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Cameron Johnson

NC State University

(101)-111-1111

Kimberly J. Brycz

Senior Vice President, Global Human Resources, General Motors

P.O. BOX 33170

Detroit, MI 48232-5170

8 April 2019

Dear Ms. Brycz,

Businesses across the nation are experiencing a drought in skilled and specialized

workers. This surge of vacant positions threatens the sustainability of important businesses and

threatens to impede the growth of the economy. This drought is due to workers not having the

skills that are necessary for current and future jobs and the baby boomer generation retiring at an

exponential rate. The reason for why there is such a skill gap in today’s and the rising workforce

can be attributed to many different things. For starters, the rapid advancement in technology is a

both a blessing and burden to the economy. Since new technology is being developed, with new

businesses rising from it, employees must be proficient in the use of this new technology. Most

job candidates do not have the experience with the new technology necessary for what the work

entails. Arguably the main reason for the skills gap is the US education system not being able to

keep pace with the expanding economy (Business Roundtable). Many low standards schools are

present in the nation’s K-12 education system and allow students to get a high school degree

without learning many crucial competencies, such as STEM and technical skills that would lead
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them to success in the workforce or in college. This problem also persists in higher education,

where many 4-year majors in degrees don’t develop these skills either (Business Roundtable).

The skills gap is extremely lethal to businesses in the manufacturing industry that possess

occupations like mechanics, electricians, computer technicians, and welders. These fields

generally don’t require the traditional 4-year college degree in biology, chemistry, and

engineering where STEM skills are properly taught, and rely on experience and the assumption

that candidates are taught these skills in high school. This leads to job vacancies, because many

of the candidates do not have these skills and are not prepared to be functional in the workplace.

The General Motors Company (GM) is one of these businesses where these key technical skills

are required. GM owns over 20 brands across 37 different countries, including China, their

biggest source of revenue (General Motors Company). Due to this large size, they need to

constantly fill technical positions in order to keep operating at their high-volume quota. In order

to cope with the gap in technical skills in their workforce, GM currently has a 12-week

internship program called Take 2, which accepts professionals that have taken extended time off

from the workforce and who want to relaunch their careers. This internship program is a great

way to fill vacant positions, as it guarantees that the employees have the skills that are necessary

for the positions by picking on candidates with proven experience. However, this solution is

flawed in that the population of people who are looking to relaunch their careers is shrinking,

with baby boomers, the largest population in the workforce, retiring in record numbers (Van

Dam). GM should not only be looking at these professionals but should also be targeting the

rising workforce from high school graduates. I am proposing that GM should invest in my non-

profit trade program for recent high school graduates that want to become mechanics who aren’t

looking into going to college for a 4-year degree.

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My trade program plans to teach future prospects in the manufacturing industry the

special technical skills and provide the experience that the jobs require. We will offer not only

on-site education, but also online, distance education. To do so, we will partner with automotive

trade schools to use their facilities and hire top programmers and software engineers to create a

virtual lab, that will provide accurate training for the candidates. We will also partner with

smaller local companies to give our schooled students hands-on on-the-job training and

experienced, that way they will be fully ready to work day one, without almost any instruction.

In order to get candidates, we will reach out to local high schools and have speakers, who

themselves are retired technicians, go out for presentations to first talk about career paths that

aren’t college and suggest that they look at our trade program. That way we will recruit many

promising young workers and ensure that they have the technical skills required for the job.

This program is the most cost-effective plan to solve the technical and STEM skills gap

that is plaguing GM. This plan is better than funding vocational schools, because even if GM

gives those partnered trade schools money, it is not guaranteed that a satisfying number of

graduates will go to GM to work. Since this trade program is directly affiliated with GM, we

vow that we will funnel the successful graduates to the various GM brands, and make sure that

GM will see much less vacancies in about two years. This program will also cost GM much less

than the alternatives, as GM has almost no involvement in it other than financing. All of the

alternatives to the hiring problem, like trade schools and competing trade programs will request

more involvement from their investors, we on the other hand, only request funding in order to

pay our hired staff a well-deserved salary.

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In the United States there is a very pressing issue that is threating the future of our

economy, and the sustainability of businesses based on new and upcoming technology.

Businesses want for their employees to have necessary skills, but the employees don’t have

them. That is the skills gap, and the General Motors Company, the biggest manufacturer in the

nation is no exception. In order for the GM to negate the effect of the skills gap on their

company, and continue to thrive, they should invest in my non-profit trade program. My trade

program partners with trade schools, local high schools, and retired mechanics and technicians to

educate future prospects in the industry and train them to be job ready, so GM doesn’t have to go

through extra lengths in order to train newly hired employees that should already be

knowledgeable and ready for the job.

Thank you for your consideration.

Sincerely,

Cameron Johnson
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Works Cited

Business Roundtable. Closing The Skills Gap. 15 May 2017. Website. 8 April 2019.

<https://www.businessroundtable.org/skills>.

General Motors Company. Our Brands. 5 February 2016. Web Site. 14 April 2019.

<https://www.gm.com/our-brands>.

Van Dam, Andrew. Baby boomers are retiring in droves. Here are three big reasons for

concern. 2 March 2019. The Chicago Tribune. Website. 14 April 2019.

<https://www.chicagotribune.com/business/dollarsense/ct-biz-baby-boomers-retire-

dollarsense-20190301-story.html>.