Roundtable: Preparing Today’s Workforce for Growing Demands

The Tennessee Department of Labor and Workforce Development predicts an increase of nearly 70,000 jobs for skilled labor in the next few years. Currently, Congress is deliberating a trillion-dollar spending bill that promises to generate 2 million more jobs each year in the U.S. through the end of the decade. Where are all these tradesmen and engineers coming from?

Dawn sat down with Dr. Keith Wilson, director of Career Technology Education (CTE) for Knox County Schools, Dr. Kelli Chaney, president of Tennessee College of Applied Technology – Knoxville (TCAT), and Dr. Margaret Ann Jeffries, dean of engineering and media technologies at Pellissippi State Technical Community College (PSTCC). 

The four of them talked at length about job readiness for students, changing careers, tuition assistance, and job placement. TCAT and PSTCC earn their accreditation by helping their alumni find jobs in their chosen fields. Did you know 90% of graduates leave trade school with a job?

If you’re thinking about changing careers in hopes of finding meaningful work that is high-wage and high-skilled, you’re a parent of a middle or high school student who shows aptitude in one of the trades, or you’re an employer looking for skilled labor and want to know how to connect with talent coming out of a learning program, you must listen to this podcast! 

Thinking about going back to school as a first step to a new career in the trades?  Click here to find someone who can help you get started.

Tune in every Saturday morning at 7:00am to hear Around the House live on Newstalk 98.7FM / WOKI.