COVER STORY

Jim Roche, head of the New Hampshire Business and Industry Association, says "A lot of people (think) we have a broken education system. We don't. The system is working just fine." Michael McCord photo

For most of the past three decades, the American work force has been transformed almost beyond recognition. Before technological advances and fierce global competition changed the path to middle-class success, a high school diploma was enough to get a high-paying manufacturing position or a college degree could lead to a career in a Fortune 500 company as a white collar executive. Those days now seem as quaint as the height of the horse and buggy era.

On a new economic landscape where job security rarely exists and worker productivity amid rapid technological changes is considered the key to economic growth locally, regionally and nationally, the calls for a better-educated work force from the business community have become a familiar theme. In 1992, then-presidential candidate Bill Clinton made worker retraining and lifelong education a major campaign theme to deal with voter concerns about the country's "" and the public's "" economic insecurity. In essence, Clinton said the old jobs weren't coming back and the limited skill set of the production line was being replaced by economic imperatives that required a more nimble and diverse range of skills.

Earlier this year, when New Hampshire Gov. John Lynch submitted his budget proposal he said in words that could have been lifted from 1992 that "education is perhaps the most important investment we make in our state's economic future. A strong work force is one of the best recruiting tools we have for attracting new businesses to New Hampshire. And the quality of education we offer our children will determine the quality of the opportunities they will have later in their lives."

Even a cursory look at the issue for states such as Maine and New Hampshire presents a two-sided issue "" one is providing for a proper education and the other is to keep the educated workers here in the region. There is urgency, because as a recent report by the N.H. Forum on Higher Education noted, the state could soon run low on educated workers.

The report noted that "most of our highly educated workers today are closer to ending their careers than they are to starting them."

Both Maine and New Hampshire either have enacted a program or are in the process of studying how to stop the outward migration of college graduates. The larger issue of what defines a proper education for the modern economy is not so easily solved.

"A lot of people (think) we have a broken education system," said Jim Roche, head of the New Hampshire Business and Industry Association. "We don't. The system is working just fine."

But Roche acknowledges that the business community is concerned a significant portion of high school graduates are weak in "basic cognitive skills" in the areas of math, reading and writing. The dilemma, Roche explained, for businesses that hire high school graduates, is that "they shouldn't have to be in the position of to supply this basic education."

Roche added that there also needs better alignment between occupational needs of businesses and secondary and post-secondary educational institutions. But the problem is a recurring one because in the decade between 1985 and 1995 there was a huge demand for computer-science training but that sector was radically altered by the dramatic changes of the dot.com era that changed computer programming and usage.

Roche said there "will always be this tension in the economy" between current planning and future developments. Few could have imagined 50 years ago that entire product manufacturing giants such as textiles and shoes would simply vanish.

"You can't just think two to four years down the road," said Will Arvelo, the new president of the New Hampshire Community Technical College of Stratham and Portsmouth. "This is really a life long process." Arvelo came to N.H. Technical College from the Benjamin Franklin Institute of Technology in Boston, and he said economic currents are changing the definition of what it means to be educated. It's not enough to be proficient in your job because your job could evolve or become extinct quickly.

"You can no longer just be an accountant," Arvelo explained. "You need to have value-added skills ... such as the ability to be creative, to analyze and solve high-level problems."

The "value-added skills" are necessary because the basic functions "" the "back room operations" "" of many occupations can be outsourced overseas. Those who survive and thrive are those who adapt and continually educate themselves in the "knowledge economy" that is encompassing virtually sector of economic life.

"Going back to school or more training at work are necessary in this competitive economic environment," he said.

The N.H. Forum on Higher Education estimates that two out of every three new jobs created through 2010 will require some level of college education. In particular, there are major worker shortages forecast in sectors such as information services, education, health and biological sciences and engineering.

Paula Newton, president of the N.H. Biotechnology Council, said New Hampshire is "perhaps ahead of the curve" nationally when it comes to leveraging federal job and education training grants into successful program partnerships between business and education. But she said the concern among members of her organization is that growth will be affected by a lack of skilled workers at all levels.

Arvelo said that during his time in Boston, he heard from numerous business leaders who told him that his school was doing a great job of teaching specific technical skills but it's not enough. What is in great demand but in shorter supply are students who have communication strengths (listening and writing) and who are using creative and analytic skills. He found businesses could train workers more easily to enhance their technical skills if they had strong communication, critical thinking, customer service, and cognitive skills.

What is also lacking, Arvelo said, is something deeper and perhaps more fundamentally difficult to explain but necessary to put their education in context.

"What we are lacking is a really broad understanding of the world, of the economic environment we live in. We need to do a better job to help them prepare and understand that we're in this thing (globalization) and we're no longer numero uno. We'd better prepare for it."