The Penn Foster Blog

As one of the leading providers of staffing and workforce solutions in the nation, EmployBridge spans over 490 locations and has been named the largest industrial staffing firm in the U.S. With its product being "productive people," EmployBridge understands the need to embody its core values in daily actions, support its associates, and foster a sense of community. In line with these values, EmployBridge recently announced the launch of the Better WorkLife Academy in partnership with Penn Foster!

Your frontline supervisors have a significant impact on your employees, and your overall business operations. Working directly with the staff on a daily basis, a supervisor's influence can improve productivity and employee satisfaction or have a detrimental effect on these metrics. In many cases, employee turnover isn't related to issues with the company itself, but instead is a result of frustration with ineffective supervisors.

At YouthBuild's 12th Annual Instructor Leadership Institute earlier this month, we announced YouthBuild graduates Kevin Wilson and Elijah Childs as the first recipients of the Dorothy Stoneman Scholarship. The scholarship fund, named in honor of YouthBuild Founder and long-time CEO, Dorothy Stoneman, who retired in January 2017, was created to help deserving YouthBuild and Penn Foster High School graduates continue their education in an associate or bachelor's degree program at Penn Foster College.

While the skills gap in the skilled trades industries is no secret, awareness of the talent shortage has primarily grown in the past few years. According to a study by Deloitte and the Manufacturing Institute, 3.5 million manufacturing jobs are expected to become available (and need to be filled) yet 2 million of these jobs are expected to go unfilled.1 However, not all businesses are taken aback by the widening skills gap, and some began preparing for the inevitable shortage years before national headlines began highlighting it.

As technology and an increasingly global economy and workforce continue to disrupt traditional work and higher education models, career and technical education (CTE) can offer high school and colleges students a comprehensive set of skills and experiences designed to give them a leg up after graduation.

The post-secondary education market is an increasingly crowded and competitive space. With prospective students having more options now than ever before to consider, what can colleges do to standout? Here are three simple tactics that career colleges can use to not only increase the number of inquiries and enrollments, but to attract students who will persist and thrive at their institution, and beyond.

In last week's post, we looked how employers value soft skills in the workplace. This week, we turn our attention to the "supply side" of the equation as we look at how training organizations value soft skills. By surveying leaders at career colleges, high schools, and youth organizations such as YouthBuild and Job Corps, we are able to get a better sense of how important these organizations see these skills, and what type of training they are currently offer to prepare their learners for the workplace.

It's no secret that soft skills have become increasingly important in the workplace, and yet many businesses are struggling to find candidates possessing these skills.This is particularly true in the service industry, an area notoriously plagued with high turnover.

Career colleges, workforce investment boards, and youth organizations all share a similar goal: to provide their learners and clients with skills that will ultimately get them a job and put them on a pathway towards a long-term, sustainable career. To that end, these organizations have to consider both the short term market demand, as well as the long term career outlook for various positions and career paths. Additionally, they must look at all the primary and auxiliary skills that may be necessary in a given profession or career path, when developing their curriculum. While the primary or career-focused skills take precedence, including auxiliary skills, especially business and entrepreneurial skills, can lead to improved long-term outcomes for learners and organizations alike.