Guest speakers listen as Nicole Smith addresses the crowd during Monday’s Southern Growth Policies Board 2012 Chairman’s Conference held at The Chattanoogan Hotel and Conference Center.RELATED STORY
‘Soft’ skills, STEM education called musts in workforce
It could be time to ditch the bachelor’s in basketweaving and toss out the master’s in medieval literature.
The work force of tomorrow needs to know how to program a robot, weld steel and do math, business leaders said Monday at a meeting of the Southern Growth Policies Board.
There are plenty of jobs available right now for those with the right skills — the problem is, graduates today don’t have those skills, officials said.
“We are always short on nurses,” said Karen Ward, senior vice president and chief human resources officer at Chattanooga-based health insurer BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee. “Just over the next year, we are looking at hiring 200 to 300 nurses.”