The skills gap is not a new issue for Business Roundtable, our member CEOs or this blog. I have written extensively on it, and CEOs have talked at length about it.
Still, there is always need new ground to be charted, and we did so this month by releasing a CEO survey – conducted in conjunction with Change the Equation – on the effect of the skills gap on businesses, followed by a discussion by a panel of CEOs to talk about the results and their implications.
Bottom line: 97 percent of CEOs say the skills gap is a problem for their companies. CEOs are a strong-minded group. They rarely reach such consensus on any issue, which indicates clearly how big of a deal CEOs believe the skills gaps to be. STEM skills are particularly lacking among job candidates, they told us, and those are the skills that will be most in demand. You can read the full results here.
Jerry Seib, Washington Bureau Chief of The Wall Street Journal, moderated the lively panel discussion, which included Jamie Dimon, Chairman & CEO, JPMorgan Chase & Co.; Eric Spiegel, President & CEO, Siemens Corporation; Rex Tillerson, Chairman & CEO, Exxon Mobil Corporation; Maggie Wilderotter, Chairman & CEO, Frontier Communications Corporation. (Video of the discussion is available here.)
Each CEO talked about what his or her company is doing to address the skills gap, from teacher training programs to community college curriculum development. Highlights include:
Jamie Dimon described how JP Morgan Chase & Co., among other initiatives, has a special focus on hiring veterans. He also highlighted the importance of increasing graduation rates, particularly in inner city schools.
Eric Spiegel discussed the important role of community colleges in worker training, and he emphasized how curriculum in educational institutions must align with the demands of the real world. Siemens has had success with such initiatives in Charlotte.
Rex Tillerson talked about ExxonMobil’s support for National Math and Science Initiative (NMSI) and UTeach. He discussed the importance of starting early with skills development and how the Common Core State Standards for K-12 English and math education provide a “line of site” to a job.
Maggie Wilderotter discussed the importance of public-private partnerships, including actually sending Frontier Communications employees into the classrooms to teach. She also described how her company has gotten creative with training, bringing back retirees to serve as trainers and mentors for current employees.
It was a great discussion that went beyond the hypothetical to the actual, and though it started with the release of numbers, the CEOs went beyond the data and talked about the people and lives that the skills gap (and closing it) impacts.
It’s going to take a lot of collaboration among many stakeholders – business, government, education, etc. – but with determination, we will close the gap. Business Roundtable CEOs are determined.
Click here to read our latest report, “Closing America’s Skills Gap: A Business Roundtable Vision and Action Plan.”