S2C-Massachusetts launches campaign.

Business, Labor, Education Leaders Call for New Education, Economic Vision

Skills2Compete-Massachusetts launched today with the release of Massachusetts’ Forgotten Middle-Skill Jobs. The study, written by National Skills Coalition, SkillWorks, and The Workforce Solutions Group, projects more than 396,000 “middle-skill” job openings for Massachusetts by 2016. The report, which was featured in the Boston Globe, found that although the recession has halted current employment growth, middle-skill jobs (including new jobs and replacement) will account for 38 percent of all openings between 2006 and 2016. But to unleash the full economic benefits of these openings, Massachusetts will need to continue to invest in proper training and education for its workforce to make sure it has people ready for those jobs.

Kicking off this week with a broad coalition of business, labor and education leaders, the Skills2Compete-Massachusetts campaign is calling on state leaders to embrace a strong vision to guide an economic and education strategy that would allow all residents to improve their skills and secure the Commonwealth’s place in a 21st-century economy:

Every Massachusetts resident should have access to the equivalent of at least two years of education or training past high school—leading to a vocational credential, industry certification, or one’s first two years of college—to be pursued at whatever point and pace makes sense for individual workers and industries. Every person must also have access to the basic skills and support needed to pursue such education.

During a press conference on the release of the report, coalition member Tim Sullvan, Director of Communications and Government Relations for the Massachusetts AFL-CIO, said the following:

This report is actually good news. For a long time I think, particularly those of us in labor, have felt that the economy over time was going to continue to trend towards kind of a polarization, where you have high-skill jobs with high wages for those people who are fortunate enough to seek higher education and attain a four-year degree or a masters or even higher, and then there would be nothing left but low-skill, low-wage jobs for those folks who didn't have those opportunities. And this report states very, very clearly that that is not the case. That we have great reason to hope that there is going to be a great, strong middle as long as we prepare the workforce to take those jobs and to be able to adequately do them so they can have secure employment and sustain their families.

Coalition member Suzanne Bruhn, Senior Vice President of Strategic Planning and Progam Management for Shire Pharmaceutical, echoed Mr. Sullivan's comments, discussing the continued (and growing) demand for skilled workers in the bio-tech industry:

The biotech sector is growing rapidly, and finding qualified employees remains a challenge. As part of our manufacturing facility expansion here in Massachusetts, we plan to hire around 600 employees, many for positions that do not require four-year degrees. These include jobs such as Manufacturing Operator, Quality Control Technician, and Maintenance Mechanic; entry-level positions with benefits that offer potential for job growth and provide self-sufficient wages.

S2C-Massachusetts joins ten other states as part of NSC’s national Skills2Compete initiative, a non-partisan campaign to ensure the nation’s workforce has the skills needed to meet business demand, foster innovation, and grow shared prosperity. Skills2Compete encourages America to address U.S. competitiveness in a way that includes the vast majority of America’s future workers, that is, jobs in the middle of the skilled labor market which require some training beyond high school, but not a four-year degree.