Lawndale Tribune
AND lAwNDAle News
The Weekly Newspaper of Lawndale
Herald Publications - Inglewood, Hawthorne, Lawndale, El Segundo, Torrance & Manhattan Beach Community Newspapers Since 1911 - Circulation 30,000 - Readership 60,000 (310) 322-1830 - October 12, 2017
Give a Kitten a Fur-Ever Home
This week’s edition features an array of adorable kittens waiting to be adopted (see “Pets” on page 4). The cutie on our front page is none other than Leo, just chilling out after some playtime.
Employers Counting on Community
Colleges to Help Build Workforce
By Rob McCarthy
A future-of-work report has sounded a call
for more young people to attend community
colleges and prepare themselves for middle-skill
careers that offer higher-than-average pay, career
advancement and--maybe, most importantly--
jobs that aren’t going to a robot anytime soon.
South Bay employers and recruiters over the
next five years can expect skills shortages for
positions that require an associate’s degree or
some college coursework. The labor economists
with the L.A. Center for a Competitive Workforce
in their report say that middle-skilled professions
such as nursing, bookkeeping, auditing, and
managing production and planning offer the
best opportunities in Los Angeles County’s
wide-open workforce.
Community colleges are employers’ best hope
for getting out ahead of the coming skills gap,
the report’s authors say. Jobs in warehousing,
data collection, and labor physical are being
replaced by machines and trusted to artificial
intelligence. Automation won’t be a “pressing
threat” to local employer for another 10 or 20
years, however, according to the labor economists.
When the door closes to these familiar jobs in
South Bay’s aerospace and defense companies,
another door is expected to open. Some technical
training--not necessarily a four-year degree, and
an ability to manage people and processes--are
expected to be in high demand.
“Recent advancements in robotics, artificial
intelligence and machine learning are poised to
cause greater levels of disruption in the future-
-not only in manufacturing, but also across
numerous other industries. Individuals will need
skills that can be employed in conjunction with
the functions of machines,” the authors noted.
“This puts enormous pressure on community
colleges and other education systems to create
programs that will do just that.”
What lies ahead are opportunities for local
community colleges to adapt their coursework
and training programs with more emphasis
on STEM (science-technology-engineeringmathematics)
fields of study and soft skills that
managers need to be successful, says the team
at the competitive workforce center. The new
venture is a partnership of 19 Los Angeles and
Orange County community colleges that is headed
by the Los Angeles Economic Development
Corporation (LAEDC).
Other members include the L.A. Chamber
of Commerce, Southern California Leadership
Council, and the Center of Excellence for
Labor Market Research at Mt. San Antonio
College. The work admittedly is a balancing
act. With this first report, they’ve identified
what the greater L.A. labor pool is lacking in
training, talents and experience. And, they’ve
given administrators at community colleges a
roadmap to support local business.
There were 776,000 students registered at
Los Angeles-area community colleges for the
2014-15 academic year, according to the center.
Two-thirds of those students enrolled in career
education programs, which prepare them for
healthcare, automotive, business and financial
service careers. Students can choose from more
than 200 career education programs offered by
19 community colleges in Los Angeles County
and nine Orange County campuses.
“Since community colleges play a leading and
vital role in training students to enter these target
occupations, it is incumbent that more attention
be given toward meeting forecasted employer
demand,” the future-of-work report said.
Closing the supply gap by aligning the talents
of community college graduates with talent gaps
in Southern California industries is critical to
the growth and prosperity of L.A. County’s
diverse economy, the LAEDC authors stressed.
There are 52 community colleges in greater Los
Angeles, including our local campuses El Camino
College in Torrance, Santa Monica College,
Los Angeles Harbor College in Wilmington,
and West Los Angeles College in Culver City.
Middle-skill jobs can pay close to $100,000 per
year and they require only an associate’s degree
from a community college. LAEDC’s workforce
alignment team is bullish on six local industries
for people with some college or a two-year
degree: aerospace, biomedical manufacturing,
entertainment, healthcare services, ports and
related transportation support activities; and
professional and technical services.
Employers in these six core industries will
be looking to hire 55,000 people with middle
skills between now and 2012, the LAEDC
forecast said.
Aerospace: “The demand for workers with
technical skills, as well as in-depth knowledge of
mathematics and science, will continue to remain
a high priority for aerospace establishments.
Simultaneously, many workers in the industry
across all occupations are nearing retirement age,
including those in middle-skill occupations such
as aircraft mechanics and service technicians,
representing critical training opportunity for
local community colleges.”
Bio-medical: “The industry remains poised
for growth as demand for innovations that
will improve the health and well-being of the
population continues to grow. Aside from the
hundreds of high-skill, high-wage workers
employed as chemists, industrial and medical
engineers, and software developers, many
workers in the industry are also middle-skill
See Community Colleges page 8
Certified & Licensed
Professionals.......................5
Classifieds............................3
Community Briefs...............2
Film.........................................7
Hawthorne Happenings....3
Legals............................... 5-7
Looking Up...........................7
Pets........................................4
Police.....................................3
Seniors..................................2
Sports....................................8
Weekend
Forecast
Friday
Partly
Cloudy
73˚/58˚
Saturday
Sunny
77˚/60˚
Sunday
Sunny
86˚/60˚