Filling Jobs of the Future Requires Effort to Upskill Workers Now

Right now Texas has a red hot economy with t a thriving job market. Deloitte & Touche is one of the world’s premier consulting and advisory services. In an article published in March of 2019 edition of the Houston Business Journal titled “Workforce of the future: Now’s the time to start closing the skills gap”, the Houston Office managing partner of Deloitte, Amy Chronis, makes the case that too many of today’s workers don’t have the core skills that they will need to work in a number of jobs of the future. She is correct to point out that the skills gap lies ahead and the manufacturing sector is humming along currently in Texas, but more needs to be done now to meet the future demands.

One of the most impactful points in the article reads as follows: “We need far more participation across companies and institutions to make progress on this front: only two in 10 manufacturers say they collaborate with the government, while just over three in 10 report relationships with private education or training institutes to train workers, according to Deloitte’s manufacturing study.”

If many of today’s top-performing manufacturing firms and colleges are not investing in this upskilling to fill the jobs of the future, how will those who want or need to transition into new lines of work, or those who will be just joining the workforce in the future be able to be relevant?

What do you think?