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Continuing Education: Retraining the Workforce

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by Vishaal Kuruvanka
August 7th, 2022

As we have seen in the capitalism essay, technology has drastically changed the employment field. While it is important to make sure that we can secure the next generation’s success through a reformation of our K - 12 education system, we should also explore what can be done to uplift current Americans looking to reskill themselves. How can we aid in helping these individuals working in different industries, sometimes for decades, thrive and make the shift in the information age? This exercise is also useful to think about as the political class is usually more concerned with what they can do for their constituents in the near future. There are many different solutions to this problem but I believe that the vigorous use of community colleges may play a role in holding the answer. 

Community colleges are traditionally for students that have graduated high school and want some form of tertiary education (usually 2 years) at a much cheaper price than traditional public or private universities. After completing the necessary credits they go into a 4 year institution to receive an undergraduate degree. While this function must still exist, there should be an avenue, within these community colleges, where Americans can go to reskill themselves.

As seen in the COVID-19 passage, millions of Americans are looking for new forms of work, most of which require some kinds of technical knowledge. This avenue would offer a means to improvement, where Americans that are willing to work hard can learn and in return gain favorable employment. This form of education should be available to all Americans, especially in a capitalistic landscape where the evolution of technology continues to grow at an exponential rate. The US government can offer yearly vouchers, that expire at the end of each year if not used, which Americans can use to take courses in mathematics, science and technology that can help them get reskilled to enter new fields. These vouchers allow Americans to offset the educational costs of learning new skills, while also still working and helping them enter new high paying industries. This inturn accelerates the economic machine of our country. There are already many models that exist in cities across the US that we may be able to replicate on a larger level.

New York City’s program is called the techtalentpipeline and they have workers from tech companies come teach classes in the city/community colleges to people that want tech training. InnovativeBirmingham, in Alabama, is also very interesting as they have different programs to train people in the tech space ranging from advanced tracks to apprenticeships. Central Six AlabamaWorks! also offers many different avenues of training. The following is from their website:

 

“The Central Six Information Technology Apprenticeship Program prepares an individual with the technical skills needed for a successful career in the information technology industry, focusing on software development. The registered apprenticeship program is an industry-driven, high-quality career pathway where an individual obtains paid work experience, related instruction, mentorship, and a portable and nationally-recognized credential. As an apprentice, you will “earn as you learn,” working full-time for one of our employer partners.”

 

This avenue of education will be useful in giving the larger US populace to better themselves and become more efficient producers within the confines of the capitalist system. The decentralized nature of these training systems also allows for free market competition between programs and thus improves outcomes for graduates of effective programs. Ultimately, this form of investment by the US government improves the economy on two different fronts. The first one is by investing in its people which leads to higher economic output and secondly investing in these pipelines that help create productive workers in the digital economy. It also enlarges America’s spirit of self enterprise and constant innovation. Here too, it is useful to draw an example from history to buttress our argument. 

Perhaps America’s most important economic prophet, Alexander Hamilton, signaled in one of his reports to congress, Report on Manufactures, that it was important for America to start building its manufacturing industry to make it less dependent on foreign nations as well as growing the number of economic opportunities for Americans at home. To kickstart this effort he proposed bounties, today called subsides, to help start corporations working within the manufacturing arm. He also keenly understood that while private individuals will identify and invest in solid enterprises, they may sometimes move at a mind numbingly slow pace.

 

“These have relation to the strong influence of habit and the spirit of imitation; the fear of want of success in untried enterprises; the intrinsic difficulties incident to first essays toward a competition with those who have already attained to perfection in the business to be attempted”

 

It is here that the government should sometimes be the first actor within a space due to the unknown nature of the experiment and offer “the extraordinary aid and protection of government”. Stating that the US government should subsidize new industries because other countries subsidize their industries is key to understanding the argument made by Hamilton here. His chief goal was to make sure that American industry could thrive and compete against the world economy. In the current information age, it is becoming increasingly apparent that as the world becomes flat due to technology (artfully stated by author Thomas Friedman), the workers within that economy should be sufficiently trained to handle and work with the new technologies. To this end our community colleges can play a unique role in helping the working class american embark in self improvement through education. 

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