A couple of weeks ago I was with a group which toured the Salina campus of Kansas State University. The most popular class it offers is in aviation. Students learn to fly small aircraft for pleasure and larger, commercial planes as a vocation. The Salina campus also teaches aircraft mechanics. Graduates of those courses take jet engines apart, fix them, and put them back together.
The school rates as one of the top five in the U.S. Its graduates often have jobs before they get their diplomas. The hiring rate is in the 90s — and that’s a current figure as well as an historical average.
The visit came to mind when reading a column by Tom Friedman who is writing a book on the world job market. Doing his research led him into interviews with many entrepreneurs and analysts. Among them was the McKinsey Global Institute, which just released a study titled “An Economy that Works: Job Creation and America’s Future.”
McKinsey reports that with each recession, more employers have used the downturn to replace workers with machines and software. One employer told Friedman: “I used the recession to downsize and get really efficient. None of these jobs are coming back. I am doing a little hiring now, but of people with more skills.”
Friedman said he also had talked with many employers doing advanced manufacturing and they say they struggle even now to find workers with the blue-collar skills to replace their retiring workers. They said that during the boom years the U.S. created a lot of jobs in retail and in basic construction that didn’t require a high level of needed skills. Those jobs are gone and also are not coming back. The workers who had them will have to be retrained.
McKinsey elaborated: “Too few Americans who attend college and vocational school choose fields of study that will give them specific skills that employers are seeking. Our interviews point to potential shortages in many occupations, such as nutritionists, welders and nurse’s aides —in addition to the often-predicted shortfall in computer specialists and engineers.”
AS THE SUMMER ripens into fall, this year’s high school graduates should be getting ready to begin their advanced educations. They should be heartened to know that there are educational opportunities in Kansas which will almost certainly lead to good jobs.
A young man or woman who graduates from the aviation courses at K-State in Salina will find a good job waiting. The specialized technical training offered at Pittsburg State University also produces graduates in high demand. Employers are looking for the engineers educated at K-State, KU, Pittsburg and Wichita.
Nurses and nurse aides, of both sexes, are unemployed only by choice.
Anyone with a computer can quickly find a list of the most-wanted job skills and discover which Kansas colleges, universities and technical schools offer the training required. Those who want a little help can find it from a high school counselor or a state employment office.
Friedman, McKinsey, et al, have discovered the obvious: Want a good job that pays well? Find an empty slot and train yourself to fill it.
— Emerson Lynn, jr.
