Readiness Essential to Gaining a World of Opportunities

Are we ready?

That question dominated many of the conversations at the ACT annual meeting October 17-18 in Iowa City.

Are we ready to tackle the labor shortage that some sectors of the country are already experiencing? Are we ready to help students connect the dots between high school preparation and college and workplace success? Are we ready to match secondary standards with postsecondary expectations?

These questions—and their answers—weighed heavily on the minds of the ACT board of directors, advisory board members, and staff, plus state representatives and distinguished guests, who shared their thoughts and ideas during the two-day event. Many of the views tied in well with the theme of the meeting, “Preparing for a World of Opportunities.” The consensus was that those opportunities are only possible if we are ready.

“The world has been witness to many changes during the past two decades. Some of these changes have come easily, others not so easily. Where challenges have arisen, opportunities have followed. While some see challenges as obstacles or roadblocks, we at ACT have seen them as opportunities,” said Richard L. Ferguson, ACT CEO and chairman of the board.

Some of these challenges include:

• The globalization of the world economy
• Nations with growing companies and populations with increasingly competitive skill sets
• Advances in technology that have made old ways of doing things obsolete and that require new skill sets throughout a person’s life span

More momentous changes await the United States and much of Europe, Ferguson noted. Among them are the looming retirements of large numbers of baby boomers, a cause for concern.

“The challenges that employers will face in finding new employees whose skills, experience, and knowledge are comparable to those of retiring employees will be enormous,” he said. “The concerns of 20 years ago are today’s reality. We are facing a workforce readiness crisis, one that will worsen in the next five to ten years, as many of the causes for crisis converge.”

Data from reliable sources confirm that the United States will have a difficult time meeting manpower needs. In fact, many workforce sectors are already experiencing labor shortfalls in skilled positions. An effective response to such a challenge rests on two key strategies:

• College and career readiness. Ensuring that young people are acquiring the skills they need to succeed in college, workforce training programs, and careers
• Workforce readiness. Ensuring that adults currently in or just entering the workforce have the increasingly complex skills they will need to qualify for jobs, keep up with the demands of change, and have opportunities for advancement throughout their careers

“A big part of the problem is that many kids don’t understand how to get from point A to point B—with A being where they are now and B where they’d like to be in the future,” said Ralph Coppola, a member of ACT’s Workforce Development Division Advisory Board and director of worldwide education, Parametric Technology Corporation. “ACT’s tools can help them map a pathway. With it, perhaps they’d have more of a chance to get from point A to point B.”

While ACT’s programs are an important part of the process, establishing consensus on key issues is necessary for the programs to accomplish their goals.

“We’ve got to get the 50 states together to decide what the national standards are going to be. We’ve made a good start in showing that a rigorous curriculum in K–12 will prepare students for college, but what we need now is a way for high schools and colleges to have a common understanding of those standards,” said Belle Wheelan, a member of the ACT board of directors and president, Commission on Colleges, Southern Association of Colleges and Schools.

We also have to put aside some of our traditional thinking and be willing to approach old problems in new ways, she said.

“Everybody believes that everybody should go to college. But my principal belief is that we should help everyone get ready for college and for work, because we simply don’t know where people are going to end up,” said James Bostic, Jr., a member of the ACT board of directors and managing director, HEP and Associates and partner, Coleman Law & Associates.

Clearly, the disparity between perception and reality needs to be addressed. College students assume they will qualify for good jobs and that those good jobs will be available when they graduate. Adults in the workforce assume there will be younger people ready to fill their shoes so they can retire. Neither may be true in the not too distant future.

According the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, people in the U.S. workforce today will make up 85 percent of the workforce five years from now. Ten years from now, those same individuals will make up 75 percent of the workforce. Sarita Brown, a board member and president of Excelencia in Education, said she’s noticing a trend among her colleagues that is linked to the labor shortage. Many are renegotiating their retirement schedules, not because they can’t afford to retire, but because there isn’t anyone to do their work.

“Unfortunately, the existing workforce is already being affected, as the number of people with the necessary skills is not keeping up with demand,” said Ferguson. “We’re not talking just about skills for entry-level jobs. We are talking about the broad range of skills needed across the workforce, including the foundational skills that apply to virtually every job in the country.”

Focusing the public and policymakers on the real issues is essential as well, say board members.

“America thinks the solution is to stop China from taking our jobs. But our response should not be to stop the rest of the world, but rather to invest in the people who are here who will make America the number one workforce,” said Roberts T. Jones, a board member and president, Education and Workforce Policy, LLC.

Tackling the issue of readiness includes supporting the needs of three growing segments of the population: high school dropouts, adult learners, and students of color. ACT’s College Readiness System—EXPLORE^®, PLAN^®, and the ACT^®—is one set of tools to help prepare students for the future. But some board members think that utilizing ACT’s WorkKeys and National Career Readiness Certificate into the schools may also be a good strategy.

“We’ve got to find a way to retool dropouts. Getting that population ready to qualify for the National Career Readiness Certificate is an avenue that might help tremendously,” said Wheelan.

Charles Reed, a board member and chancellor, The California State University System, called people of color “America’s future workforce.” But he also noted that they are often underrepresented and that not enough time is spent understanding their role in the workforce. More attention also needs to be given to parents, he noted.

“Parents have more influence on their kids than we give them credit for. If parents could understand what it’s going to take for their kids to get a good job or go to college, how they’re going to pay for it, what courses their kids need to take, then we’d be onto something,” said Reed.

Jones said there is a “significant disconnect” between what ACT knows and what the rest of the country knows. To bridge this gap, ACT needs to “invest more time, money, and leadership” in communicating its data, he said.

ACT is “right on the crest of a great wave,” said Brown. With its strength in policy research, ACT has the capacity to speak directly to the national and international community and has a staff that can motivate people to take action. “ACT has the leadership and investment in a system that is now ready to take on the world. That’s the message we need to deliver.”

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