Training Tomorrow’s Workforce
By Kenzie Dye
Building a skilled technical workforce is vital for the future of West Virginia. Technology is integrated into most industries in our world today. Whether you’re operating a chemical manufacturing plant, developing thermal enabled drones to aid in wildfire suppression or working as a cybersecurity specialist, technology is at the forefront. While we know that these are some of the jobs already available, we need to think about how to create a workforce equipped to take on these and other jobs of the future that don’t even exist yet.
Utilize Career Technical Education
It may seem like an obvious solution, but investing in the state’s community and technical colleges is crucial when creating a spectrum of skilled workers.
“Investing in community colleges creates two things,” says Sudip Parikh, Ph.D., CEO of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and executive publisher of Science Family of Journals. “It creates the people, but it also creates this critical mass that says to employers that there are people here who are going to be able to work for them.”
Career technical education (CTE) programs in public schools also aid in addressing the shortage of skilled workers in West Virginia.
“The West Virginia Department of Education is working to expand CTE programs so students can consider these options earlier as they prepare for a successful and productive future,” says Michele Blatt, state superintendent of schools.
One of these programs, the Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics Technical Assistance Center (STEAM TAC) in Morgantown, WV, enhances education for middle school students statewide by focusing on all content areas and promoting problem-solving and critical thinking skills. Since January 2022, STEAM TAC has visited all 55 West Virginia counties and 248 schools and impacted 31,353 students.
West Virginia’s CTE programs enable students to explore potential careers in a multitude of technical training programs. These programs provide students with opportunities for industry-recognized credentials and work-based learning.
Diversify Delivery Methods of Education and Training
Not only do people differ in how they learn best, but the skills needed to meet the demands of the workforce are becoming increasingly diverse. James Bailey, secretary of commerce for the state of West Virginia, believes an all-of-the-above and more approach to workforce development is the key to addressing this challenge.
“In addition to bolstering career pathways through the traditional education system, we are embracing more flexible and job-specific training programs,” he says.
The state is more frequently working directly with employers to develop training programs that relate to the jobs they need to fill. This approach to training students is being used at Marshall University.
“We are leaning into more modern aspects of education, such as on-demand classes that are offered online or in a hybrid model, with shorter duration modules that lead to certificates and micro-credentials,” says Brad Smith, president of Marshall University.
Micro-credentials are essential in order to enable individuals who want to be part of tomorrow’s tech workforce to keep up with the demand of modern innovation and consumer conveniences.
“There is also a major effort underway with the expansion of micro-credentialing at the state universities,” Bailey says. “Micro-credentials provide more tailored training programs that can be quickly designed for specific needs.”
This expansion of micro-credentialing can be seen in the diesel technician program at BridgeValley Community and Technical College in Kanawha County.
“The West Virginia Automotive Dealers Association and several local car dealerships have asked us to expand our diesel technician program to include automotive technology,” says Casey Sacks, Ph.D., president of BridgeValley. “Part of the expansion includes certifications in electric vehicle technology so we can train new technicians on emerging technologies and people who are already working as technicians in the field can come back for the certifications that they need to stay current with the changing trends.”
In addition to providing today’s students with the skills they need to thrive in tomorrow’s tech workforce, soft skills must not be forgotten.
“The one constant that I hear from employers that we can’t get away from teaching is soft skills,” says Bailey. “Regardless of the sector or specialization of the job, employers want employees with developed soft skills, including communication, teamwork, critical thinking and others.”
While technology is ever-changing, basic soft skills are here to stay and valuable no matter the career field.
“The goal is to cultivate 21st century career skills, while continuing to invest in the development of life skills,” says Smith. “Never have the foundational skills of communication, collaboration, financial literacy and teamwork and the core aspects of a well-rounded liberal arts education been more important.”
Encourage West Virginians to Choose Home
Training students to be successful workers in tomorrow’s tech workforce is a great way to encourage West Virginians to stay in West Virginia. Equipping these students with both the soft and technical skills needed to get a job is just one half of the equation—they also need to be guided where to look.
“We have 80% of our students that actually go through four-year degrees within West Virginia leaving West Virginia because they think there are opportunities that only exist outside,” Brandon Downey, president and CEO of Trilogy Innovations, Inc., says. “There are a lot of companies here with a lot of openings that are paying phenomenal salaries for their expertise.”
To be more specific, there are nearly 30,000 job positions open in West Virginia, many of which are what retired Major General James Hoyer, vice president of economic innovation at West Virginia University (WVU), considers next-generation tech blue collar jobs, which are essential to the future workforce.
“We’ve got to go back to being able to produce more plumbers, more HVAC technicians, more welders, more high-tech, next-generation tech blue collar workers,” Hoyer says. “Somebody that can operate a sophisticated manufacturing plant would be considered a tech blue collar worker, such as a chemical plant operator.”
Not having enough jobs is no longer the issue. The current challenge now, Bailey says, is developing the workforce to fill those 30,000 jobs.
“We wouldn’t have Nucor, BHE Energy, Fidelis and all these other large employers locating in West Virginia if they weren’t confident that they could fill the jobs,” Bailey says.
WVU Institute of Technology (WVU Tech) is one of many universities in the state working to enable students to find careers in the Mountain State.
“Our programs provide students with hands-on learning with connections to local and global employers to ensure that they’re prepared to enter the workforce with the knowledge needed for industry needs,” says Jen Wood, chief of staff and executive director of university engagement at WVU Tech. “For example, our chemical engineering students worked with Belle Chemical on a capstone project that allowed for our students to experience the needs of the industry and employer while also providing research support to the corporate partner.”
Collaborating with local businesses to train today’s students for tomorrow’s tech workforce not only provides them with real-world experience, but also communicates to future businesses that West Virginia is worth investing in.
Learning the Technology of the Future
By Anna Moore
It’s true that technology is constantly changing, and John Chambers, founder and CEO of JC2 Ventures, says technology and innovation wait on no one.
“There is no entitlement anymore,” the former chairman and CEO of Cisco says. “Before, if you weren’t in Silicon Valley or with Stanford or up at MIT in Boston, you couldn’t compete, but today you can do that wherever the education system has the courage to change and disrupt itself.”
It’s that disruption to the norm that fans the flame of innovation and sets the pathway to the future. Before the early 1980s, computer networks did not have a way of communicating with one another. With the creation of both Transfer Control Protocol and Internetwork Protocol, the momentum for the internet took flight. Over time as more people learned the technology, it became a normal part of their lives and changed the way they worked. From the use of email and online calendars to e-commerce, cloud storage, fintech and now artificial intelligence (AI), work productivity has never been higher as we are now able to communicate more effectively and broadly, be more organized, respond to problems faster and complete orders at lightning speeds. The change didn’t occur at once, rather it happened overtime.
Instead of fearing more change, Chambers says we need to be willing to take risks now in order to set ourselves up for success in the future.
“When the internet came, you didn’t suddenly do everything by the internet. You have to pick which areas will be the early movers and the early success areas that will work well, and then you do the more complex things three, four or five years down the road,” he says.
Chambers, who is the namesake behind West Virginia University’s (WVU) John Chambers College of Business and Economics, says that success starts with training tomorrow’s workforce through education. A degree, however, is no longer what educators should train their students for, but rather a job with economic gain.
“In 2022, 94% of Chambers college undergraduates were employed six months post-graduation, compared to 70% in 2018,” he says. “Many people get jobs after they graduate, so we’re training young people not to just get a degree, that way you don’t have to decide if a degree is worth the economic return and the pain that it causes for you as a student, for your family or for the taxpayer, but if I can get the economic return, it’s a good investment for me, my family and my state.That transition is occurring. So, we all must own this and at the big picture level. I’ve never seen a state united behind the vision like we are in West Virginia.”
Courses in AI, entrepreneurship, big data, supply chain and others are just examples of some of the courses being offered at WVU or Marshall University that help drive this point.
With AI in particular, Chambers says the benefits far outweigh the disadvantages, but the time to learn the technology is now.
“Realize it’s here to stay and realize that unlike prior technologies where you had to be able to program to be really effective in high-tech companies to achieve certain jobs, now you just need to know how to use the technology,” he says. “How do you use the Chat GPT type of capability to say, ‘Tell me what’s working in my network? What’s not? How secure am I versus my counterparts? There was a hack in Microsoft code the other day, so what does that mean to me?’ Those are basic questions that we use technology to help us answer, so it’s evolving quickly on the approach and that’s why it’s so important to teach each of us, especially our young people, coming to the job market.”
As this transition to faster internet, high performance computing and high-tech capabilities continues, Chambers is encouraged by the direction West Virginia is headed.
“I think we have become a state that knows how to dream again,” Chambers says proudly. “I think we’ve become a state that knows how to translate dreams into companies, jobs and education. I think we’re a state that is willing to take risks and knows that if we don’t change, we are going to get disrupted in a terrible way. I think we’re a state that just like any sports team, we’re not going to win every game, but boy, if you don’t play, you don’t win.”
West Virginia is here to play.
