What Will We Do for Work? Associations and Entrepreneurs Taking on The Skills Gap

From https://talentedlearning.com/how-associations-bridge-skills-gap-digital-badges/: "According to the U.S. Department of Labor, in December 2016 there were 5.6 million open jobs in this country and only 98,000 were added in March 2017.  That includes many notoriously hard-to-fill jobs.  These persistently unfilled positions are attributed to an unfortunate and somewhat ironic phenomenon called the “skills gap.”

Skills gap theorists say that formal education isn’t preparing enough candidates for specialized high-skill, high-growth jobs such as data analysis, user experience design and software programming. Traditional education isn’t producing enough qualified people to support today’s rapidly changing business needs. And this talent supply problem is only compounded by a decreasing 4.5% unemployment rate."

Featured guests:

Patrick Haller has led a career in non-for-profit marketing for nearly two decades having experience in both membership and donor organizations. He has achieved growth for multiple organizations leveraging analytics and marketing strategy to make sound decisions in managing increased membership numbers and revenues. Additionally, Patrick inspires a customer-service oriented culture in his organization leading to more satisfied members and increased engagement and retention rates.  Patrick holds an MBA and MS in Strategic Management from Indiana University and a BS in Marketing from the University of Maryland.

Joseph Valerio is Director of Workforce Development for the Audiovisual and Integrated Experience Association (AVIXA). AVIXA is the producer of InfoComm tradeshows around the world, co-owner of Integrated Systems Europe, and the international trade association representing the audiovisual industry. Its members include manufacturers, systems integrators, dealers and distributors, consultants, programmers, live events companies, content producers, and more. Joseph gets the privilege of working with these creative thought leaders each day to build meaningful career pathways into the AV industry. Whether through administering scholarships and internships provided through the AVIXA Foundation, or developing collaborative partnerships with academic institutions, he puts his focus into serving others. He is also staff liaison to the Young AV Professionals Council, a volunteer group of AVIXA members dedicated to promoting the benefits and qualities of the AV industry to new and potential members through outreach and mentorship.

Heather Wetzler is the co-founder of Cue Career, a lifelong learning platform aggregating the resources from associations into a single location.  Cue Career's first phase is a career exploration and readiness platform linking students to associations - - bridging the last mile from education to employment and helping close the skills gap.  
Before Cue Career, Heather worked in the internet advertising sales space for 15 years coming from companies such as Hearst Digital and deviantART.com-where she was Vice President of Ad Sales

Resources: https://americanstaffing.net/staffing-research-data/asa-staffing-industry-data/asa-skills-gap-index/