Maintworld 3/2020

TRAINING
The Skills Gap and
the Covid 19 Impact
GREGORY L. FOLTS,
President/ CEO,
Marshall Institute,Inc.
For years, especially in
the United States, we
have seen a widening
gap between the need
for skilled trades and
the inflow of young
candidates to fill the
positions. We have seen
a general bias in our
education system, away
from technical training
and skilled trades, leaning
strongly toward 4 to
6-year degree paths.
WHILE THE 4 TO 6-YEAR degree is clearly
the correct choice for many, for some
unexplainable reason, technical training
has been treated as a lesser alternative
path, if you can’t cut it in the college
degree program. It is a strongly-held
belief that if you wish to succeed in a real
career, you need a Bachelor’s degree or
higher. We need only to look to European
countries, like Germany, to see examples
of skills development paths that
are highly respected as craftsman and
essential for society.
When you consider the role of skilled
trades in society, skilled workers are
responsible for many essential activities,
on which society is dependent to
function. How would a surgeon perform
amazing surgery without an operating
room built by skilled construction workers,
HVAC technicians and electricians,
being maintained by facilities maintenance?
The backup generators, oxygen
generators, filters, elevators, and all
other key equipment are maintained by
skilled trades. The stark reality is that
the highly educated surgeon is required
for the surgery, but all of the infrastructure
around the surgeon is required as
well.
According to NCTAP’s website
(https://nctap.org), a partnership between
local businesses and local community
colleges for skilled trades apprenticeship:
“In most cases, apprentices, due
to their superior education, assume
managerial responsibility early in their
34 maintworld 3/2020