Washington Business Spring 2018 | Washington Business | Page 49

business backgrounder | education & workforce
formal training and classroom learning all at the same time. It’s
also a great way for students to learn a trade and land a good
middle-class job without going into debt for college tuition. It’s
a win all around, supporters say: Great jobs for Washington’s
young people, a stable workforce for business, and a strong tax
base for Washington state government.
“Overall, Washington is fortunate to have a strong and growing
economy,” AWB President Kris Johnson said. “But one of our
challenges is the disconnect between our workforce and many
businesses creating new jobs. We hear from businesses all the
time about a shortage of skilled employees, at every level of the
organization.”
In November, Johnson joined Gov. Jay Inslee and other
education and business leaders on a tour of Switzerland, where
apprenticeships for young people are ingrained in the culture.
About 70 percent of secondary school graduates there enroll
in apprenticeships when they’re about 16 years old. While the
Switzerland model may not translate directly to the U.S. labor
market, Johnson said it was impressive to see so many young
people working in factories or creating parts for a company’s
supply chain.
Whether young people work as apprenticeships or receive
training in another way, one thing is clear: Not everyone has to
go to college and get a four-year degree.
Most people don’t, in fact. While 90 percent of people in
Washington complete high school, AWB’s Competitiveness
Redbook shows, just 33 percent have a bachelor’s degree by age 25.
That workforce, in whatever form it takes, has big shoes to
fill. There will be 740,000 job openings in Washington over the
next five years, a recent study shows. Most of those jobs will
need a postsecondary credential. And today, about a third of
Washington’s high school students are getting those credentials.
“The lack of qualified candidates is already stifling economic
growth, especially in rural counties,” Johnson says.
The good news is there’s momentum from state government
and industry to tackle this challenge. Gov. Inslee recently awarded
$6.4 million through the Career Connect Washington initiative,
which will impact as many as 29,000 students statewide. The
goal is to connect students and employers through internships,
apprenticeships and more.
Other partners involved in this effort include the state
Department of Labor and Industries; the State Board for
“Overall, Washington is fortunate to have a strong
and growing economy, but one of our challenges
is the disconnect between our workforce and
many businesses creating new jobs. We hear from
businesses all the time about a shortage of skilled
employees, at every level of the organization.”
— AWB President Kris Johnson
spring 2018 49