How Nonprofit Organizations Can Help Solve the Talent Pipeline

According to Forrester Research, 7 percent of U.S. jobs will be eliminated by automation by 2025. Retail, restaurant and customer service areas are expected to be especially hard-hit as self-checking kiosks and AI chatbots become more prevalent. This wave of automation will inevitably sweep away many low-skill positions typically held by those with only a high school diploma or GED. This poses not only a challenge for those individuals who will be affected but for our society as a whole as we endeavor to ensure people have the opportunity to work.

Ironically, there is growing and unmet demand for skills-based jobs that may not require a four-year degree. Many rewarding careers in health care, manufacturing and IT can be had with a two-year degree, on-the-job training and/or professional certification, and yet many young people don’t even consider these opportunities because of perceptions associated with “alternative pathways” of career training.

Some may think or suggest that one way to address this disconnect between the outcomes of education and the needs of the workplace is for nonprofits to reinvent the wheel and try to do the jobs of schools. That’s not the case. While there are schools that are failing to make the grade, most aren’t. And the bigger issue is societal perceptions around what is and isn’t appropriate career-wise more than what is being offered in classrooms.