What's New
Book News
Winning the Global Talent Showdown: How Businesses and Communities Can Partner to Rebuild the Jobs Pipeline
(Berrett-Koehler, April 2009)
Ed Gordon's latest book is on the future of talent between 2010 and 2020. He surveys the sorry state of the world talent pipeline with separate chapters on the Americas, Asia and Europe. But this is a book fundamentally about solutions highlighting innovative partnerships in local communities that are reinventing the education-to-employment system and education and training for current workers.
Click here for an executive summary of Winning the Global Talent Showdown.
Hear or Download an Ed Gordon interview with Wayne Hurlbert on Winning the Global Talent Showdown.
Order now from your favorite bookseller, Berrett-Koehler, or Amazon.com.
Rowman and Littlefield has just published a paperback edition of The 2010 Meltdown: Solving the Impending Jobs Crisis.
A Korean language edition of The 2010 Meltdown is now available produced by Somdol Publishing. The Korean edition is entitled: The 2010 Meltdown: The People Paradox.
Blog
Ed Gordon is now an author on the Encyclopedia Britannica Blog site. Click here to follow his blogs.
Important Event on the Future of Jobs
The Federal Reserve Bank invited Edward E. Gordon to deliver the keynote address at its 22nd Annual Economic Outlook Symposium on December 4, 2009 at the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago. Gordon's address, "The 2010 Jobs Crossroad: Meltdown or Resugence?" detailed how to unleash the next boom by revitalizing America's outdated education-to-employment system. He offered specific solutions drawn from both his case studies and labor research on how the talent pipelines across the United States can be rebuilt by concerted action at the local, state, and federal levels. The February 2010 Chicago Fed Letter provides a summary of the entire conference.
Upcoming Programs
September 14, 2010
CCASTD Global Forum Speech
"The 2010 Jobs Crossroad: The Future of Training & Development"
Roosevelt University, Chicago, IL
September 22, 2010
Keynote Speech,
"The 2010 Jobs Crossroad: Meltdown or Resurgence?
Boone & Winnebago Counties Workforce Investment
Board Annual Meeting
Rockford, IL
October 7, 2010
Luncheon Presentation,
"Winning the 2010 Meltdown: Solving the Jobs Crisis"
University Club
Chicago, IL
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Recent Programs
March 5, 2010
Luncheon Keynote Presentation, "21st Century High Skills Development Imperatives"
IEEE-USA Annual Meeting
Nashville, TN
May 12, 2010
Keynote Speech, "The 2010 Jobs Crossroad: Meltdown or Resurgence?" and Workshop, "Rebuilding the Jobs Pipeline: Mobilizing Business-Community Partnerships for Change"
Workforce New York 2010 Spring Conference
NY Association of Training & Development Professionals
Albany, New York
June 10, 2010
Keynote Address, "The 2010 Jobs Crossroad: Meltdown or Resurgence?"
State of the Workforce Conference
Opportunity Inc. of Hampton Roads
Norfolk, Virginia
July 28, 2010
Luncheon Presentation, "The 2010 Economic Crossroad: Meltdown or Resurgence?
Economic Development Council
Tower Club, Chicago, IL
Recent Articles
Talent Challenge: Renewing the Vision, T+D (American Society for Training & Development), June 2010.
The current recession is being exacerbated by an educational system that is failing to prepare many American workers for the higher skill demands of the world's current labor-market economy. Ed Gordon explores what roles workplace learning and development professionals can fill now and over the next decade to mitigate this jobs-skill crisis.
Read Talent Challenge
Medical Staffing: Critical Shortages on the Horizon, Surgical Neurology International, Jan-March 2010.
In a guest editorial, Ed Gordon discusses worldwide talent shortages in the health care sector over the next decade and how community-based organizations can be change agents.
Read Critical Shortages on the Horizon
Using Community-Based Organizations to Close the Talent Gap, Employee Relations Today, Winter 2010.
Ed Gordon illustrates how community-based organizations can move regions from outmoded 20th-century education-to-employment systems to more open models that effectively prepare students for 21st-century careers and keep current employees' skills up-to-date.
Job Meltdown or Talent Crunch? Training, January 2010.
In this Soapbox Column, Ed Gordon gives a brief summary of his research on why there is an escalating mismatch between individuals' skills and employer job needs. He points to Winning the Global Talent Showdown as a realistic policy primer to energize debate on new talent creation and worker retraining systems.
Unemployment Numbers Don't Tell the Real Jobs Crisis Story, Employee Benefit News Online, December 2009.
This article summarizes the major points of Ed Gordon's recent Federal Reserve speech. It explores what impact the rapid pace of technological change, the dearth of workers with the skills needed for the new era, and globalization could have on the future of the U.S. and global economies. New talent strategies are proposed to address these impending challenges.
Read The Jobs Crisis Story
Accounting Change Needed to Address Talent Shortfalls, WebCPA, December 2009.
The U.S. labor-economic market is facing one of the most sweeping talent realignments in its history. Current business accounting standards are stacked against making talent investments because they must be expensed rather than capitalized. Ed Gordon proposes a new talent investment metric to encourage business investment in training current employees and in establishing trainee and internship positions.
Read Accounting Change
The Global Talent Crisis, The Futurist (World Future Society), September-October 2009.
In this issue focusing on jobs in the 21st century, Ed Gordon surveys the current upheaval in the job market and the talent shortages looming on the horizon. Advanced technologies are shifting a growing proportion of the workforce to high-skill occupations particularly in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) areas. The current outmoded U.S. education-to-employment system is seriously out-of-sync with these talent demands. Gordon focuses on the use of community action to rebuild education and training systems that support the industries and occupations of the future.
Read the The Global Talent Crisis. Find more information on The Futurist and the World Future Society.
The Sixth Discipline: Talent Formation, TrainingMag, October 2009.
In this knowledge ecoomy, why do so few businesses make workplace learning a key priority? Ed Gordon focuses on the need to change accounting standards and IRS regulations to allow the capitalization of internships, training, and education. Five strategies for maximizing talent formation are also included.
Read The Sixth Discipline
The 2010 Surprise, Employee Benefit News, September 2009.
Boomer retirement will soon create large numbers of replacement positions. Ed Gordon focuses on how best to prepare for the future talent needs in many sectors of the U.S. economy.
Read The 2010 Surprise
The Future of Jobs and Careers, Techniques (Association for Career & Technical Education), September 2009.
The career aspirations and educational preparation of many of today's students are not keeping pace with the rapidly evolving occupational requirements of advanced technology. Ed Gordon points to two promising solutions to this talent mismatch: community-based organizations that are raising the quality and diversity of education from elementary school on, and career academies that blend liberal arts and career preparation in high-growth/high-skill areas.
Read The Future of Jobs & Careers
The Technology Paradox: A Digital Economy Without a STEM Workforce, Today's Engineer, March 2009.
Ed Gordon analyzes why too few young Americans are entering the scientific, technological, engineering, and mathematical (STEM) professions so vital to the future growth of the U.S. economy. Drawing upon material from Winning the Global Talent Showdown, he outlines how businesses and communities can partner to address this shortfall by reinventing local education-to-employment systems.
Read The Technology Paradox
New Trends in Talent Creation, TrainingMag, June 2009.
Future U.S. growth will depend upon building a knowledge economy. Ed Gordon explores new business perspectives on unlocking employees' potential for innovation through training and lifelong learning.
Read Talent Creation
Career Preparation Articles
Career preparation for youth is the focus of three recent articles. In a Portland Family Magazine online features article, Ed Gordon explores the growth of careers in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) and why today's youth are uninformed about the preparation needed for them as well as the opportunities they offer. "Jobs for the Future" in the December 2009 issue of Western New York Family Magazine focuses on concrete ways parents can help children prepare for the high-skill/high-wage jobs of the future. "Filling the Talent Pool" in the winter 2010 issue of the Canadian School Counsellor is an interview with Ed Gordon conducted by Barbara Chabai. Dr. Gordon is queried about the changes he proposes in Winning the Global Talent Showdown to better prepare students for future career areas.
Interviews and Press Coverage
As part of a dialogue on the mismatch between the skills needed in the job market and the available talent, the Drucker Institute invited Ed Gordon to comment briefly on this situation. Hear his viewpoint on Drucker Apps.
Hear or download Ira Wolfe's Blog Talk Radio interview with Ed Gordon on the current jobs paradox -- in the midst of record unemployment employers are reporting difficulty finding workers with the right skills for open jobs.
The Society for Human Resource Management interviewed Ed Gordon on the current job market and ways of changing the outlook for the future. Read Future Workforce Trends
In an interview with Dennis A. Britton published in the Desert Sun (August 1, 20100, Ed Gordon provides his viewpoints on the actions needed to foster job development and economic growth in the Palm Springs, CA area.
Andrea Kay in her syndicated career column cites Ed Gordon's research on the shortage of people preparing for jobs in STEM areas and ways to address this emerging talent crisis.
Hear or download a Podcast of an Ed Gordon interview on talent shortages in technical careers and promising solutions for tackling these deficits.
An extensive report on Ed Gordon's keynote speech at the Business Innovation 2009 Conference of the Wausau (WI) Region Chamber of Commerce is on Marketplace Magazine's web site. Read keynote speech summary.
View an Ed Gordon interview on misperceptions about manufacturing produced by Wisconsin Public Broadcasting.
Read "Workforce Crisis," an Ed Gordon interview on the major culture changes needed to keep the American economy competitive.
A Margaret LeBrun editorial in Marketplace Magazine features Ed Gordon's comments on preparing youth for future careers. Read "Preparing Our Kids for a Global Economy."
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