Archive for category Tech Industry Trends
Second Acts: How to Reinvent Yourself Mid-Career
Posted by LJackson in Tech Industry Trends on February 10, 2012
As opportunities for long-term and stable employment continue to fade, workers need to be able to continually reinvent themselves and transfer their skills and attributes to new jobs, careers and industries.
A recent article in the Christian Science Monitor – click here – supports the NOVA workforce board’s emphasis on providing flexibility training to help workers facilitate these transitions.
Why the U. S. needs a major education investment strategy
Posted by LJackson in Tech Industry Trends on January 26, 2012
The mid-20th century marked a golden age where a high school diploma in Detroit, Cleveland, Chicago or Youngstown was a ticket to a manufacturing job with a living wage, first-class benefits, a house and college educations for the children.
As Thomas Friedman says in his January 25 NYT column: ”In the past, workers with average skills, doing an average job, could earn an average lifestyle. But, today, average is over.”
From now on “the best jobs will require workers to have more and better education to make themselves about above average,” Friedman writes. Click here for the full article.
As governments continue to hack away at public education budgets, Friedman’s article highlights yet another glaring example of the disconnect between our education investment needs and our education investment practices.
Why the U.S. needs a major workforce investment strategy
Posted by LJackson in Tech Industry Trends on January 23, 2012
It will certainly not be easy replacing the good-wage manufacturing jobs that were once accessible in the U. S. with just a high school diploma. The New York Times investigation of Apple’s iPhone offshoring practices shows that lower labor costs in China are not the main reason the U. S. lost this manufacturing work. Chinese suppliers and manufacturers are more flexible and the workers have skills not readily available here. As stated in the Silicon Valley workforce tech study – Silicon Valley in Transition – the U. S. needs a major workforce investment strategy. To read the entire New York Times story, click here.
The 10 key skills for the future of work
Posted by LJackson in News and Events, Tech Industry Trends, Tech Workforce Issues on December 21, 2011
What are the jobs of the future? The demographics of an aging population suggests health care will be big, say some. Data science is scheduled to explode, suggest others, or maybe anything computer-related is a solid bet. But let’s be honest, predicting exact job titles set to soar or the fates of specific sectors is nearly impossible.
With technology and economic developments moving so quickly, it’s hard to keep up with what’s going on today, more or less foresee what career paths will make you a winner in a decade or two. But even if betting on specific jobs is a fool’s game, the Institute for the Future believes it is still possible to say something useful about how to prepare yourself for the careers of tomorrow.
The Palo Alto, Calif.–based nonprofit research center focuses on long-term forecasting and recently released a report titled “Future Work Skills 2020″ (available for free download here) that analyzes some of the key drivers reshaping work — including WebWorkerDaily’s greatest hits like connectivity, smart machines and new media — coming up not with specific, recommended professional paths but instead with broad skills that will help workers adapt to the changing career landscape. What are they?
To read the full article, click here
Silicon Valley in Transition update: Tech Employment Growth to Continue
Posted by LJackson in News and Events, Tech Industry Trends, Tech Workforce Issues on December 15, 2011
Despite the looming European debt crisis and ongoing slow U. S. economic growth, Silicon Valley tech employers remain relatively bullish about hiring prospects for the next year but are reporting increasing difficulty finding qualified workers, according to a NOVA survey of 50 tech companies. Released on December 15, 2011, the study was commissioned by NOVA, the Sunnyvale, CA-based nonprofit workforce development agency and conducted by BW Research Partnership of Carlsbad, CA.
To read the full release, click here:
Health Care for a Changing Work Force By David Bornstein
Posted by anish in Tech Industry Trends, Tech Workforce Issues on December 2, 2011
This NYT article by David Bornstein sheds light on how the contingent workforce could gain access to healthcare in the state of New York through the Freelancers Union.
From STEM to STEAM?
Posted by LJackson in Tech Industry Trends, Tech Workforce Issues on October 7, 2011
Just as the steel industry needs mountains of iron ore and coal to feed its blast furnaces, Silicon Valley’s tech companies require a highly skilled talent pool to keep the region’s innovation factories humming.
Many voices, including the Silicon Valley in Transition tech study, are recommending increased investment in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) education in order to enlarge the pipeline of students who can continually fill the region’s talent pool.
But Congressman Mike Honda, a former teacher and school principal, told last week’s Silicon Valley in Transition community forum that STEM is not enough. Students need arts education as well, he said.
Indeed, tech employers told the Silicon Valley in Transition researchers that they want workers who are creative, flexible, innovative and comfortable with ambiguity. The study says educators should support non-rote experiential learning and ensure the availability of opportunities – including art and music education – that help students develop their creative abilities.
As the community forum ended, Stanford senior research scholar Rafiq Dossani suggested we consider changing STEM to STEAM, with the “A” for arts.
Not a bad idea.
Moneyball and the Talent Mismatch Facing Business
Posted by LJackson in Tech Industry Trends, Tech Workforce Issues on October 5, 2011
(By Tammy Johns, sr. v.p., ManpowerGroup, Harvard Business Review Blog)
When I first read Moneyball: The Art of Winning An Unfair Game (the book that inspired the movie that opened this past weekend), I was struck by the similarities of the challenges that General Manager Billy Beane faced in 2002 to those that business employers face as they try to achieve the best returns on their talent investments. When Billy Beane took charge of the Oakland A’s he was tasked with building a winning team, but to do that he had to compete in the talent market against teams that could afford to pay players triple what his budget allowed. On top of that huge recruiting disadvantage, he recognized that the selection model teams were using was more than a century old.
To read the entire article, click here
Modern day HR: What companies should be doing on social networking sites. (We Know Next)
Posted by cserfoss in Tech Industry Trends on September 29, 2011
…A new trend in Human Resources has emerged—social networking and brand management. Because those concepts are much more appealing than employee relation’s issues and OSHA investigations, many HR professionals are coming to their senior leaders and asking for permission to play in the social media and Internet marketing space…
Read the complete article here
Employers are liking — and hiring — social media workers (LA Times)
Posted by cserfoss in Tech Industry Trends on September 29, 2011
Corporate America is on a hiring binge for people to manage a company’s presence on Facebook, Twitter and similar sites. Once given such titles as social media wizards, ninjas and divas, they take their jobs seriously and are gaining more respect…
Read the complete article here