By Angela Jorge
As being a tech nut and futurist, Never imagined I’d hear myself say this, but possibly it’s time to revisit an ‘old school’ method of developing the skilled workers we want – Apprenticeships.
Apprenticeship History in the usa
America used Apprenticeship programs to assist us be a manufacturing powerhouse whenever we found ourselves without sufficient figures of skilled workers. Today’s tech talent shortage is not really everything different.
The thought of Apprenticeships found America from England with this early settlers. In England, master craftsmen hired apprentices within an exchange for practicing service/employment.
After they finished their apprenticeship, they traveled from employer to employer earning wages as journeymen. When, or maybe, they accrued enough money, journeymen would then setup shop as independent companies and grew to become people of the craft guilds (forerunners in our unions), after which trained more apprentices.
These craft guilds had the ability to provide and rescind legal rights and rights upon their people, and therefore to manage competition among themselves.
As America progressed, the function of Apprenticeships increased once we found ourselves missing workers with a few of the ‘new’ skills required for business.
My very own father apprenticed being an engineering draftsman out of highschool, which brought to some lengthy, viable career that eventually saw him become President of the electrical engineering firm, even though he didn’t attend college or perhaps a specialized school for engineers.
However nowadays, because we do not have Apprenticeship programs for many job types, we to visit college to get employment.
What’s wrong with this? Just the truth that a large amount of smart kids won’t be able to visit college. Does that – and really should that – mean no technology careers on their behalf?
Since I have been recruiting web tech talent because the first web boom times of the late 90’s, I’m able to attest that there’s a finite quantity of experienced tech workers within the U.S.
Today companies fight within the same people, that has caused salaries to increase quicker than other job types, and forcing companies to provide increasingly more amenities and perks to encourage them to work there.
Regrettably, that’s short-sighted, because these experienced workers can simply keep getting to the following greatest bidder or even the ‘coolest’ company.
Tossing spaghetti on your wall to determine what sticks
I am hearing plenty of talk from your politicians and business leaders about technology jobs and also the talent shortage, but I am not seeing any viable solutions – yet. Things I am seeing are companies putting bandages on gaping, bleeding wounds.
Appears like everybody is building job posting or resume posting internet sites – from entrepreneurs or tech start-ups seeking the revenue from (desperate) companies requiring to employ, to companies (like 37 Signals who produced their very own job board simply because they possess the tech staff to construct it, can earn money from the task posting revenue, and, hopefully, gain newer and more effective employees themselves), to organizations like Built-in Chicago and also the Illinois Technology Association.
