Current Issues1. Student Retention:While disconnected youth may officially terminate their education in high school, they drop out of learning in the fourth and fifth grade. Youth often view schoolwork as irrelevant to their life and career goals. Developing STEM curriculum materials with real-world context for elementary and middle school children will engage students by making learning relevant, and address one of the most critical barriers to long-term economic competitiveness – educational attainment.2. Creating a "Demand-Driven" Workforce Development System.Many workers lack the skills, training, or experience required to move into positions where the application of complex academic, technology, and employability skills are a growing factor in employment, retention and advancement. When workers seek training, what they are taught is often not linked to the immediate needs of the workplace. Many workers earn a degree or go through a training program and learn after graduating that they lack the skills and experience in demand. The result: money, time, and opportunity are wasted.3. Community-based Workforce Planning:Individual career advancement is often hampered by the absence of standardization in credentials and by lack of consistency in many occupations. Workforce planning is a process to measure and compare the current workforce supply with future workforce demands consistent with economic development strategies and the business planning process. The community must effectively develop the right people with the right knowledge, skills and competencies. Community-based workforce planning should focus on long-term partnerships to prepare and place community residents into good-paying jobs with long term employment, advancement, and retention opportunities.
Listed skills include Community Outreach, Public Speaking, Program Evaluation, Staff Development, and 15 others.
