Op-Ed

Jay Neal, Ph.D.

Associate Vice President,

Academic Affairs and Chief Operating Officer

University of Houston at Sugar Land

University of Houston at Katy

The Future of Workforce & Education

When it comes to the success of our communities and the strength of our future workforce, the onus has always been on higher education to create the blueprint. But history has shown the architecture of a successful future—supported by a strong workforce—cannot rely on one designer but requires a pool of experts whose vision incorporates the many connections needed to create this network of success.

Despite some beliefs that education hasn’t changed in 200 years, it is constantly changing to meet current challenges. These challenges were there in the first Industrial Revolution when the country was accommodating a new kind of economy of steam and mass production. They were there during the march of the locomotive in the Second Industrial Revolution. They were there when millions of men and women returned from World War II with the implementation of the G.I. Bill. The higher education response may have been disorganized and met with skepticism, but common to these eras was an acknowledgement that society needed a more educated workforce.

Likewise, before COVID, there already were dramatic changes happening in our workforce. New and different knowledge-needs were appearing in our workplaces—new technologies, new skills, new competencies. Higher Education moved to create majors and fields of study that promised graduates good jobs with good pay. But this approach, while appropriate, only begins the process to create a sound workforce. For success, education and industry must forge new relationships to create blueprints for a future that prepares employees for a new Knowledge Economy. As we shift from an industrial to a knowledge economy, we will move from fixed time and processes used to assemble items, to fixed outcomes. The knowledge economy education does not exist yet, but we can see it beginning to evolve as we move from a focus on the teacher (i.e., teaching and focusing on how we educate) to a focus on the learner and actually learning as demonstrated by the outcomes of that education.

Various articles and research point to the challenges employers are having as they move to fill technology jobs. They need students to be work-ready and able to implement technology-centered strategies. The demand is such that some employers support eliminating or relaxing degree requirements in favor of employees’ experience (CompTIA, Workforce and learning trends 2022). While this may be considered a short-term solution, degrees are not going away (there is solid research that shows the increase in earning ability with a degree as opposed to without), but the climate of the technology workforce requires specialized skill sets. Working with our partners in community colleges and trade schools, such as Wharton County Junior College, Houston Community College, and Texas State Technical College, to supplement degree plans with certification opportunities—informed by industry needs—shores up students’ credentials and builds a workforce that can solidly respond to industry challenges. Another novel approach is for students to capitalize on skills learned through high school Career and Technical Education (CTE) programs, get a good paying job right out of high school, and use these funds to help pay for additional higher education certificates, training, or degrees, helping them obtain 21^st century skills and have little or no student dept. How we approach, obtain, and utilize higher education must change to fit today’s student and industry needs.

This partnership with industry already is seen in our College of Technology, where students can build on their knowledge base with training, professional and certificate programs in such things as innovation, cloud computing architecture, configuration management, executive leadership and budgeting, and foresight and future studies.

The College’s Supply Chain and Logistics Technology undergraduate and graduate programs were accredited last year by The Chartered Institute of Logistics and Transport (CILT). The prestigious CILT is the oldest international transportation and logistics organization in the world. This relationship allows our students to apply for membership when they graduate and use the CILT credential after their name. Complementing this opportunity, Port Houston provided a $50,000 grant to embed curriculum from the Chartered Institute into an online learning platform for certificate courses. This relationship between industry and higher education provides work-relevant opportunities for students so that they can be work-productive quickly, revving the engine to drive the global, digital and knowledge economy.

Similarly in our College of Nursing, where the industry goal is for a majority of nurses to have bachelor’s degrees, students have pursued mini-semesters for added experience in operating room nursing, pediatric nursing or speaking Spanish for health care professionals, as well certifications to build on graduate work in nurse education or nurse administration. These supplemental programs fold into the needs of the health care industry because they were created in collaboration with the profession, and ensure our future nurses are work-ready when they graduate.

This relationship becomes more critical when considering the crisis of the nursing shortage. Within the next 10-15 years more than a million aging RNs will retire. This coupled with the exit of exhausted professionals during the pandemic sets up a dangerous future for healthcare. We need more nurses. And to get them, we need to open up more collaborative opportunities between our college and hospitals in the form of clinical rotations to ensure future nurses are equipped not only with skills but the professional temperament taught in these real-world situations.

Recently, UH at Sugar Land held an event to engage with industry about the possibility of creating public/private partnerships. It is our vision to create opportunities between our colleges and area industry to advance research, commercialize technology, incubate entrepreneurial efforts and impact economic development. We were pleased with the turnout of those interested in discussing how their goals for research, technology and entrepreneurship pair with our programs. This collaboration and investment in the form of infrastructure, research, equipment, internships, or scholarships will produce a 21^st century workforce ready to engage with current challenges, as it anticipates future ones. The educational opportunities it will provide will equip students with a toolbox of skills, such as: critical thinking, creativity, continuous learning, problem solving, adaptability, technology and media literacy, cross-cultural competence, knowledge literacy and data management, teamwork and collaboration, and communication competencies; all needed for knowledge-economy workplaces growing more horizontal than vertical in organizations.

By broadening the role of industry with higher education we can ensure a blueprint that builds a strong workforce. We simply have to have all segments of our community present at the table working for this common good and need. Each unit is present in our Fort Bend County region—business, industry, education, donors—primed to connect and strongly supported. Without a doubt, this is a delicate ecosystem, but our efforts cannot be siloed; it must be a coordinated and innovative effort, with each unit equally playing a critical role in reinforcing our students’ needs as we work toward building our shared future and success.

About the Central Fort Bend Chamber

The Central Fort Bend Chamber has been caring for businesses in Fort Bend County since 1910. The mission is to cultivate community connections, advocate for business and facilitate growth. For more information on the Central Fort Bend Chamber and its programs, please visit www.cfbca.org.