“In Germany, you have a culture where employers feel it’s not only their responsibility to train, but their right”.
Keep that quote in mind while you read this post. I’ll come back to that in just a few minutes.
One of the challenges job-seekers like myself face in trying to find full-time employment is the scarcity of jobs. Don’t believe for a moment those that say there are tons of jobs out there and all you have to do is get off your backside and look. I’m a single white male, college-educated with no criminal record, who was not fired from his last job, who has looked both inside and outside his 20-year information technology career path using all means necessary from old-school walk-ins to the Internet (such as social media, online want ads, and message forums). The best I have come up with from 4 years of efforts are odd jobs and temporary assignments. There are very few jobs out there.
One reason for this dearth of employment, as I’ve stated many times, is Corporate Canada has decided to do more with less. I’ve been stating this since my Take One web page days in the 1990s, before the recession of 2008/2009.
Now, I do not fault them for taking that approach : you either earn more revenue or cut more expenses in order to keep afloat. We live in a capitalistic society and things we want cost money. Anyone who maintains a household budget gets this simple rule.
The problem with this approach is the fact we live in a capitalistic society and things we want cost money. Unless you just won the lottery, were born in a rich family, or have a sugar daddy (or in the case of male gold-diggers, a sugar mommy), the only way you and I are able to afford the things we need is by having a job. Businesses create jobs. Not schools. Not government. Businesses.
When businesses do more with less, they may keep themselves alive, but in turn they also take away jobs people like you and I need to survive. No matter how the career coaches, politicians and motivational experts spin-doctor it, that’s an irrefutable, unmistakable fact that neither can be dismissed nor ignored.
Which brings me back to the above statement made by Sarah Watts-Rynard, the executive director of the Canadian Apprenticeship Forum., in an article by Maclean’s Magazine where both the German education system and companies play a bigger role … and take greater responsibility …. in ensuring people are employment-ready. It’s a great article and mirrors some points I made in a previous blog post about the triangle of co-operation our governments, education and employment support services and businesses must form in order to tackle chronic unemployment.
Corporate responsibility in the past has been about respecting the environment and the laws of the land. I think it’s high time companies should also respect the rights of people to accessible and abundant employment. A working man or woman will give back to companies far more than any welfare cheque.
Thanks for reading!
David
davidalangay 