Closing America's Global Skill Gap: Six Universal Competencies

Nature and scope of the problem

A 2006 report by the National Center on Education and the Economy (NCEE), America In The Global Economy looked at America's last 50 years of global economic dominance and concluded:

1.- The U S superiority came from; scale, innovation and educational achievement
2.- About 5,000 companies were spending 2.7 percent of GDP on research and developmental, or innovation
3. -Through the late 1970's America “far exceeded” other nations in the 25-64 age bracket for employees who graduated from high school
4.- In the late 1990's we had the most college graduates; from 1980-2000 - 58 percent of the workforce had some college education, but...
5. -By 2037 India's population will exceed China's and China will have the largest world economy by 2040, and...
6.- Canada currently has proportionally more high school graduates and shortly Russia, the Czech Republic and Japan will also have more than the U. S.. And...
7.- In 1970 the U.S. had 30 percent of the world's college graduates; it decreased to 14 percent in 2001. And...
8.-In 2040 the “BRIC” country economie's cumulative GDP – Brazil, Russia, India and China's collectively will exceed the G6 – U.S., UK, France, Germany, Japan and Italy.

So America's scale advantage might soon be exceeded by China and India, combining the two in a trading pact would represent a “staggering” 40 percent of all the world's consumers, and its educational advantage is also slipping to sixth. Additionally in 2004 the U.S. graduated 70,000 engineers; India over 350,000 and China exceeded 800,000 – potentially threatening America's last dominance factor – innovation.

The Council on Competitiveness issued its 2008 report: Compete: New Challenges, New Answers that revealed the following:

1.China's labor force is nearly 800 million – five times the US
2. One-third of U.S. high school students don't graduate; it's close to 50 percent for minorities
3. Less than 40 percent are proficient in math, reading and science
4. The U.S. Is 17th among developing countries in proportion of college students receiving degrees in science and engineering from 3rd place 30 years ago.

Six Transferable Competencies (LTC) To Close the Gap

A competency is defined as a behavior or set of behaviors that describe excellent performance ina particular work context. Competencies are made up by combining specific skill-sets and their mastery with assessment measures. So LTCs are today's most comprehensive, measurable anddevelopable requisites for success. If you will, the success and employability currency of thenew millennium. Some of the organizations that are currently using progressive LTCs are: universities (Michigan State and Alverno College), states (Minnesota), cities (Boston) and government agencies (U S State Department). A number of leading companies are also using competencies in performance evaluation, succession planning and managerial promotions (IBM, Corning Incorporated, American Airlines, Eli Lily, and Mass General Hospital, to name a few). Fortunately, with the exception of Australia, New Zealand and the Netherlands, America is far ahead of therest of the world in competency development and modeling.

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-----Scientific factors affecting career success

Career success has been researched since the 1950's. Twenty-five years of research on success were analyzed from over 40 research studies from a number of disciplines and organizations. Their findings support the author's 6 LTCs. Today real success is more subjective rather than the objective 'trappings' usually associated with achieving it. If one feels they are doing something they like, have contributed something of value and led a purposeful life, theymost likely will feel successful. In a sentence success can be defined as doing what you wantwhenyou want to do it. Noted author John C. Maxwell said it best: “We will all differ on the definition of success, but the process to get there is the same for everyone.” That process is building the LTCs.

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The 6 LTCs

These 6 LTCs, are reflective of new millennium challenges.They are not traits, habits, or

specificactivities; but individual competencies that require a sub-set of related activities that

must bemastered. Assessment measures are provided to determine masteryof the LTCs.

To succeedtoday one and one's organization must be driven by 1) satisfying the changing

customer's needswith the most comparative value, including service that creates loyal customers.

Your customermay be either external or internal. All organizations need 2) effective and efficient

problem solvers who can utilize technology to meet these needs through multicultural teams.

In order to performeffectively in today's global society it is important to have a: 3) global

perspective and culturalunderstanding and sensitivity. One must be 4) motivated and persistent,

for the right reasons; realizing that you can increase your motivation substantially to face

unforeseen future challenges.Managers must also motivate their organizations towards the same

goals. The root of all effective motivation is a healthy amount of self-esteem. 5) Managing one's

career to have multipleand varied job assignments, including an international position, will help

develop the needed skill-sets. A formal career plan, along with feedback from candid and trusted

friends for realism,and a mentor to assist you is navigating one's career moves is critical to

career success. Finally,6) living a balanced and healthy life with time devoted tofamily and outside

work activities are now recognized as also essential to life, and career success.

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Sidebar:“how many organizations are you aware of that don't want motivated employees who have a

customer satisfaction orientation, are effective and efficient problem solvers with a cultural understanding

and sensitivity? And how many employees don't understand they have to manage their own careers and

lead a balanced and healthy life style? If your answer is none, you have just personally validated the six

LTCs!”