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32 Council on Competitiveness The Skills Imperative Last Thoughts Most Americans understand that globalization is a game-changer. But many are not sure that they are going to like the new game. For better or worse, the modern economy is a global economy, which the United States can influence given the sheer size of its market. But America is no longer the sole economic superpower. The new global landscape is increasingly shaped by global enterprises and networks that transcend national boundaries, by hundreds of millions of new middle-class consumers that reside outside the United States, and by millions of new, sometimes highly credentialed workers whose average salaries are typically lower than the average American salary. What this enables is a redistribution of assets and operations on a global scale. The old rules no longer dictate who wins or loses. What is clear is that new strategies for success are needed to create the kind of platform that will ensure that America’s next generations enjoy a rising standard of living—in short, to ensure that Americans can compete successfully. That requires that the focus be put on: • Enabling the supply of middle-skilled jobs to match future demand • Integrating the more complex skill sets required in service economy jobs into education, training and research programs • Extending America’s innovation leadership with a focus on integrative, interdisciplinary, computational and entrepreneurial skills—and with a new emphasis on supporting innovation in service industries • Anticipating future skills trajectories at the cutting edge of sustainability The Goal Posts To create a skilled workforce, strengthen existing industries, launch new firms and attract high-value investment into the United States, we must act and invest wisely. America needs to prioritize around the kinds of investment that generate high-wage jobs. Success in the 21st century means looking forward—positively and proactively—at where the country is going, not backward at who is catching up. The rest of the world has been copying the American innovation model—investing in talent, research, education and technology, and building a policy infrastructure that protects IP, opens markets and supports investment. Their success in attracting jobs and investments is, in some measure, due to the fact that they copied a great American roadmap.
33 Notes When everyone is copying this model, it is time for America to invent a new one. Human capital is the nation’s strongest asset. In assuring America’s prosperity in the future, it is necessary to build from a position of strength—not just economically, but culturally. America truly is the can-do country. From the nation’s founding, exploration and experimentation has been part of its DNA. Americans need to get out in front and get out fast to translate that can-do spirit into wealth creation— creating a new roadmap that will: • Embrace the freedom to test the frontiers of knowledge and technology • Create the spectrum of skills that keeps a complex infrastructure humming • Nurture the entrepreneurial spirit that risks a step into the unknown • Enable the innovation that creates whole new industries, and • Celebrate an innovation nation. These Choices Are Ours to Make. The Future Is Ours to Lose. 1 Motto of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers during World War II 2 United States Congressional Budget Office, 2007. The Budget and Economic Outlook: An Update. http://www.cbo.gov/ftpdocs/85xx/doc8565/08-23-Update07.pdf 3 United States Bureau of Labor Statistics, Monthly Labor Review, 2007 4 For example, during the 1990s, internet technology, infrastructure, computer science skills and ecommerce innovation provided a large boost in service sector productivity (finance, information, retail, education, entertainment and government services) 5 Laitner and Ehrhardt-Martinez. “Information and Communication Technologies: The Power of Productivity,” February 2008 6 “Grow Faster Together. Or Grow Slowly Apart. How Will America Work in the 21 st century?” The Aspen Institute, 2002 7 Kazis, Vargas and Hoffman. Double the Numbers: Increasing Postsecondary Credentials for Underrepresented Youth, 2004 8 International Monetary Fund, World Economic Outlook, April 2007; Leith, Lawrence. “China’s Changing Economy,” Monthly Labor Review, United States Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2006 9 Blinder, Alan. “Free Trade’s Great, But Offshoring Rattles Me,” The Washington Post, 6 May 2007 10 Part of this quote appears in PCAST, “Sustaining the Nation’s Innovation Ecosystems,” January 2004. http://www.ostp.gov/pdf/finalpcastitmanuf_reportpackage.pdf 11 United States Bureau of Labor Statistics, Employment Projections 2004-14 12 Holzer and Lerman, America’s Forgotten Middle-Skill Jobs, November 2007 13 Ibid. 14 “2005 Skills Gap Report—A Survey of the American Manufacturing Workforce,” National Association of Manufacturers and Deloitte 15 “Manpower Annual Talent Shortage Survey: Sales Representatives, Teachers and Mechanics Top the Ten Most Wanted List in the U.S.,” March 2007 16 Cruze, Sidney. “The Maintenance Evangelist: Joel Leonard ’87 Preaches About the Dangers of a ‘Maintenance Crisis.’ “ http://www.elon.edu/alumni/pdf/summer05leonard.pdf 17 “Plenty of Opportunities for Auto Repair Career,” Official Release of NASCAR, February 13, 2007. http://www.nascar.com/2007/auto/02/06/car.care.careers/index.html 18 “Welding Shortage Fact Sheet,” American Welding Society, 2007 19 Reder, Wanda. “Managing an Aging Technical Workforce,” Energy Business Magazine, May/June 2005; and, Council on Competitiveness, Five for the Future 20 United States Bureau of Labor Statistics, Employment Projections 2006-16 21 United States Bureau of Economic Analysis, National Economic Accounts 22 Council of Economic Advisors, Economic Report of the President, p. 82. February 2008 23 Baily, Farrell and Remes. “The Hidden Key to Growth,” International Economy, Winter 2006
Page 1 and 2: Compete 2.0 Thrive. The Skills Impe
Page 3 and 4: Compete 2.0 Thrive. The Skills Impe
Page 5 and 6: 3 The Skills Imperative Table of Co
Page 7 and 8: 5 Key Take-Aways COMPETE 2.0: SKILL
Page 9 and 10: 7 Creating the Context As in the pa
Page 11 and 12: 9 1. Slowing Workforce Growth Could
Page 13 and 14: 11 3. Jobs Requiring High Skills Ar
Page 15 and 16: 13 4. The Growth in Middle-Skilled
Page 17 and 18: 15 Looming Shortfalls Demand for th
Page 19 and 20: 17 The Changing Landscape of Educat
Page 21 and 22: 19 6. Services Power U.S. Job Growt
Page 23 and 24: 21 Education and Market Advantage J
Page 25 and 26: 23 But America needs to ask: Is jus
Page 27 and 28: 25 Choose to Compete Charles M. Ves
Page 29 and 30: 27 The principles of service scienc
Page 31 and 32: 29 Skills for Sustainability: Train
Page 33: 31 said their institutions were dev
Page 37 and 38: 35 Council on Competitiveness BOARD
Page 39 and 40: 37 John W. Rowe Exelon Corporation
Page 41 and 42: 39 About the Council on Competitive
Page 43 and 44: Instead of using 100% virgin paper,

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