Big corporations, small businesses, and the government are all beginning to see what an opportunity we have to change how Americans approach training, education, and career trajectory. eLearning is exploding at the exact time we are questioning traditional hiring and training practices as well as the role of higher education in career preparation. It’s a perfect match. eLearning offers a low-cost means to bridge the growing gap between the skills workers currently have and what businesses most need. It’s already being utilized to effect economic change all over the country.
 
Businesses, painfully aware of the mismatch between jobless Americans’ skill sets and their hiring needs, have previously turned to partnerships with higher education to close the skills gap. But higher education is a huge, slow-moving ship with too small a rudder to immediately address this situation affecting real people right now. Even community colleges, which are generally more open to creating vocational programs, suffer from a lack of speed and nationwide availability. Furthermore, going back to school for another degree may be impossible for those already strapped for cash, burdened with student loans, or forced to work several jobs.
 
Another idea to close the gap is for the government to spearhead and fund job-training programs similar to those in Germany and Great Britain. However, federal budget deficits and spending cuts leave the job-training issue mostly up to state governments to decide. Some organizations, such as Detroit’s Focus: Hope (whose original mission was to combat discrimination and poverty), have shifted their focus to tackle job skills training and interview preparation. But students who already have a degree are not always the target group for these programs whose first priority is to help marginalized groups who would be behind even in the best of times.
 
eLearning is a solution that can benefit both employers and job seekers. It is a positive remedy for businesses and unemployed or underemployed Americans to counteract the negative effects of the economic downturn today. It’s an inexpensive and flexible solution that is already providing relief from some of the challenges created by the recession. Workers who need to refresh their job skills or move into a new field find the fast, adaptable, and economic means to jumpstart stalled careers. Businesses have an opportunity to onboard new hires not only to company policy and culture, but also to apply in-demand skills specific to the company. In this blog series, we’ll discuss both sides of the skills gap—businesses and employees—and the different ways that eLearning can bring both together to transform the workplace.
 
Can Retraining Give the Unemployed a Second Chance? By Drake Bennett Bloomseberg Businessweek

Unemployment: A Jobs Deficit or a Skills Deficit? Politicians and economists are trying to reframe a severe jobs crunch as a problem of workers’ inadequate skills. By John Miller and Jeannette Wicks-Lim