Working Americans are smart enough to know we’re not smart enough.
That’s one of the take-away points from a new survey of the labor force from the Pew Research Center.
According to their research, a majority of Americans (54%) say they will need additional, lifelong training and education to keep pace in the workforce. An additional third of American workers say this will be important, but not essential, running the total who say lifelong job training will be either “essential” or “important” to 87%.
That sentiment follows job trends analyzed by Pew which found that, “…for the past several decades, employment has been rising faster in jobs requiring higher levels of preparation – that is, more education, training and experience.” Since 1980, employment has jumped 77% in jobs requiring higher levels of analytical skills, including critical thinking and computer use.
The discovery that American workers are aware of this reality – that more education and training leads to more and better job prospects – is interesting, to be sure. But in the Pew data were two other salient data points which are reassuring for the future of the economy as well as education providers. According to Pew, the younger you are and the more education you already have, the more likely you are to see continued education and training as key to your career stability and growth.
Sixty-one percent of 18 to 29-year-olds in the survey said they viewed ongoing education and skill training as essential compared to just 40% of those who are 50 and older.
At the same time, more than a quarter (27%) of workers with at least a four-year degree told Pew they didn’t have the education and training they need to get ahead at work. And a healthy 63% of adults with a bachelor’s degree or higher level of education say they will need to keep advancing their skills throughout their career. In the oft-analyzed STEM fields (science, technology, engineering and math), where you’d expect to find employees with the highest-levels of education and training, two-thirds said continued training and skills development will be essential for their careers.
Merging those trends make it pretty clear that if you’re young and on a STEM career path, you probably already know you’re going to be spending considerable time in classrooms.
Because STEM careers are growing – some 17% by 2018 vs 2011 according to the US Department of Commerce – schools and continued education centers will be busy. Those that focus on STEM fields or technology and computer skills are likely to be even more so.
That’s already happening, according to Jim Deters, the cofounder and CEO of Galvanize, a technology learning community that teaches tech skills such as software development and data science. “When it comes to tech education, the idea that someone will spend years in college and being done with their education is over. Just as with technology and software, tech education is constantly evolving and has to be updated,” Deters said. “Businesses need employees who cannot just survive in this new reality but lead it. That’s why our job placement rate for graduates is more than 90%, it’s why we’re working directly with companies to upskill their existing workforce and why we’re growing so quickly – the demand and awareness are both there.”
According to Deters and Galvanize, what they are seeing in their classrooms matches the Pew data. “Most of our students have college degrees already,” Deters said. “But they see learning new skills, tech skills, as vital to their success.”
The best news from the Pew study and the anecdotal evidence from education providers such as Galvanize is that employees see the need to continually improve their skills and are taking action on their own. Almost three in four workers surveyed by Pew (72%) said they, individually, bear “a lot” of the responsibility for keeping their education and skills up to date. And nearly half of employed adults (45%) in the survey said they got extra training to improve their job skills in the past year.
Investing in your own career has always been smart. It’s undeniably a good sign for the economy that younger workers and those who already have strong education foundations recognize the value in continuing to do it and, more importantly, are doing it.