Years ago Southwire Company realized it faced a dilemma: too many job applicants lacking adequate education and skills.
With business growing, there were not enough people with diplomas to fill the Carrollton-based wire manufacturer’s employee pipeline. And even those who had the high school credential, were often not ready to work.
Southwire took the initiative and developed its own cooperative education program, 12 For Life, providing at-risk high school students with actual workforce training and on-sight schooling in a smaller-scaled Southwire plant.
The problems faced by Southwire plague many Georgia companies, including some who go on to look outside the state for workers, or who move their jobs elsewhere.
Losing those jobs takes money out of the state that could be used to build roads and schools. The skills gap between what employees have and what jobs require is wide. Bridging the gap is the difference between Georgia’s future success or failure.
It means money that could be used here to build schools and roads goes elsewhere. The gap between skills that jobs require and the skills Georgians bring is wide, and it is the chasm between success or failure in the future.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution earlier this year tallied jobs, wages and population growth since the Great Recession, and found we trailed Sunbelt competitors such as Charlotte and Dallas in most categories, sometimes by a wide margin. The latest installment in the series examines the intersection of education and employment. What do Georgia employees want in an education and skilled workforce, and how are state education systems meeting those needs?
Read more about our findings online at our premium website, myAJC.com. And delve into a special interactive presentation, "Retooling Georgia's schools."
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