Forum to Address Disconnect Between Businesses and Work Readiness and Skills of Today's Workers

USA - English

• Latin America - español

WASHINGTON, Oct. 10, 2014 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The United States has a pretty good idea of the available human capital, but significant numbers of workers lack the skills necessary to participate in the 21st-century economy. For this reason, Educational Testing Service (ETS) will devote one of its popular Research Forums to this disconnect and possible solutions on Tuesday, October 14, 2014.

The Research Forum will be held at ETS's Washington, D.C., office, 1800 K Street NW, Ninth Floor, from 11:30 a.m.–1:30 p.m. Steven Robbins, Director of Research Innovations in ETS's Research & Development division, and Martin Scaglione, President and CEO of Hope Street Group, will review the relationship between skills, work readiness and success from both research and policy perspectives as they discuss their work in building a skills agenda. They also will explore the need to establish a global framework of critical skills for workplace readiness and success as well as how to articulate the meaning of workplace readiness.

"Human capital is the most important resource in modern economies," Robbins says. "But how do we measure human capital? Traditionally, we have assumed that academic degrees or credentials are a reliable proxy. And, if we count the number of high school graduates, college graduates and holders of advanced degrees, we also have a pretty good idea of how much human capital we have.

"However, we contend that skills and competencies reflect work readiness and success as much as degree and credential attainment," he adds. "As seen through this lens, significant numbers of U.S. workers lack the skills necessary to participate in the 21st-century economy. States, corporations and organizations are burdened with a 'skills mismatch,' yet individuals — many of them with credentials — are struggling to obtain livable wages and middle-skills jobs."

Robbins has worked as a lead developer on multiple personality and career assessments and has designed and built career and psychosocial curricula tied to assessment solutions to promote education and workplace success. A leading scientist in his field, Robbins has published more than 100 refereed articles and has led hundreds of workshops and presentations around the world.

At ETS, Robbins plays a leadership role in the Center for Academic and Workforce Readiness and Success, promoting initiatives around education and workplace success on a global scale. He provides intellectual leadership on creating standards and benchmarks tied to global workforce readiness and success. Robbins also spearheads the development of better assessment solutions that can contribute to the improvement of higher education retention and student learning outcomes.

Scaglione has made it his life's work to create access to learning for those in need. He recently joined Hope Street Group as the organization's new President and CEO. He is also co-founder of Viridis Learning, a talent development technology company based in New York City. He previously served as President and Chief Operating Officer of ACT's Workforce Development Division and is widely credited with creating President Barack Obama's Job Council program, "Right Skills Now."

For questions about the event, please contact Elizabeth Kingsley at 1-202-659-0616. Anyone interested in attending this event may register here.

About ETS
At ETS, we advance quality and equity in education for people worldwide by creating assessments based on rigorous research. ETS serves individuals, educational institutions and government agencies by providing customized solutions for teacher certification, English language learning, and elementary, secondary and postsecondary education, and by conducting education research, analysis and policy studies. Founded as a nonprofit in 1947, ETS develops, administers and scores more than 50 million tests annually — including the TOEFL^® and TOEIC ^® tests, the GRE ^® tests and The Praxis Series ^® assessments — in more than 180 countries, at over 9,000 locations worldwide. www.ets.org

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SOURCE Educational Testing Service