Tri-C’s Jason Abbott offers tips for bridging the work-skills gap

August 09, 2017

The work-skills gap affects companies in wide range of industries. Due to automation and other advancements in technology, many lower-skill jobs have been phased out in favor of jobs that require advanced training.

The result: A job market in which companies have positions to fill, and the surrounding population has the people to fill those positions, but due to a skills gap, the resources can’t meet the demand.

Addressing the skills gap requires the partnership of companies and educational institutions. Cuyahoga Community College is among the Northeast Ohio schools partnering with regional businesses to train and place technology-savvy employees, providing sustainable employment for hundreds of area residents while also providing a reliable base of employable talent for the region’s companies.

However, before educational partnerships can help, companies must conduct internal assessments to discover where gaps exist, and whether those gaps are best filled by providing additional training to existing employees, hiring and training new employees, or – as is frequently the case – a mixture of both.

Jason Abbott, director of grants management in Tri-C’s Workforce, Community and Economic Development (WCED) division, recently spoke with Smart Business Cleveland about the steps area companies can take to assess their skills gap, and how to develop a strategy that can bridge it.