Indicator: 38 - Businesses' Need to Provide Training

Why This Is Important

The workplace is a rapidly changing environment, and young people entering the workforce need a myriad of skills in order to compete successfully for high-wage jobs. Businesses that have to provide remedial on-the-job skills training are adding costs to what it takes to run a business in Maine. Youth who are prepared to enter the workforce should not need basic education or remedial training.

Where We Stand

A sample of business executives was asked if it was necessary for their company to provide basic education to entry-level workers for each of the following: math, writing/spelling, reading, computer skills and people skills. As the chart below indicates, in 2001 just over two-thirds (68%) of those responding stated that they have to provide basic education/training in computer skills “frequently” or “sometimes,” a slight drop from the percentage in the 2000 survey. For 2001, the percentage reporting a need to “frequently” or “sometimes” train entry-level positions in the other four areas is shown in the chart to the right. At least one-third reported a need to provide such basic education in each of the four areas. The need was especially great for “people skills.”

Data Sources and Context

Data for this indicator comes from the Maine Development Foundation’s Annual Survey of Maine Businesses in 2000 and 2001, both of which were conducted by Market Decisions, Inc. In 2000, surveys were mailed to 2,115 firms in Maine, and 568 (27%) responded; 663 of the 2,000 firms surveyed in 2001 (34%) answered. The sample of businesses was drawn so that it included both manufacturing and non-manufacturing firms, as well as small-, medium- and large-sized businesses. The return rate in both years is subject to self-selection, which introduces a non-determinable, non-response bias in the data.

Survey results are available on-line at http://mdf.org.

The Survey was not conducted in 2002; the Foundation intends to administer the next Survey in time for results to be included in the Maine Economic Growth Council’s publication of Measures of Growth 2004.