Edward E. Gordon, Imperial Consulting Corporation, November 2001
Edward E. Gordon, president of Imperial Consulting Corporation, recently presented this "white paper" to the Education, Employment and Training Committee of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. Unlike most reports that we bring to the attention of Gadfly readers, which deal with the academic preparation of American school children, this one looks at the skills possessed (and, more importantly, not possessed) by the American workforce. The author contends that "about four-fifths of all the people currently employed in our economy...are in danger of turning into the 'new techno-peasants of the information age' because they lack essential educational and/or technical skills." He finds the solution in "workforce education," which he defines broadly - including the humanities, for example - and for which he assigns responsibility to communities, also broadly defined to include schools, employers and a variety of new entities and delivery systems. He ranges far and wide in these 55 pages and, while much of it is hortatory, it comes across as a reasonably coherent presentation of what it will take to produce a well-prepared workforce for the new American economy. You can most readily access this paper by e-mailing Dr. Gordon at [email protected].
