ABSTRACT
The impetus for this chapter is the increased concern about, reports on, and initiatives to address the skill shortage in the United States. For several years I have been involved in curriculum development, occupational analyses, and competency-based education, human performance, skill standards initiatives in postsecondary and professional education in the technical, engineering, and science-related disciplines. Skills in these disciplines are valued because of the role they play in research, innovation, technology, technology transfer, and economic development. And although discussing skills in these disciplines is important, it is also very difficult to do for a variety of reasons. In this chapter I consider several of the reasons why it is difficult to discuss skills for the high performance workplace including various connotations of the word skill and some of the associated problems. I then highlight some current trends and factors contributing to the groundswell of activity surrounding the skill shortage. These trends and factors are discussed in greater detail with regard to their impact on skills needed for today’s high performance workplace, as well as skills that are emerging as critical for success in the future high performance workplace. Special focus is placed on skills that are needed which up-to-now have been neglected or were nonexistent. Finally, I present a framework for thinking about these new skills. The framework is an outcome of the failed attempts to meaningfully define skills and is intended to be a tool that can be used by curriculum developers, instructional designers, teachers, trainers, and other professionals responsible for educating the future workforce to think about skills in a more meaningful manner. There are several reasons why it is important to talk about skills that are emerging as critical for success, which up-to-now have been neglected, or were nonexistent. At present globalization and technological innovation are having a profound effect on our national health, prosperity, welfare, and security (Black & Lynch, 2000; Bresnahan, Brynjolfsson, & Hitt, 1999; National Research Council, 1999a, 1999b). Globalization and technology have dramatically changed the workplace, forcing businesses to reevaluate their efficiency and ability to compete in the new economy. In an attempt to improve efficiency, businesses have sought to reengineer products, services, markets, work methods, processes, materials, machines, organizational structures, and the workforce. Among the many aspects of a business that can be reengineered, repeatedly a more skilled workforce is identified as essential to innovation and transformation (Black & Lynch, 2000). Why? Because economies and organizations are human constructed systems, whose ability to innovate and adapt depends upon the abilities of the workforce responsible for the products, services, markets, work methods, processes, materials, machines, and organizational structures that need to be reengineered. In short, innovation and transformation are the result of people.
