“For me to beat the foreign competition with their very low wages, we have to have a really smart work force. We have to have clever people coming out of the box with slick ideas so that when [clients] call, we can produce a solution that blows them away and charge higher prices,” Greenblatt said.
He said 25 states are pursuing the idea of creating a national manufacturing certification program that would be portable and serve as evidence to potential employers that a person has certain skills and is committed enough to make the effort.
Carnevale warned that if the nation does not immediately begin to address the need for more workers with college degrees, certificates and industry certifications, “millions of jobs could go offshore.”
