Job Retraining. Yeah, But for What?

Okay, so you have been working in a certain capacity for umpteen years and then your find out that either the industrial sector is obsolete or that everyone above the age of ten is being laid off as part of the downsizing plan.   You are told, depending on the politician that is speaking, that he will be working to assure the jobs return to your part of the country, or that, forget it, just like Elvis, your job has left the building.

So what to do?  Retrain.  Good advice.  You go back to school and learn new skills.  Only to discover that the job you just trained for is in an obsolete industry or that the only ones retaining employment are under the age of ten.  According to an article in the  Los Angeles Times, thousands and thousands of laid off workers are in retraining programs of some kind.

In Michigan alone, where unemployment is fearsome and the economy is so far down in the hole anything looks up, nearly 80,000 persons are retraining for new careers.   But the sad fact is that federal statistics revealed there was relatively little difference in the success and the salaries between those who have been retrained for new employment and those who had not.  Maybe it’s the economy.  Maybe the federal government has erred in its calculations.  It wouldn’t be the first time.

One sensible reason that has been cited is that many of the laid off workers are older.   Because they need to find jobs fast, they enroll in short term retraining programs which yield relatively small benefits.   In other cases predictions of an expanding job market in certain, emerging industries have proven less substantial than initial projections.   Another thing, said one person, you train so long that by the time you are ready for work the jobs in your area have already been filled.

While laid off employees have been advised by HR counselors to demonstrate in your resume how you can make transitions to a new industry, it should also be incumbent upon employers to seek ways to use the skills that some workers have developed for decades.   Not all job sectors are so specific that people couldn’t possible make the transition.   As part of an employer’s background checks, the company should incorporate assessment tests.

It’s a tough economy, after all.  But it will turn around, and employers will need workers.   Look for the diamonds in the rough, so to speak.   They may give you more value for the buck, and they may be more inclined to show their loyalty.   After all, you gave them a job.