Glenn Thompson: “I thank Chairwoman Foxx for yielding and for her leadership in the area of education, workforce development, career and…”

“I thank Chairwoman Foxx for yielding and for her leadership in the area of education, workforce development, career and technical education. It is greatly appreciated and a pleasure and honor to work with the gentlewoman. Mr. Speaker, every Member of this Chamber is familiar with the issue surrounding the skills gap. The American workforce currently faces a shortage of 6 million skilled workers. That number continues to grow at a rate faster than anybody could anticipate. We expected not to hit 6 million job openings until the year 2020, and here we are, 6.5 million jobs open and available that need to be filled here in 2018. Employers from numerous different fields have weighed in on the issue, and the majority of employers agree that vacant positions remain unfilled because candidates lack many of the skills that they need for a given job. While soft skills, such as communications, creativity, collaboration, and critical thinking are important for many jobs requiring daily interaction and working as part of a team, hard skills, which are learned in a classroom or a skills-based course, have significantly contributed to the skills gap.…”