Although this Detroit-based Ford worker, 'Cuz' Grays, is 81
years of age, technological improvements at the
new Ford plant in Rouge may enable him to keep working.
Workforce Crisis - How to beat the upcoming shortage of
skills and talent is a helpful US how -to guide on
responding to conditions of labour scarcity.
Gerontologist Ken Dychtwald, and business advisers Erickson
and Morison document the changing environment employers in the
US and other western countries are facing - an older
workforce, and fewer new potential recruits.
The authors explain how to 'engage' three increasingly
important career cohorts:
- mature people who want flexible, ageing- friendly
workplaces
- midcareer workers who still want exciting and
diverse opportunities, but a decade ago would have been
considered 'old'
- young people - currently very capable of leaving
for greener pastures
The book deals well with learning at work, with tips to
help managers consciously create opportunities for people to
learn and implement new ideas. The authors' research uncovered
a failure by US firms to satisfy workers' demands and needs in
this respect.
A readers' discussion guide with questions and prompts
completes the book. Crisis at Work was published by
Harvard University Press in 2006 and is available from many
local libraries.
Meanwhile, Sue Richardson and Yan Tan have published
another report in the NCVER Tailoring VET to the Emerging
Labour Market series. It looks at VET responses to
demographic and economic change.
Forecasting
future demands: what we know and cannot know explains that
forecasting future VET demand is fraught with problems, and
that how many VET quals should be delivered cannot be 'read
off' from predicted workforce growth.
The authors comment:
"It is important to appreciate that the VET sector does
not need to attempt to identify every future skill vacancy and
then train someone to fill it."
Instead, they say, VET planners need to understand broad
trends, and supplement this with the advice and perceptions of
employers and others in their local region.
