Episode: 18-skills-gap-or-awareness-gap

Tease: Does America have a skills gap—or an awareness gap? Let’s talk about it today on The Perna Syndicate, coming up next.

Ep 18 show:

The skills gap is growing in the U.S. As the economy rebounds, businesses in virtually every industry are struggling to find workers who have the academic, technical and professional skills to consistently excel in the workplace. 

So many factors play into our skills gap, but one of the biggest is what I call the awareness gap. This is the breach between what people think they know about a particular industry, and what is actually true. Manufacturing is a prime example; many people equate it with a grubby factory and low-paying work. But in reality, it’s a high-tech, high-precision field where, on average, workers are earning more than $80,000 annually. Yet manufacturing is dogged by a persistent awareness gap that is causing younger generations—Millennials and Generation-Z—to bypass the industry.

Young people simply don’t know what they don’t know about rewarding careers in high-demand fields—such as manufacturing, aviation, healthcare, construction, agriculture, transportation and many more—that only require an industry certification and may even lead to a college degree, along with the means to pay for it. And why don’t they know?

Because their parents and teachers don’t know. The world is changing faster than ever, and our knowledge is not keeping up. It’s a profound awareness gap—but we can bridge it. 

Listen in tomorrow for some practical strategies to bridge the awareness gap—and start shrinking America’s skills gap. 

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