
    August 2011
    July 2011
    June 2011
    May 2011
    April 2011
    March 2011
    February 2011