Economics

弥合技能缺口

Nov 20, 2013 Mona Mourshed

华盛顿—在失业一飞冲天的现时代，一个看似合理的假设是公司不必担心找不到工人。但最新的麦肯锡调查询问了全世界2 800多家企业，发现这一假设是完全错误的。四成企业表示找不到工人从事入门岗位工作，三分之一以上的受访者表示劳动力市场上找不到契合自己企业的技能。

与此同时，全球年轻人在苦苦寻找工作。欧元区危机有助于解释为何希腊和西班牙一大半年轻人找不到工作，但像南非和尼日利亚这样的增长迅猛的经济体也在经历类似的年轻人失业。在中东和北非，三分之一的年轻人没有工作。而在美国，去年有大约一半的25岁以下学士学位拥有者在毕业时没有找到工作。

所有这些都指向给当今经济造成巨大代价的技能不匹配问题。光是在美国，改善教育方面的失败的机会成本到2030年就将高达1.7万亿美元。类似地，通过弥合扩大的技能缺口，到2020年中国可以增加2 500亿美元的GDP。那么，为何在确保年轻人获得他们需要的技能方面我们不能做得更好？

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0 Comments on this paragraph, 6 Comments on this article

Gloria Liliana Marrocco-Maffei in Piccolo Jan 22, 2014

An issue that is never addressed in Education topics is the inexistent ability to learn, and the professors impossibility to teach this skill that they never have learned. To be the smartest of one's hamlet doesn't make a good teacher. To earn good marks doesn't make a good learner. And European universities are full of people that only can repeat what they know by heart, and ... maybe...that's not for sure.
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Konstantinos Balkamos Dec 11, 2013

I think that the article voluntarily doesn't ask or offers any insights and information on which industries and what roles there's a lack of ''skillful'' employees. At least in Europe there's a great demand in people with IT or/and engineering skills and degrees. In general there's a demand for applied knowledge graduates. By nature ''applied knowledge'' whether a new programming language or an engineering software are in constant update. Employers are in need for people with knowledge or the capacity to adjust to these updates. But training costs especially for entry level graduates and ask from universities to become more market oriented...But is this the role of the universities and education in general？University's duty is to provide a sufficient level of analytical and critical skills in every discipline and not offer ephemeral training just to satisfy the employers' needs.
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Yunus January Dec 2, 2013

There is also the factor of improved technology and how it is causing many jobs to become redundant. Machines do not need to be managed and are far more reliable than your average employee. The gap is a result of a lower demand for; or oversupply of human capital.
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Craig Hardt Nov 23, 2013

As someone who is just starting my career I think there are two sides to the coin here. Yes, colleges and universities need to do a better job ensuring students are aware of the major skill-sets employers are looking for and offer applicable training. But the burden should also be on employers to train their entry-level employees. Education is about more than skills training. It's essential in so many different parts of life completely unrelated to the particular job students end up in. If college leads students to enter the workforce with a solid understanding of who they are, what their goals are, and some level of career guidance that matches those two criteria, they have succeeded. It's up to employers to provide the necessary training opportunities (and the students themselves after entering the workforce to put in the work) if we want to successfully bridge the skills gap.
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Saloni Arora Nov 22, 2013

I believe that there is an additional factor of a high number of fresh college graduates who in the name of experience drop out soon of higher education and join the labour force which is obviously not as much trained or equipped to fulfill the employer's requirement.
A positive development in this respect is the recent opening up of internship and training opportunities by most of the employers to ensure the development of a certain skills base before this young blood joins the labour force.
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Stamatis Kavvadias Nov 21, 2013

Interesting examples but little insight...
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