Update from Nov. 11, 2005

It is always interesting to read the Senior Spotlight which features current high school seniors. Among the questions asked is always one about future plans. I haven’t completed a statistical analysis of the all the responses but I am willing to project that one of the most common responses includes the words “high paying job”.

A few months ago I was involved in a meeting of regional employers which looked at job skills, employer needs, and what can be done to deliver the quality of workers needed in the work force. Recently I received a summary of those meetings and I am providing a list of concerns and the concluding statement.

Common concerns from the whole region included:

* People don't understand the value of working
* Applicants lack basic skills such as business math and writing
* Applicants lack customer service skills
* Critical thinking skills are lacking
* We need people with a strong work ethic who are dependable, clean, and sober
* Applicant wage expectations exceed their earning power
* Aging workforce
* Businesses and job seekers need easy access to information and services

In essence, a great deal of concern was expressed about a company’s ability to attract workers with sound job readiness skills such as basic math and reading skills, a strong work ethic, good problem solving skills, and good communication skills. Suggestions were made that these and other job keeping/coping and life skills would be appropriate areas for the Workforce Investment Board to concentrate its efforts in developing the workforce in the region.

I have been in many similar meetings in my career and hear many of these same things repeated. Among those, the idea of work ethic always comes to the front. In fact, an employer in the meeting I attended expounded on the lack of work ethic among the young employees he had encountered. I was the only school representative present and got to field the question—What can the schools do about this?

The employer I mentioned earlier said that he grew up with an emphasis on work. I asked him where he learned his work ethic. He replied, “At home, on the farm.” I replied, “That is where I learned my work ethic as well. I didn’t learn it at school.”

Last year our board of education and school administrative team read the book Good to Great. This book was based on research conducted on companies which had been good companies but became great companies defined by increased market share sustained over a fifteen year period. They studied and analyzed these companies and gained some very important insights.

One of the insights regarded work ethic. One great company stated that they could take a farmer with good work ethic and teach him the necessary job skills. However, they learned that they could not teach work ethic.

Other than saying, “Thank God I’m a country boy!” and appreciating all that hard work on the farm that my father made me do, what can I do with this information? We have discussed in our planning sessions the value of work and contemplated ways that we could instill this value in the school experience. We can only do so much at school but we can emphasize the importance and value of work ethic.

My purpose in this article has been to share this critical information with everyone. It will take a combined effort on the part of all of us to instill and develop the value of work in our children and our students.

My advice to seniors and other high school students is this; Be willing to work and be willing to be trained and you may realize that goal of a “high paying job”.

Peace!

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Previous articles:

October 19, 2005

September 21, 2005

September 7, 2005

April 28, 2005