Council for a Strong America is a national nonprofit that unites five organizations comprised of law enforcement leaders, retired admirals and generals, business executives, pastors, and prominent coaches and athletes who promote solutions that ensure our next generation of Americans will be citizen-ready.
The report, titled “Connecting Classrooms to Careers to Shrink Colorado’s Skills Gap” focuses on the importance of Deeper Learning strategies in closing the skills gap, which occurs when there are more job openings than there are qualified workers to fill those positions.
Skills gaps can create major problems for businesses. Simply put, our state is not producing enough employees with the right skills or education. Colorado will struggle to remain competitive over the next few years if that trend doesn’t change. Employers around the state and the country are looking more and more for skills like collaboration, communication, and critical thinking. These are skills that go deeper than the basic technical knowledge someone might need to do a particular job.
The good news is that we can give our students the education they need to be competitive in the job market and, at the same time, give them the deeper learning skills that employers covet. We can do that by investing in deeper learning programs that specifically teach our students the skills they’ll need to succeed.
Innovative educational models that teach deeper learning are being used in K-12 schools around the country. One of these models here in Denver is the Welby Community School, where students participate in a learning style called “Expeditionary Learning.” Welby students engage in six-week “expeditions” that combine high-level academic content and real-world experiences crossing multiple subjects. These projects give students invaluable know-how that they carry with them into more advanced educational experiences, or even to the workforce.
It’s time for Colorado to embrace innovative educational models that focus on deeper learning competencies and experiences in order to help us close our skills gap—while giving our kids the best possible chance to succeed in education and their future careers.
On behalf of Council for a Strong America and ReadyNation Colorado, I am please to submit this report to the COBRT association partners.
Sincerely,
Jeff Wasden, President of Colorado Business Roundtable
Please find a new report issued by the Council for a Strong America's ReadyNation organization.