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Life Is Peachy

Graduate Student Term Paper
INFORMATION TECHNOLOGY - WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT
PUBLIC POLICY REVIEW and DISCUSSION
March 10, 2002
Robert Kerr
Robert Kerr
Copyright© 2002 by CETE, The Ohio State University
1
INTRODUCTION
Adult Learning For U.S. Competitive Advantage
It now seems axiomatic that the world is continuing to rapidly change and that the U.S.
economy is being called upon regularly to transform itself, in increasingly short time frames, to adapt
to the shifting competitive landscape. Work related learning has been identified as a key enabler of
effective economic advantage for countries like to U.S. to remain competitive. Marshall and Tucker
state that, "The future now belongs to societies that organize themselves for learning."(Marshall &
Trucker 1992 p. xiii).
High Skill, High Performance, and High-Tech U.S. Workforce
While all learning may be important to some degree to help a society remain competitive, it is
"high-skill" learning that many countries are now striving toward to increase their overall societal
wage levels. Krogh and Roos (1996) have written that, "…as we move from the industrial age to the
information age, knowledge is becoming increasingly critical for the competitive success of firms and
the key to success in today's business is the application and development of specialized knowledge and
competencies". The knowledge and skills required in the U.S. workforce has evolved over the last
century. In reviewing labor's knowledge and skill migration within the U.S. workforce toward this
more significant high-skill labor force Greenspan (2000) stated, "In 1900, only one out of every ten
workers was in a professional, technical, or managerial occupation. By 1970, that proportion had
doubled, and today those types of jobs account for nearly one-third of our workforce." One can only
assume that this increasing demand for more skilled labor will continue to grow in the coming years.
How is this high-skill labor being...