The current state of the economy has certainly got everyone’s attention! With high unemployment rates, bank foreclosures and a slowing economy, it’s obvious that something needs to be done, and quickly. The number of people living at or below the poverty line calculated at about 16% of our nation’s population, should prompt some economists to try a bottom-up approach to getting the economy back on track. Much of the cause of so many people now being impoverished is due not to a lack of will, but a lack of education skills in area and field where workers are in demand.
For example, medical careers are plentiful, but there are not enough people trained to fill the jobs. Service jobs, we’ve been told, are the wave of the future. With an aging baby boomer population, the need for medical technicians, dental assistants, x-ray technicians, pharmacy technicians, nurse’s aides and other such support roles is tremendous. Many of these jobs do not require a college degree, but rather certification in an adult vocational education training program.
Many people who have lost their jobs due to down-sizing or outsourcing have no other marketable skills. The textile worker or auto worker, suddenly laid off, has virtually no hope of finding another job in his area of expertise. If he is unable to find another job, what’s that person to do when unemployment benefits run out? Is he left with no choice but to accept welfare from the state? Taxpayer money is used to fund these social welfare programs, but this is certainly not the most productive way to use those tax dollars.
While the unemployed worker searches for work, there are many who never do land a job that lasts. Meanwhile, tax dollars have been spent to give that worker a subsistence, but has done nothing to re-integrate the individual into a productive member of society. Why not spend some of this money reeducating people with adult vocational education programs geared towards jobs which are in demand in the local area?
If social welfare programs were treated as grants and linked to mandatory attendance in an adult vocational education program, the relatively small additional expense would pay all of society back with skilled, productive, taxpaying citizens with a new lease on life, so to speak. A woman, previously employed as a textile worker, might be retrained as a pharmacy technician, making a decent living wage. In the time it took to certify her through an adult vocational education program, she’d no longer have to rely on a social welfare system that gets her and her family nowhere. A young man just out of high school might be trained as an LVN, able to make a good living and further his career path and future income through continuing education made available through his employer.
It’s easy to see that well coordinated adult vocational education programs, matched to the ‘wave of the future’ jobs, could go a long way towards eradicating poverty, stimulating the economy and providing the means to more prosperity for all.
