Workforce need polish, US businesses declare...

[solinvictus]

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=2027&ncid=2027&e=4&u=/chitribts/20050410/ts_chicagotrib/workforceneedspolishusbusinessesdeclare

"As lawmakers and educators struggle to improve high schools in the U.S., businesses and labor unions say they are alarmed that even job seekers with a diploma can't function in the workplace."

Duh! I used to have Kelly Services temps working for me and several of them couldn't understand such a simple concept as sequential numbers. Of course, this is what the Neo-cons want: an ignorant public.

[Wilms]

1. Tell business they got what they paid for. n/t

[Warpy]

3. You can't stiff the country on taxes

and expect the services to provide you with healthy and well educated workers.

It just doesn't work that way, fellas.

You can't stiff your workers and expect them to provide you with a market, either.

[intheflow]

13. It's okay to stiff public schools.

If you don't like it, send your kid to private school. Or better yet, have mom stay home and homeschool!

:sarcasm:

[lumpy]

24. So true

There is plenty of talent in this country who need the jobs that pay a living wage according to US standards. Contrary to the US Chamber of Congress head who 'explained, some time ago, that the US just dosen't have the 'talent' that outsourcing jobs to foreign countries have to offer. This is the bullshit answer he gave to the question of why US corporations are outsourcing jobs. It's all about cheap labor and tax breaks, guys.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

2. How conveeenient.

The Repooplicans happily cut funding for the public schools so everybody who graduates is a dumbass who can't function in the workplace, which gives the bosses yet another excuse to ship the jobs to India, where the work will be done both cheaply and more or less competently. Meanwhile, back in the good ol' U. S. of A., all us undereducated proles will be reduced to sweeping floors and collecting garbage and mowing lawns for the fatasses in their gated communities, and with no health insurance, no pensions, no Social Security, we'll be reduced to begging on the streets and all our big cities will look like freaking Calcutta.

[lumpy]

27. Please give the graduates

credit for not being 'dumbasses'. They are not 'dumbasses'. Don't be taken in by this outrageous ploy to explain away the downsizing of America. How do think graduates feel when they hear this kind of crap? Pretty depressing, I would think, for those who work hard to be tops in education. Shame!

[cmd]

33. Thank you, lumpy!

I completely agree with you.

[The Velveteen Ocelot]

41. Errr.... Ever heard of sarcasm?

[raccoon]

36. Right, Ocelot,

and kidnapping will become a domestic "industry" as people become increasingly desperate.

[katty]

38. Exactly, cutting funds and tax base starvation of PSchools

creating the low wage labor over 25yrs+ that 3rd world America will need through the 21st Century.

[Maple]

4. So...you're all saying

that American schools are worse than Indian schools...in spite of centuries of poverty in India...and it's all the fault of American big business that you aren't educated as well as people in India.

Damned convenient excuse, I must say.

[DBoon]

8. India invests a lot in educating its technical elite

They are willing to publicly fund higher education for a minority of the most talented - enough to easily make them competitive with the US.

They do have a large mass of uneducated peasants, however these people do not really participate in global markets in really significant ways. For a peasant to be uneduated is not good, but it does not impact a country's economic competitiveness.

The US has no class of self sufficient peasants. Everyone here makes something for sale. If we are not educated to make "stuff" well, it hurts our global competitiveness.

India does a better job than us where it matters.

[RawMaterials]

10. no they send everyone over to

USA schools because the dollars dropping so much it is cheep to go to USA colleges.

[lumpy]

28. This does not explain

the lack of 'talent' in the US for assembly line jobs that do not require high tech training that are outsourced to foreign countries. There are plenty of people right here at home that would be very happy to have a low tech job instead of being on limited unemployment and desperate for a steady 9 to 5 job even without benifits.

[Journeyman]

12. Someone boasted to GB Shaw, "I'm a self-educated man." . . .

to which Shaw replied, "As are we all, sir."

Years ago, a friend's mother told me we can only blame our parents for a lousy childhood. At some point, happiness as an adult becomes an inside job. Same with education. No matter how miserable I may feel my public education was (and I certainly have issues with it), since I got out of high school I've busted my ass to educate myself… and I've worked hard to educate my children, too. And despite seven years of university education, I've continued to educate myself at a near fever pitch the last 25 years.

I'm concerned about what's happening in India. Anyone in the market today has to be concerned about outsourcing and all the attendant downsizing -- even if you've got your own business, as I do -- but I know I'll never lose a client or a project because I wasn't educated enough . . .

[Lydia Leftcoast]

16. I learned more in my spare time as a teenager than I ever did in high

school, but I grew up in a house full of books on every possible subject as well as great literature. I was also interested in the books.

My parents also made sure that our vacations were at least partly educational. Even if we were just going camping out West, we'd stop at all the historic sites and places with interesting geology. So I knew what a continental divide was when I was eight years old.

The problem in America today is that people don't value learning--they value certification. Students would ask me, "How can I get better grades?" And I'd say, "Learn the material at the required level, and if you have trouble with that, come and see me, and we'll talk about your study techniques."

But very few came for advice, because actually learning to speak Japanese was not their purpose in taking a Japanese class. They wanted employers to be impressed with all the "A's" in Japanese on their transcripts. Throughout my college teaching career, I had students trying to figure out what the trick was to getting an "A" out of me without learning anything.

Time and again, I heard colleagues complaining that the students seemed to see college as a game, the purpose of which was to figure out "what the professor wants" and to give the professor what he or she supposedly wanted but without any interest or conviction, merely as a cynical attempt at manipulation.

If I could wave a magic wand and grant one trait to the American public that they now lack, it would be intellectual curiosity.

[lumpy]

29. Thank you for an insightful

definition of what it takes to get along in this world. I know so many people who do strive without benifit of encouragement from businesses who are just looking at the bottom line instead of the welfare and healh of our US economy.

[Old and In the Way]

19. volunteered to tutor remedial math at a company Iworked for about 10 years

ago. Pretty basic stuff - fractions, decimals, simple algebra. It was an eye opener.

[lumpy]

25. This is the excuse corporations

give for outsourcing jobs to foreign countries. The US 'lacks job talent' that that India has to offer. Yeah, sure...Who really buys this unpatriotic bullshit excuse for downsizing the US work force. The bastards are ruining the economy of the US, plain and simple.

[MrPrax]

5. "working for me"

Damn...so they didn't make you richer? Is that your beef?

If your're not providing jobs, you can't really complain...nobody cares

[tanyev]

6. Oh, please.

That is NOT why they are sending all the jobs to India and China.

[nolabels]

18. Most people don't understand that , but some do

American bushiness spend billions in trying to devise ways to kill off the last remnants of what was once a proud workforce spearheaded by many strong unions. All that is gone now. Businessmen in the USA are just picking trough the bones. Bonn appetite Mr. Businessman, you may now have much more control over the US labor marker, but them high paying wages that once supported the economy and laid them golden eggs are gone. :hi:

[tsuki]

30. Speaking as one in the trades, I have fought with the local school

board for years. Vocational training here is...if you work with your hands, you must be stupid, so let's send all the discipline problems to VoTech.

When the NeoCons killed the union system, the unions did not do a good enough job explaining their function. They trained the future generations in construction. They had a masters, journeyman and apprentice system. Now, that is gone.

A few lone voices against the Chamber of Commerce, the NeoCon politicians, the School Administration, Big Construction and media is not going to replace what we have lost.

[nolabels]

43. They won't need to soon

When the real cost of transportation starts to filter into the cost of living this import everything culture will die. The make it at home or do without will be the only practical thing to do.

There is no longer any cheap oil anymore and it's going to get worse.

Life is always happens to us while we are busy doing other things

[cornermouse]

7. I watched a pbs segment about the Appalachians

tonight.

Learned quite a bit, the mining corporations legally stole their land, hired a detective agency which had a bunch of criminals on their payroll to function as enforcers, the U.S. government in support of the corporations sent the military in and planes out to drop bombs on the striking miners (this was after WWI), and overall there was some rather uncomfortable similarities between what was happening then and what is happening now.

Also having a little trouble getting sleep after seeing the paper which showed that the probably retarded Hatfield who they hung was screaming which upset the onlookers. I hope they heard his screams every time they shut their eyes for the rest of their lives...

[dcfirefighter]

9. A bigger problem than funding

is the inability to enforce discipline in the schools.

Quite a few schools systems have excellent funding, more than $10,000 per student. But they are cesspits where the teachers are happy if they can keep the kids from killing each other. Math concepts are secondary to physical safety.

[ikojo]

17. Schools get the kids when they turn five...

by then they have been with some sort of parent for five years. Most American kids are not disciplined at home so it's a bit much to expect the schools to do what many parents refuse to do: hold their kids accountable. Most kids are raised now not knowing what it is to lose a game (it might hurt their self esteem) and not having heard the word no when it comes to some demand. There are few if any boundaries in many American kids' lives.

Return to the days when parents ruled the roost and kids were held accountable by their parents then things may change.

[Daphne08]

34. Amen! Education begins at home!

[raccoon]

37. Amen to that

so much of the time you hear people/the media going on and on about how bad the schools are, yadda, yadda...

Not mentioning that--as you said, discipline is such a problem. Students have learned that they can do just about anything and GET AWAY with it.

Also, now, whenever the student has a problem at school, many parents think it's the school's fault, the teacher's fault, never the student's fault.

[ikojo]

39. If the student is at fault then it stands to reason that the

student learned that behavior somewhere and most likely that place was THE HOME. So, naturally many parents don't want to believe they erred in someway when it comes to preparing their precious prince or princess for the larger world.

Kids learn the blame game very early on.

[Nikia]

11. Schools really don't teach job skills

I do think that students who are willing to learn will learn enough reading and math skills for most jobs. As for these soft skills that they are talking about, everyone seems to assume that they are common sense things, but this is not really the case. There are many things that I learned only once I entered certain work environments and other things that I am still not sure about as far as how to behave in my organization. One of the things that I have learned while training people is: never assume that they know anything about the task. I no longer worry about insulting a persons intelligence, especially where safety is involved.

[katsy]

14. Yeah yeah yeah...

Every job seeker with a diploma is stupid. Yeah this all happened in 5 years in every state of the union.

In that case, pack your pfhucking jobs and get the pfhuck out of America. If Americans are too stupid to work for you, they don't have the big $ to buy your products.

They build multimillion manufacturing plants in China, but can't sell the products to the slave-wage earners in China. Well if they're such great workers, pay them decent wages so you'll have a market there you pfucking idiots!

Don't bring your products back here for us to buy... just sell them overseas you dumb pfhucks. We won't miss your tainted meat, mercury fish, substandard cars, wash once & throw away clothes. JUST GET OUT.

I refuse to buy this crap coming from corpo-fascist companies who through the other side of their mouths talk about how great American productivity is.

They don't outsource because Americans are stupid. They outsource because of greed. To cut the cost of wages and pass the savings on to their shareholders.

I wish they would get out permanently. It just may be a new beginning.

ON EDIT: I do not dispute that our educational system is in trouble. Thank vouchers for that. HOWEVER, this press release is nothing but a propoganda blitz and an insult to our intelligence.

[Cornczech]

40. Amen

ditto and second those thoughts...there are times when I think that it would be a GOOD thing to go back to the days before all we could think about was CONSUME, CONSUME, CONSUME...that's what we have been BRAINWASHED to do....no, Americans are no more "stupid" than we were 10 years ago....we're just a MILLION times more gullible...(I probaly misspelled that too...damn American public education (sarcasm).........

[katsy]

44. Welcome!

:hi:

[Javaman]

15. It's only going to get worse, the full effects of...

no (all children ) child left behind has yet to take effect.

When you underfund education, this is what happens.

Morons on parade!

[AndyTiedye]

20. Just In Time For Them To Issue A Bunch Of H1B Visas I Bet

They need their shills in the media going on about how American workers are no good
so they need to outsource more, and bring in more immigrants on H1Bs.

Is this real or is this the cheap labor "conservatives" being heard from again?

OK, you claim there is some foundation to it. If so, one must ask why.

It it's really so much worse than it was just 5 years ago, maybe it's
because the economy has sucked so bad for so long now that those
graduating now haven't even been able to get the sort of summer jobs
that kids used to get (because desperate adults have taken them!)
so they may actually have no work experience at all.

How well would you have done in your first "real" job,
if it were the first job of any kind you ever held?

4998

[cap]

23. actually they want to issue 20K more H1B visas...

the 60K quota for this year has been used up.

Business cant complain about the quality of the workforce... there are too many over 40 with degrees out the wazoo who are underemployed.

[JDPriestly]

21. Kelly services temps?

That's the problem. Why should employees invest their time and money in learning the skills they need for the workplace if employers aren't willing to invest their time and money in their employees -- in longterm jobs and the benefits, pensions, health care, continued education, vacations, etc. that go with longterm jobs and if employers refuse to view the employees as human beings? Employers have only themselves to blame if employees come to work without first training themselves to work. Through their at-will, here today, gone tomorrow attitude toward jobs, employers convey the message that there is no use in being a really top-notch employee. No matter how well you perform as an employee, you are as dispensable and replaceable as a broken typewriter vintage 1973.

[FormerOstrich]

22. If you read the article.....

the focus is more on "soft" skills. Such as punctuality and respecting authority. In other words, they aren't complaining about if they are intelligent enough, but just if they behave like good little drones and not cause any ruckus. They don't want people thinking for themselves. This is BULLSHIT!

[lumpy]

26. This is the first lie :

"lawmakers and educators struggle to improve high schools.." The second lie: US graduates are ignorant and inept. The 'dumbing down of America' is a fallacy. Plenty of qualified young and older people are crying for a decent paying jobs with accompanying integrity of benifits.

[applegrove]

31. Repukes have been in power too much. That is why Americans are

not ready. They don't fix problems. They just use them to get power and fix things for the elites.

[inthebrain]

32. This is silly

Of course kids out of high school dont have the skills required to survive in the workplace. They are only born with two hands. It makes it extremely difficult to have him/her work the jobs of three people at once.

Since corporations arent interested in investing in their work force, just blame the schools. THe only prolem that I have with the schools is that they dont teach these kids to satnd togather and stick it to these dickheads.

That is what America is all about!!!!

[Dervill Crow]

35. You can't win.

It's a mixed bag. I have a co-worker who is making sure her kids are getting the grades they need to ensure they will be college material. They have to be busy every minute of every day doing their homework and chores and not sitting on their behinds watching TV. Of course, she is on the phone with them a minimum of 30 minutes each day when she should be doing her own work. Probably another 15 to 30 minutes spent e-mailing her kids' teachers. Another 15 minutes e-mailing (or on the phone) with her husband to communicate what she has learned in her phone calls and e-mails.

I wonder if her kids are getting any better of an education than my own kids, who skated through high school with less than stellar grades and went on to vocational schools.

[w4rma]

42. What a crock of BS. The problem isn't skills inside the US it's SALARY

In order to live inside the US a much larger salary is required than for folks who live in China, Indonesia, or India.

As multinationals drop the salaries within the US they make our nation POORER and less powerful.

[CAMANY]

45. Since when do schools answer to corporations?

Remember when school was actually about getting an education rather than learning how to work for X corporation? You know, things like government, writing, thinking.... Allowing school to become nearly 100% job training is the reason 50% of the country doesn't vote and the other 50% has become so ignorant they've allowed corporate fascists to now control everything.