What's New
Media Highlights
View a story broadcast on the PBS NewsHour in which Ed Gordon weighs in on STEM education and the U.S. jobs future.
Read a companion New York Times article, "Students Aim for Success With a New View of Vocational School" (October 15, 2010) in which Ed Gordon is quoted.
In his August 15 blog, "Ignoring Structural Unemployment Guarantees Long-Term Joblessness," Desert Sun columnist and economist Morris Beschloss terms Edward Gordon "a lone crusader." Beschloss cites Gordon's efforts in "raising awareness and follow through" with respect to preparing workers for the high-skill jobs that remain vacant even in this time of high unemployment. Beschloss states, "Gordon is working on, and hoping for greater sponsorship and retraining commitments from big business and institutions especially. Lately he has bcome increasingly encouraged by the response that promises to turn this surge of interest into a floodtide of follow through. With top government leadership lacking in this regard, Gordon will need all the help he can get from the private sector."
On NPR's "All Things Considered" Chris Armold's November 16 story contains Ed Gordon's comments on the widening skills gap in the American workplace due to education and training that have not kept pace with the demands of advanced technology. Hear or read "To Fill Job Skills, Firm Brings Training In-House."
Winning the Global Talent Showdown is cited in the September 20, 2010 issue of the New Yorker. "How to Make It," by John Seabrook profiles James Dyson, the British entrepreneur and inventor. It indicates that Dyson is experiencing difficulty hiring engineers for his U.K. headquarters, and he foresees greater talent shortages in the future. Winning the Global Talent Showdown is cited for its prediction that if the U.S. current education system is not reformed by 2020, "there will be a hundred and twenty-three million highly skiled, high-paying jobs but only fifty million Americans qualified to fill them." This quote is also featured prominently in Davis Guggenheim's documentary film, "Waiting for Superman," and in this film's Community Discussion Guide on the Waiting for Superman website.
New! A print and audio summary of Winning the Global Talent Showdown is now available from Business Book Summaries. Click here for ordering information.
Order Winning the Global Talent Showdown from your favorite bookseller, Berrett-Koehler, or Amazon.com.
Interview Spotlight
In the Herman Trend Alert of January 25, 2012, Joyce Gioia's interview spotlights Ed Gordon's current focus on developing business-education partnerships to build the talent needed for vacant jobs. Read US Playing Catch-Up
Eric Krell's article, "The Global Talent Mismatch," in the June issue of HR Magazine includes Ed Gordon's viewpoints on the growing shortages of skilled workers, the shrinking training expenditures of U.S. compamies, and the need to change accounting rules to allow U.S. companies to capitalized investments in training and education.
In the March 2011 issue of CFO Magazine, David McCann's article , "To the 'Three R's' Add One More: Writhing," focuses on looming shortages of technicallly skilled workers as the U.S. economy recovers. Ed Gordon's call for changing accounting regulations to allow companies to capitalize training and education expenses is prominently featured.
Read this article.
Blog
Ed Gordon is now an author on the Encyclopedia Britannica Blog site. Click here to follow his blogs.
Recent Programs
October 27, 2011
Presentation and Workshop: Workshop: "Mobilizing or Expanding Regional Talent Innovation Networks"
Vermilion Advantage Conference
Bremer Center
Danville, IL
October 19, 2011
Keynote Presentation, "Today's Employment & Career Challenges: Renewing the Vision"
Regional Employment Summit
Best Western
St. Catharines, Ontario
Canada
October 5, 2011
Opening Keynote Presentation, "Geting the Workers You Want When You Need Them"
Workshop, "Regional Innovation Networks"
North Dakota Governor's Workforce Summit
Minot, ND
Read Ed Gordon's conference program article.
June 22, 2011
Keynote Address, "Broadening the Jobs Pipeline: Ensuring More Economic Growth through the Vermilion Advantage"
Vermilion Advantage Annual Meeting
Danville, IL
May 19, 2011
Keynote Address
"Mobilizing Business Support to Rebuild the Jobs Pipeline"
Vermont Society of CPAs Annual Meeting
Burlington, VT
May 5, 2011
Presentation, "Rebuilding the Jobs Pipeline: Mobilizing Regional Talent Innovation Networks"
Rockford Public Schools Community Summit
Rockford, IL
February 14, 2011
Presentation: "Rebuilding the Job Pipeline" and
Book Signing
ACT for MS Event
Rancho Mirage, CA
February 11, 2011
Presentation
"Rebuilding the Jobs Pipeline for California Businesses"
The Lincoln Club of the Coachella Valley
Rancho Mirage, CA
December 8, 2010
Keynote Address
"The 2010 Jobs Crossroad: Meltdown or Resurgence?"
Hire Education Conference of the
Virginia Community College System and
Virginia Workforce Investment Boards
The Homestead
Hot Springs, VA
November 16, 2010
Keynote Presentation
"Winning the GLobal Talent Showdown for the Americas"
U.S. Department of Commerce,
Americas Competitiveness Forum IV
Atlanta, GA
Recent Articles
The Talent Revolution Begins, Human Resource Executive, October 2011.
In light of the major imbalance between the talent supply and job qualifications, Ed Gordon outlines ways for businesses to spur talent creation. He also proposes a change in accounting rules to encourage business investment in training.
Read The Talent Revolution
Refocusing Strategic Talent Management, Training, January/February 2011.
Ed Gordon outlines how regional talent innovation networks can aid training professionals in building workforce skills within their organization and preparing more qualified entry-level workers.
Read Strategic Talent Management
The Job Revolution: Employment for Today and Tomorrow, Techniques (Association for Career & Technical Education), November/December 2010.
After reviewing job categories projected for the strongest growth over the next decade, Ed Gordon focuses on key questions for individuals considering future careers.
Read The Job Revolution
A New Talent-Investment Metric Is Needed to Advance Technological Leadership and Increase Jobs, Employment Relations Today, Fall 2010.
Currently U.S. businesses are spending ten times more on information technology than they are on training. As shortages of skilled talent are appearing in many advanced industrial nations, what can be done to encourage more U.S. business investment in education and training?
Employment Meltdown Solution: Technology + Talent + Teamwork = Jobs, Today's Engineer, September 2010.
Fostering private sector job growth is crucial for the growth of the U.S. economy. Ed Gordon outlines how a new talent preparation system can be developed through the partnership of businesses, educational programs, and community organizations.
Read Employment Meltdown Solution
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 economy, 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
Interviews & Press Coverage
"The Top Ten Ways to Position Your Company for Growth," by Barbara Rose (Retail Leader) includes Ed Gordon's prescriptions for investing in talent. Read this article based on the insights of a panel of experts and futurists.
Ed Gordon's viewpoints on how federal job training could be made more effective is included in a report by David Shadovitz on Human Resource Executive Online. Read Revamping Federal Jobs Training
"Coalition Puts City on Track, Says Expert," by Chrissy Alspaugh (The Republic, Columbus, Indiana) includes an extensive interview with Ed Gordon on the importance of community business-education partnerships for getting the U.S. economy back on track. Read this June 9, 2011 article.
Read Sun Times editor Tom Frisbie's blog on how Ed Gordon is focusing on developing a skilled workforce for Chicago and across the nation.
Hear or download Ira Wolfe's Blog Talk Radio interview , "High Unemployment . . . Worker Shortages, "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, 2010), 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.
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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