Facing a white-collar worker shortage, companies try on-the-job training
Summary
He’d hit “absolute rock bottom.” Then, last year, friends guided Haruza to a fledgling IBM program that pays new workers as they receive classroom instruction and on-the-job training — no college degree needed. “Everyone else is like supportive parents, trying to get you on board and to join the family.” While claims of low-wage worker shortages have received considerable pushback, there’s broad consensus that some sectors of the economy — technology, health care and tech-adjacent businesses such as insurance — face a genuine dearth of qualified talent. “I’m extremely ambitious, and this lined up exactly with what I wanted to do.” Joining the company’s third trainee class, Allen was paid to split her hours between on-the-job training and classroom instruction provided at Harold Washington. “If you don’t address it at the entry level, you’re abdicating your responsibility to actually make a change.” Another set of employers — America’s hospitals and clinics — have long relied on women and people of color to fill their ranks. As IBM measures it, the federal government puts forward $130 billion annually in grants, loans, and other benefits to undergraduate students pursuing bachelor’s and other higher education degrees — spending that, in the company’s view, no longer meets the needs of the digital economy.
