01-25-1993 Council Packet - Laserfiche WebLink

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• The results of a recent Trade and Economic Development survey tell us that 70 percent of Minnesota companies report difficulty in recruiting skilled and technical workers. • In a brand new survey of 35 1 Minnesota businesses conducted by the Minnesota Business Partnership, 52 percent of Twin Cities employers believe today’s job applicants lack adequate basic skills in reading, writing and math. Ninety percent said they would like to see Minnesota high school graduates be certified as meeting minimum standards. • Another large Minnesota employer reports that 75 percent of the Minnesota youth applying for jobs with their company cannot pass the company’s basic employment exam. • A manager of one of Minnesota’s most prestigious technology companies told us his company finds better qualified high school graduates in Guadalajara, Mexico, than in Minnesota. That bothers me. We do not have a job shortage in Minnesota — we have a skills shortage. And I fear that this skills shortage will eventually drive high-skills jobs out of the state. This is not the fault of our children. It is not the fault of our teachers or schools or communities. The blame largely rests with a fragmented system that sends out mixed messages to cur children; a system that has not yet recognized that our children will compete in a world economy. Our young people deserve a bigger, better package of education and training possibilities. Smdents need linkages to the rr.pialy changing, increasingly technological world. In Minnesota, we have begun to address some of these problems. We have created, for the first time, a Children’s Cabinet consisting of all the state government department heads whose agencies provide services to children and families. Phis executive level cabinet has taken an inventory of all children’s programs in the state and formulated Minnesota’s first integrated children’s budget.