Improve the Pipeline of Qualified Employees

Every company depends on a talented and diverse workforce to create and sell new products and services. An innovative and well-educated workforce is even more critical in the global knowledge-based economy. Most well-paying jobs now require some sort of postsecondary education.

Yet today's students are not being prepared adequately to take their place in the innovation workforce. Currently, only two-thirds of 9th-graders make it to graduation within four years, a figure that only reaches 50 percent for minority and low-income students. Additionally, between 13 and 19 percent of students who enroll in college do not persist through their sophomore year, and a little more than half of all students entering a four-year college will earn their bachelor's degrees within six years.

Employers and hiring managers witness firsthand every day the lack of skills of many U.S. workers. American companies and universities today spend more than $17 billion per year remediating new workers and students in basic math and English skills that they should have learned in high school or college.

What's worse: More than 80 percent of employers report that they cannot find enough qualified applicants to fill available jobs. Employers also estimate that 45 percent of graduates are not adequately prepared for the skills and abilities they need to advance beyond the entry level. These disconnects apply to all types of jobs across the pay scale and are faced by companies of all sizes and in all regions of the United States.

State Farm Insurance, the nation's largest insurance company with offices in communities across America, reports that 50 percent of applicants for its entry-level office jobs fail the company's basic skills and critical thinking test required for all applicants. State Farm also encountered problems serving its auto insurance customers because the garages with which it contracts to fix damaged cars cannot find mechanics who are skilled enough to meet the company's standards.

Challenging today's young people to meet higher expectations and ensuring that the high school diploma once again has value and meaning to employers will benefit students, companies and the entire nation.