Giving Compass' Take:

• Kevin Mahnken reports that employers are training employees to fill skills gaps and stave off the rise of machine labor. 

• How can funders help to develop a workforce for the future? 

• Read our donor's guide to workforce development. 

When economists and editorialists speak in worried tones about America’s “skills gap,” they’re referring to the mounting number of jobs that require some degree of technical know-how, and the relative dearth of qualified candidates to fill them.

For Traci Tapani, the phenomenon is no mere abstraction. It’s a potential company killer.

“What we’ve started to see — and we started seeing this a decade ago, at least — is that the skills that people could bring to the job were different than they were in the past,” she told The 74 in an interview. “And it’s just progressively gotten worse. When we combine a very tight labor force with the fact that people don’t really have the skills you’re looking for, we’re in uncharted territory.”

Tapani is the president of Wyoming Machine, a family-owned metal fabrication business. The company has helped build everything from armored Humvees to retail fixtures and medical supply equipment, and it is frequently in the market for expert welders and production technologists. This is advanced manufacturing in what is still America’s industrial heartland, and the lack of trained job candidates has proven a major impediment to business.

Read the full article about training employees to stave off the rise of the machines by Kevin Mahnken at The 74.