Giving Compass' Take:

• Jan Lee describes the gap between what employers are looking to hire and the skills that potential employees have and how organizations are working to close it. 

• How can philanthropy help candidates reach employers who want their skills? 

• Find out how increased diversity can fill the tech talent gap. 

Many businesses face a common challenge these days: Finding enough qualified workers for an increasingly technical workplace. According to Code.org, by 2020 there will be as many as 1 million more computer jobs available than there will be skilled applicants.

And it’s a problem that isn’t just limited to computer coding jobs, either. The manufacturing sector, long the go-to resource for on-the-job training, is facing a dearth of applicants. So are university-skilled professions like medical, dental and teaching positions.

According to a report by the Society of Human Resource Management, HR specialists were already seeing a looming shortage in skill-ready applicants in a number of sectors by 2016. More than 65 percent of professionals across the markets confirmed recruiting enough applicants was becoming challenging.

The problem, say experts, isn’t just the new technical skills that may be required, but what analysts call a “skills perception gap” between what employers want and what the applicant perceives is needed for the job.

Bridging that gap between the employer’s perception and that of a prospective applicant starts at the educational institution, says Lydia Liu, Senior Research Director, Academic to Career Research Center at Educational Testing Service (ETS). Liu oversees research that helps ETS develop appropriate testing modules for higher education graduates and innovative science assessment mechanisms for grades K-12. Her research team is responsible for helping to design new student learning outcome assessments for today’s workplace applicants.

Read the full article about skills for young people by Jan Lee at TriplePundit.