Business Leaders United Five-Step Platform to Close The U.S. Skill Gap

Dr. Ralph Soney has served as vice president of corporate and continuing education at Guilford Technical Community College in North Carolina since 2013. With more than 30 years of experience in post-secondary education and administration, Dr. Ralph Soney recently joined the Business Leaders United national initiative.

Business Leaders United for Workforce Partnerships (BLU) is a group of business professionals striving to close the skill gap in the United States. Comprised of companies around the country, BLU and its partners want to create a pipeline to train individuals and hire them for skilled occupations. The group concurrently encourages relevant changes in policy by taking its case to Congress and the public at large. BLU’s effort to close the U.S. skill gap is being deployed with a five-step platform:

1. Invest more, and more effectively. BLU pushes for the investment of more public funds in the education and development of skilled workers, whom many employers have difficulty finding in today’s workplace environment.

2. Deliver industry-recognized credentials. The initiative works to make technical certifications more widely available, so workers can become skilled tradespeople without requiring a university degree.

3. Create regional industry partnerships. This goal helps smaller employers build a group of skilled workers with less of a monetary toll than certifications generally take. This may be done by creating partnerships within industries that develop uniform training and skill-set expectations, which can then be adopted by educational institutions.

4. Help employers partner with community colleges and service providers. By pairing employers with low-income community services and educational institutions in their area, BLU can help ensure individuals find work after they have completed training programs.

5. Accelerate hiring with on-the-job training assistance. By offering publicly funded training to new employees, the government could help to encourage the hiring of promising candidates who require a few additional skills, and remove some of the cost burden from small employers who cannot currently afford on-the-job training.

The Center For Business And Industry At Guildford Technical CC

Dr. Ralph Soney holds a doctorate in adult and community college education. The vice president of corporate and continuing education at Guilford Technical Community College (GTCC) in Jamestown, North Carolina, Dr. Ralph Soney has more than 30 years of experience in the field of post-secondary education. During his time at GTCC, Dr. Soney has been active in the development of the Center for Business as well as other projects connecting unemployed and underemployed workers to job specific training that leads to living wages.

One of his most successful accomplishments has been the creation of a program called Basic Skills Plus, which allows individuals enrolled in a high school equivalency program, such as the GED, to take courses and earn certificates in high demand job fields while being simultaneously enrolled. The Basic Skills Plus Program is free to students that are working on attaining their high school equivalency or GED. Programs of study that have proven successful, according to Dr. Ralph Soney have been in the areas of aviation manufacturing, Nursing Assistant Training and Global Logistics. According to Soney, "We only approve training under Basic Skills Plus which leads to quick employment and jobs. Some of these students have graduated with their high school credential and with training which has caused them to go from zero income to $40,000 a year in just 12to 20 weeks. It's amazing."

Dr. Ralph Soney points out that the reality of post secondary education in 2016 is that much of it does not adequately prepare people for sustainable income and life time earning. The unspoken reality, according to Dr. Ralph Soney, is that not even 40% of students entering America's colleges and universities ever even graduate with degrees. He says that individuals with an aptitude and a desire to do career technical studies will be more suited to find employment than traditionally educated students going straight to the university upon graduation.