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Training industry news

Minnesota: Disabled job-seekers gain skills and certification

November 11, 2009 11:27 by jllorens

Chad Creager trained 45-year-old Marc Moorvitch how to safely use a Tennant auto scrubber for cleaning floors.

"He's a fast learner," said the manager of employment services at Opportunity Partners, a Minnetonka-based nonprofit organization that helps people with disabilities live, learn and work as independently as possible.

In the past, Moorvitch's training with the industrial machine wouldn't have gained him a formal job certification.

But in a collaboration between Opportunity Partners and Dunwoody College of Technology, participants like Moorvitch will be trained using Dunwoody curricula and gain certification for jobs at the same time, while ensuring that their skills training meets the specific needs of employers and industry standards.

Read the entire article.


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Categories: News

Categories: News
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Profiles International Identifies Eight Signs of Incompetent Managers

October 27, 2009 12:30 by Ann Pace

Austin, TX (PRWEB) -- Profiles International, a global leader in employment evaluation and human resource management assessment tools, has released a report identifying eight signs of incompetent managers. Along with the signs of managerial incompetence, the report also offers practical remedies for management training to help managers achieve greater success. Highlighting information gleaned from its research into America's Most Productive Companies, this report emphasizes that the most productive companies are more proactive than their peers when it comes to identifying and developing effective management.

Read the white paper.


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Categories: News | Research

Categories: News | Research
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Illinois: Over 1 Million 'Middle-Skill' Jobs Expected by 2016

October 22, 2009 18:11 by jllorens

CHICAGO, Oct. 21 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Already reeling from its worst unemployment rate in a generation, Illinois is also leaving its workers ill-prepared to benefit from the biggest wave of job openings projected for the state over the next seven years, a new report released today has found.

More than one million "middle-skill" job openings -- those that require more than a high school diploma, but less than a four-year degree -- are projected for the state by 2016, representing the largest portion of jobs in the state's skilled labor market, according to a new study released today by The Workforce Alliance (TWA) and the Skills2Compete-Illinois campaign, an affiliate of the national Skills2Compete campaign. But drastic cuts in state-funded employment training programs threaten to impair efforts to fill future middle-skill jobs.

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Categories: The Economy

Categories: The Economy
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Illinois: Jobs may outpace workers in some fields by 2016

October 22, 2009 16:30 by Ann Pace

There will not be enough trained workers to fill the anticipated 1 million vocational jobs available in Illinois in the next years, according to a report released Wednesday by The Workforce Alliance and Skills2Compete-Illinois, not-for-profit job advocacy organizations.  

The report projects that 45 percent of all available Illinois jobs between 2006 and 2016 will be in the middle-skill level, which generally requires education and training beyond high school but does not require a bachelor’s degree. In that period of time the number of these jobs will outpace the number of workers who have the proper training, leaving jobs vacant.

But the report caused at least one local expert to raise a question.

“This [report] does strike me as an accurate picture of where job growth is going to happen,” said Robert Bruno, professor of labor and industrial relations at University of Illinois-Chicago. However, “the projections are somewhat hopeful.”

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Categories: News

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Top manufacturers place high importance on talent, skills management

October 6, 2009 14:00 by Ann Pace
Results of a new study released on October 5, People & Profitability – A Time For Change, commissioned jointly by Deloitte, The Manufacturing Institute and Oracle, indicate an ongoing need for manufacturers to embrace new and progressive talent strategies in order to maintain profitability and stay competitive in the future. The report serves as a supplement to the 2005 Skills Gap Report issued jointly by Deloitte, the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) and The Manufacturing Institute. 

The study, conducted in May 2009, analyzes the future importance and current performance of people management practices relative to a manufacturer’s business success. It also reveals the challenges manufacturers are facing with talent shortages and offers strategies to address them.

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Categories: Research | The Economy

Despite Economy, Organizations Face Significant IT Talent Gap

September 22, 2009 12:30 by Ann Pace
NEW YORK (PRNewswire) -- According to new research from Deloitte, ITfunctional leaders have an increasingly clear understanding of what they mustdo to effectively support their organizations' business strategies. However,existing IT talent strategies and programs appear to be falling short -leaving IT without the talent necessary to do the job.Based on a global survey of 306 IT decision-makers and executive businessmanagers, and 15 subsequent one-on-one interviews with select respondents,current IT talent issues are having an impact on IT and business performance. Based on the research, Deloitte identifies two major IT talent gaps: growingtalent gap for IT leaders and project managers; and the critical need forimproved IT talent strategies and program execution.
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Categories: News | Research

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'Talent deficit' may hit Indian firms

August 25, 2009 14:30 by Ann Pace

(Bangalore)--After showcasing their talents to the world all these years, companies in India could face a huge 'talent deficit' in the coming years, says a report by Deloitte, a global consultancy firm. As per the report, the reason for this scarcity is that the country is not producing enough people equipped with the right skills required for the globalized environment.

The report titled, 'New India Manager' states that new talent management model in companies will have to shift in outlook. The report suggests that paradigm of 'scarcity of jobs' should convert to 'scarcity of talent'. "Unless a fundamental shift occurs in the educational system, it will continue to produce degree holders who will lack skills to operate in a corporate environment," said Manish Agrawal, Vice President (Strategy and Innovation) at Deloitte.

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Categories: International | News

Nigeria: Skill Acquisition Program a Potential Boost for Labor Market

August 17, 2009 10:30 by jllorens

Sokoto State government recently embarked on a recruitment drive to admit 10,000 youths for the second phase of its skill acquisition programme. The initiative is part of government’s determination to curb restiveness, crime and poverty in the state. MOHAMMED AMINU writes:

Poverty can be traced within the context of contradiction between the resources available at the disposal of an individual and the demands and conditions of his environment. A large number of youths in Sokoto are unskilled, poor and unemployable. The skill acquisition programme set up by the government is an instrument of empowerment that seeks to provide the youths with skills required for sound social living and to enable them become more functional in the society.

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Categories: International | News

Op Ed: Solutions for California's skills gap

August 14, 2009 09:49 by jllorens

(From pressdemocrat.com) By 2025, a new study says, more than 40 percent of the jobs in California will require at least a bachelor’s degree.

But if current trends continue, the researchers say, barely a third of adults will have college diplomas, a shortfall of about a million people. At the same time, the number of high school graduates will outnumber jobs for people with that level of education.

Worse yet, the report by the Public Policy Institute of California was completed before it was clear just how much was going to be cut from higher education in the state budget.

Sonoma State University President Ruben Armiñana put the cuts in stark terms.

“Next year, the system will have 40,000 students less than it has today,” he recently told Staff Writer Kerry Benefield. “Forty thousand is about six Sonoma States.”

Fees for the remaining students will be 30 percent higher than last year, and fewer classes will be available. That means fewer opportunities for people to develop the skills needed for good jobs and to start new companies.

The wage gap is at a record level, with those holding college diplomas earning on average twice as much as high school graduates. In the current recession, high school graduates are more than twice as likely as college graduates to be unemployed.

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Categories: News

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South Africa's focus on skills improvement

June 15, 2009 12:00 by flavioAdmin

(From the Dispatch Online) ONE of the major challenges that South Africa will need to overcome to become a competitive player in the global marketplace is the need to focus on improving and retaining those with the necessary skills sets.

So said East London Industrial Development Zone’s chief executive officer, Simphiwe Kondlo, at the Walter Sisulu University’s (WSU) business breakfast in East London last week.

“There are three main factors that international players look at before even considering investing in a country, that is the regulatory environment, the infrastructure platform and the human capital investment,” he said.

Focusing on human capital, Kondlo said many companies were not only assessing the diversity and depth of certain skill sets, but were also focusing on the attitudes and values of the work force.

(Read the entire article.)


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Categories: News

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