California’s neglected majority: The case for skilled technicians

As goes California, so goes the nation…or so it has been said. Take warehousing, distribution and logistics. Due in part to our manufacturing base and our ports, California is a logistics stronghold. Yet, logistics hubs like the Inland Empire have a real challenge securing strong talent—especially within the ranks of technicians qualified to keep warehouses, distribution centers and logistics operations up and running.

With the growth of the industry, the number of job opportunities for technicians with community college or technical school training is growing, which means employers now struggling to find talent will have an even tougher time in the future. Given the state of the overall economy and job market, you might wonder how this is possible.

One reason lies in the way jobs in the logistics industry have been viewed for far too long: Since many don’t require a four-year college degree, they must not be worth pursuing as a career, right? After all, the long-held belief is that a four-year college degree correlates to a greater gross income. Evolving for almost 40 years, this “college for all” philosophy has parents and educators encouraging all high school graduates to enroll in college in pursuit of potential job security, social mobility and financial prosperity—even if college isn’t a good fit for that student. In the long run, this belief is strangling our industry and depriving us of a skilled technician talent pool.

College for everyone isn’t working
California’s institutional “one way to win” paradigm focuses its efforts toward preparing all students to graduate from high school and enroll directly into a university. In line with this approach, a high school’s state and federal measure of success is based on its rate of college-bound students. It’s no surprise then that middle and high schools focus a majority of their time and resources on college applications, essays, college-prep courses and producing the greatest number of enrolled university-bound students. The question is whether that’s working in light of shifts caused by changing social and economic forces. Let’s look at the numbers.

From 2001 to 2011, 68.7% of California high school students who began as freshmen graduated within four years. That 31.3% dropout rate translates to more than 1.66 million students over a 10-year period that did not go on to college. We can then assume that these individuals immediately joined the local workforce or the military, are chronically unemployed or, sadly, may be incarcerated.

As for those who graduated from high school, the available data shows that an average of 45.7% enrolled as first-time students in either of California’s community colleges or public four-year universities (namely one of the 23 California state universities or a campus of the University of California). These percentages indicate that of the 3,104,161 graduating high school students, 1,418,601 will enroll as first-time college students.

Do the math and only a third of California’s ninth graders enroll into any post-secondary education the year immediately after they graduate from high school. This leaves 54.3%, or roughly 1,685,560 California high school graduates, to avail themselves to whatever life and career readiness skills they may have garnered from high school, which are probably very little. Add in the 1,437,941 students who dropped out between the ninth and 12th grades, and we have a total of 3,123,501 students, or 73% of those originally enrolled ninth graders, who will not immediately attend a university.

Think of them as California’s “neglected majority.” These students equally deserve an opportunity to provide for their families and have a meaningful career as those going on to college. Yet, to achieve those goals, they require alternatives to the “college prep” curriculum and pervasive “one way to win” mindset that is so popular among today’s public schools.

You may think that the outcome is different for those high school students who go on to the college, but the numbers tell a different story.

For many students, college may be the right answer, but the year immediately after high school may not be the right time. Moreover, many are not adequately prepared, emotionally or intellectually equipped, or occupationally focused to succeed. Even among those high school graduates that do enroll as first-time freshman into an accredited four-year institution, only 58% will graduate with a baccalaureate within six years. Do the math once again, and we see that out of the 26% of the originally enrolled ninth graders that graduate from high school and enter university as freshmen, only 16% will complete their bachelor’s degree.

Once that lucky few graduates, they encounter some very harsh truths when they enter the job market. For one, a bachelor’s degree is no longer the guarantee of financial success it had been in the days of California’s burgeoning and vibrant economy. And even if a college degree is attained, a general education may not be enough to land a job in a student’s field of choice.

The federal departments of education and labor report that there are only 57 predicted jobs requiring a four-year degree for every 100 individuals that earns one. This misalignment between awarded degrees and real-world job skills forces 43% of university graduates to be under-employed in what are called “gray-collar jobs.” They end up taking positions that neither need nor require the education they received; this results in their earning less than expected and adding the additional burden of affecting their ability to pay down any accrued student loan debt.

Changing the paradigm
That brings us to the heart of the matter: Even in the face of rising education costs, a shrinking job market, and an over-saturation of some academic majors in the local workforce, California’s educators continue to hold onto a shifted paradigm that wrestles with the contemporary workforce needs and realities that companies face every day.

What’s more, despite the challenges of attaining a four-year college degree in a field that has enough job openings to absorb these newly minted grads, California has a large number of high paying technical jobs—including supply chain technicians and industrial maintenance techs—going unfilled. And, these are jobs that require only a one-year certificate or two-year degree.

For example, local DCs are scrambling for bright and hard-working personnel to replace their increasingly aging workforce and manage the advanced complicated materials handling equipment we so heavily rely on. As potential employers, many are more interested in knowing what skills an individual has, and that they have an interest in growing and doing well in our field, than on what degree hangs on the student’s wall.

There is no immediate or recognized solution that fully addresses the “neglected majority” in California. What the numbers do illustrate, however, is: We should continue to provide the opportunity for students to meet their highest potential. However, deluding ourselves into believing that everyone has the ability and desire to be successful in the university right after high school (at the expense of those that do not enroll) is simply not logical.

There is a very real need to shift California’s educational system focus that seeks to prepare all children for the university. Most high school counselors, administrators, teachers and school boards assert with good intentions that all students “will go” to university, as they create and promote a “one-size-fits-all” approach to college-prep high school curriculum. But currently, all that has been achieved is setting up 74% of ninth graders to fail while starving them of the tools they need to be successful in a highly competitive global workforce.

California, for all its fine efforts, does not adequately prepare the 74% of ninth graders who will directly enter the workforce with work-readiness skills. Since the 1970s, California has stripped most public schools of vocational programs, and where those programs are present, they are chronically under-funded.

We need to educate our colleagues and educational partners about the realities of a four-year degree. Just getting in is not the goal. Just graduating with a bachelor’s degree is also not the end goal, since 43% of college graduates are underemployed. Rather, we should be focused on ensuring that those who enroll in college both graduate and find commensurate employment.

What logistics can do
While these numbers and this information is specific to California, the story is the same in other states, too. Around the country, recent college graduates are under-employed. Meanwhile, high-paying technician jobs are going unfilled in almost every logistics hub. This is because the skills being taught in high schools and colleges aren’t aligned with the skills needed on the job. As an industry, there are things we can do.

First, we should embrace the “college-ready” and “career-ready” approach by investing in strong career and technical education programs at local community colleges and regional training high schools. For instance, community colleges are now in the ideal position to provide more than 70% of tomorrow’s workforce with an education combined with applied technical skills, industry driven credentials, and specific preparation for employment. We need you to be at the table with us.

Current circumstances show that California—and states and communities elsewhere—should not simply continue to direct our youth to get a four-year degree in “something” under the false pretenses and unrealistic expectations that it will lead to success.

While still valuable in a number of areas, the obtainment of a four-year degree is no longer the golden ticket to financial success that it was decades ago. Associate degrees laden with technical skills and industry certifications are the new currency, and a realistic pathway to the restructuring of a new paradigm in the 21st century.

Kevin J. Fleming, Ph.D., is the principal investigator of the National Center for Supply Chain Technology Education, funded by the National Science Foundation, and the dean of instruction for Career and Technical Education at Norco College (Calif.).

For more information, visit http://www.supplychainteched.com.