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Widening Skills Gap

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Imagine an America where the unemployment rate is high, all our manufacturing has been moved to China, and important jobs are left unfilled and forgotten. Right now we are heading towards that future because of our widening skills gap. The skills gap must be solved in the near future because of an increasing unemployment rate which is partially caused by the outsourcing of jobs, but we can fix this by informing the youth about skilled jobs, pushing skilled training and advanced information into high schools, and increasing the amount of internship, apprenticeship, and technical school opportunities available. The main problem of the skills gap is within middle skills jobs. Middle skills jobs are “jobs, which require education beyond high …show more content…

The idea that you need to have a four year college degree is being introduced to children without any alternative options being presented. The youth need to understand that “companies like Amazon, Google, and Facebook are focusing more on whether a candidate has hard skills than if a candidate has a degree” (Houlihan). An introduction to many different jobs, including middle and low skills jobs, will provide children with more options to consider as they grow up. The stigma surrounding jobs like plumbers and electricians is that they are low paying jobs for low class workers. In reality, electricians made a median pay of $52,720 with the highest 10 percent making over $90,000 in 2016 (“Occupational Outlook Handbook”). Plumbers made a median pay of $51,450 in 2016 with the top 10 percent making over $90,000 in 2016 (“Occupational Outlook Handbook”). Middle skills jobs like these are decent paying jobs that don't require a four year degree. The youth need to be informed about these opportunities so they will consider them as an alternative to …show more content…

By informing the youth, the training and exposure of high school students, and the development of apprenticeship and internship programs, we might just be able to keep companies in the United States and lower unemployment in low and middle skills

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