WILL IT BE THE SAME OLD STORY? ”

A couple of weeks ago the U.S. Department of Labor awardeddept-of-labor $10 million in funding to organizations that connect older Americans to career opportunities. This “Aging Worker Initiative” is designed to train workers 55 and older for jobs in high-growth, high-demand industries. Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis commented, “This grant provides opportunities for older Americans who face challenges re-entering or remaining in the workforce.”

Economists generally agree that a well-educated and skilled workforce is one of the key factors in economic growth. While nearly 23% of the American population is over the age of 55, the key statistic lies in the projected increase of workers over 55, which is expected to increase by nearly 37% in the next seven years.

Surely we all regard this development as positive — don’t we!?!

Unfortunately, I have lived long enough to have seen this story before. “Re-Train America,” “Workforce Development,” and “Welfare-to-Work” training programs have been tax-payer funded for decades. All well intentioned. All with minimal positive results.

Why?

Because the same old textbooks, work books, written procedures — augmentedtextbooks1 with a few lectures — have been thrown at the problem. And, that hasn’t worked before. And, it isn’t likely to work now.

I wish this new initiative well. I hope it succeeds. Mostly, I hope that at least a few of the individuals in charge will turn to the newer learning technologies, the older hands-on practices, and the evolving simulation choices. Those few leaders will have some positive results. But, unfortunately, I believe it will only be a few.

Why must so many of us look myopically back to our own education and training as “the only way there is?” Why have we made our worlds so small that our own ability to embrace new possibility is so self-limiting?

New worlds of learning opportunity are out there. They’re just not traditional any more.elearning_treeofknowledge And that, as I’ve pointed out in previous blogs, is because our new learning culture has already embraced additional paths for knowledge and skills acquisition that the “lecture/reading” crowd can no longer begin to imagine.

Bodies age but your minds and imagination can continue to stay young as long as your physical health allows.

I’ll keep my fingers crossed.

— Bill Walton, Founder of ITC Learning
bwalton@itclearning.com

“AMERICA WILL CONTINUE TO BE BUILT BY THE HANDS OF ITS MEN AND WOMEN”