[Congressional Record Volume 144, Number 106 (Friday, July 31, 1998)]
[Senate]
[Pages S9531-S9533]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
EMPLOYEES OF THE 21ST CENTURY
Mr. ALLARD. Mr. President, during the 105th Session of Congress, my
colleagues and I are addressing a broad range of high tech issues,
including military, civilian, and commercial space issues. The industry
supporting high technology products and services has become extremely
important to our nation, and particularly in my home state of Colorado.
Today I would like to take a look at the high-tech industry through
global, national, state, and local perspectives, and relate the broader
examples to Colorado. Colorado is a microcosm of the nation when you
look at high-tech and the future of the industry. The prosperity,
trends, and needs within the Colorado community are prime examples of
what the entire nation is faced with.
The growth-inducing power of technology at the industry level has
been astonishing. In the United States, research-intensive industries,
such as aerospace, chemicals, communications, computers,
pharmaceuticals, scientific instruments, semiconductors, and software-
have been growing approximately twice the rate of the U.S. economy as a
whole the past two decades. The high-tech world has also become
extremely competitive. High-tech firms are now facing global
competition, regional competition, and competition for jobs. There is
every reason to believe that this trend will continue for at least the
next decade.
As competition increases locally and globally, we must field an
educated workforce that can also be competitive. America's future
economy depends on sustaining a competitive edge through greater
development and knowledge. But there is growing concern that America is
not prepared for this new economy.
I would like to share some startling statistics revealing the serious
lack of education in this country.
Forty percent of our 8 year-olds cannot read.
A Department of Education study concludes that 90 million adult
Americans have limited information and quantitative skills. According
to the American Society for Training and Development's 1997 ``State of
the Industry Report,'' 50 percent of organizations now have to provide
employee training in basic skills.
U.S. students do not perform well in comparison with students in
other countries. According to the Third International Mathematics and
Science Study--a study of half a million children in 41 countries--U.S.
eighth-graders had average mathematics scores that were well below
those of 20 other countries. Although U.S. eighth-graders performed
better in science, they were still outperformed by students in nine
other countries.
We are experiencing phenomenal growth in jobs for highly skilled
information technology workers, yet there are mounting reports that
industry is having great difficulty recruiting adequate numbers of
workers with the skills in demand.
We, as a society, need to find ways to counter these serious problems
and work towards filling all of our employment needs.
Due to increasing global competitiveness, our economy is creating
millions of new jobs--more than 15 million new jobs since 1993.
Employees are in demand due to this increased competitiveness, and of
the 10 industries with the fastest employment growth from 1996-2006,
computer and data processing services are number one on the list,
according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics Report of December 1997. In
this field alone, there were 1. 2 million jobs in the United States in
1996. This number is projected to rise to 2.5 million jobs in 2006.
That represents a 108 percent increase in the next 8 years.
Of the 10 occupations with the fastest employment growth from 1996-
2006, the top three occupations have some connection to the high tech
industry. Database administrators, computer support specialists, and
computer scientists had a population of 212,000 jobs in 1996, and are
projected to be needed in 461,000 jobs in 2006, a 118 percent change.
Computer engineers will see a 109 percent increase in jobs and systems
analysts a 103 percent increase by the year 2006.
This trend is representative of the high-tech employment needs of
Colorado. We are facing a problem as the need for technical bachelors'
degrees rises, because the number of students entering this field is
not increasing at a rate to meet this need. In addition, the science
and math scores needed to pursue technical degrees at higher education
institutions are not being met by more and more students every year.
If the trend continues as we expect it to, we will see an increasing
lack of skilled employees to meet the industry's demand. The
consequences of not filling these jobs could mean several things. One
being that high-tech industry in the United States will not be globally
competitive. Another being
[[Page S9532]]
that we will need to continually find workers from out of the country
to fill high-tech jobs, instead of giving those jobs to Americans.
Whatever the consequences may be, we know that they will be substantial
if we do not fill the employment needs of the high-tech industry.
Colorado is seeing tremendous signs of growth in the technology
arena. As an example, the City of Colorado Springs relies on high-tech
for over 50% of its local economy. Complex electronics and information
technology sectors support about 30% of the total local economy, and
there is a strong defense sector presence which is heavily reliant on
high tech employers and needs. 40% of the local economy in Colorado
Springs is tied into the defense sector. Right now Colorado has
effectively no unemployment in the engineering field. Between this year
and 2006, information technology, telecommunications, information
processing, software development, and systems engineering will all have
employment needs that will more than double in the Colorado Springs
area.
The proper role of the government in high-tech and space issues is an
ongoing debate. For example, Congress is considering now what access
the government should have to encrypted stored computer data or
electronic communications, and how to facilitate commercial space
businesses.
The United States is competing with several other countries in the
high tech industry. There are five countries that we know have the
ability to launch satellites, while many other countries have the
technology to compete in other areas. Therefore, our workforce
development must support the needs of our domestic industry to allow it
to be competitive. Without growth in the United States technology
industries, we will be surpassed by the technology of our competitors,
and our commercial industry will ultimately rely on foreign companies
for technology.
One of the major debates in trying to fill the technology workforce
needs deals with who should fill those needs when we cannot. The United
States has come to depend on foreign-born engineers; we have reached
the point where we import as many engineers as we graduate from our
universities.
Recently, my colleagues in the U.S. Senate and I approved the
American Competitiveness Act of 1998. It raises the ceiling on the
number of visas designated for high-tech workers, or H1-B visas, from
65,000 to 95,000 in the fiscal year 1998, and then to 115,000 a year
through 2002. This bill is partially in response to the ``year 2000''
problem and will help high-tech industries hire enough employees to
effectively resolve the problem. But this is a short-term solution, and
in the year 2002, Congress will reevaluate the number of H1-B
applicants that this country allows in to work.
The competitive edge that America needs depends on the knowledge
attributes of our workforce. Due to the rapid changes in the high-tech
field, we must focus on educating our youth. Educating students about
the high-tech needs and changes our society faces will allow for
adaptation and innovation. The industry's growth depends on the
students that are entering universities with high scores in math and
science. Employers are desperate for students with bachelors and
advanced degrees in computer engineering, computer information systems,
computer science, chemical engineering, and electrical engineering.
We need to focus on improving the educational opportunities for every
student, but we could especially make improvements by targeting under-
represented minorities. While a small amount of high school graduates,
15%, have taken calculus and physics, only 6% of minority students have
taken those classes, which are required for a college major in math,
engineering or science. This year, universities graduated a record
number African Americans, Latinos, and American Indians with
engineering degrees, yet they constitute only 10% of all students with
engineering degrees, and only 2.8% of doctorates. The number of female
minorities in this category is even smaller. Only 2.8% of college
engineering graduates and .6% of engineering doctorates went to
minority women.
The solution begins with our youngest students, kindergarten through
12th grade. How do we more specifically improve our education system
from K-12 so that children will eventually meet the standards that
high-tech, and business in general, demand? It should be obvious that
we first need to improve math and science interest and education,
starting with increased teacher support. Knowledge of the subject
matter and the ability to actually use technology need to be taught to
our future teachers at universities across the country. Current
teachers need access to continuing education and high-tech resources.
We also must increase the number of teachers who are teaching math
and science subjects. Projections show that there is going to be a
severe teacher shortage in the years 2010-2025. We are going to face
yet another crisis in high-tech workers and leaders if we do not
encourage more math and science graduates to become math and science
teachers. Without more and better math and science teachers our high-
tech teacher shortage will progressively worsen, and we will not be
able to increase the number of students in math and science classes.
Industry partnerships, which are successful in many university
settings, can be very beneficial to younger students as well. The U.S.
Space Foundation, which is based in Colorado, has been especially
successful in cooperative programs with schools across the country with
their support for math and science programs. Kids find it more
interesting and fun if real life entities are tied into the classroom,
and the U.S. Space Foundation facilitates this for the students and
teachers. Rotating high-tech specialists and resources in classrooms
will keep our teachers current and motivated. In addition, high school
students are eligible for job opportunities and student internships in
the workplace that require scientific knowledge and will increase their
excitement for the field. With increased attention to our students,
especially in regard to math and science, we can interest students in
the world of technology.
Another outstanding example of a partnership between school and
industry is the Technology Student Association. The TSA is composed of
over 150,000 elementary, middle, and high school students, in 2,000
schools spanning 45 states, including Colorado. It is supported by
educators, parents, and business leaders who believe in the need for a
technologically literate society. Through leadership and fun problem-
solving, K-12 students are shown why increased education in math and
science can pay off and be exciting. These partnerships are successful,
and demonstrate one way we can start now to fill the technology
workforce needs of the 21st Century.
While it is imperative to encourage young students to be involved in
math and science and to expose them to high-tech occupations, I am not
suggesting support for school-to-work programs. School-to-work
centralizes unprecedented powers at the federal level and requires
federal standards and assessment testing which would be the basis of
all our children's education, and this process would begin in
kindergarten. Most importantly, school-to-work takes local elected
officials of the states and local school boards out of the process of
education. This alone could be devastating to businesses and
specifically to high-tech industries. Local Boards and elected
officials are well aware of the needs of their community in particular,
and can adapt accordingly.
Government does not need to set ``standards'' for children to
determine their career paths, but instead improve those standards of
existing education policies in order to raise test scores, and more
specifically science and math scores. If we do so, our children will be
inclined to attend higher education institutions where cooperative
education and internship opportunities will be available to them, and
we will be on our way to building a workforce that can compete
globally.
As more students graduate from high school with aptitude and interest
in math and science we must have a college education system that will
foster their interests and can propel them into the industry.
Colorado's universities demonstrate how well-adapted programs can be to
the regional industry.
The space industry, in particular, is a crucial part of Colorado's
economy,
[[Page S9533]]
and in turn our state is one of the nation's leaders in space
industries. The National Space Symposium, held annually in Colorado
Springs, emphasizes the importance of technology in our state and
nation. Space Command, Air Force Academy, and NASA, are some of the
major presences. In addition, four space centers tied in with NASA are
based in Northern Colorado: the Center for Aerospace Structure,
Colorado Center for Aerospace Research, Center for Space Construction,
and Bioserve Technologies, which produces hardware for the space
shuttle.
Our universities are aware of the need for high-tech education, and
have focused on preparing students for this field. The University of
Colorado at Colorado Springs offers a well established Master of
Engineering Degree in Space Operations, and the Air Force Academy
continually graduating students into this field. Graduates of the
University of Colorado-Boulder, which offers the only aerospace degree
in Northern Colorado, also support Colorado's space industry.
At the college level internship opportunities become significant.
Employers see cooperative education programs and internships as real-
world employment experience which lets college students become familiar
with an organization and its work style. High-tech industries are
seeing a trend toward expensive training costs and high employee
turnover. By partnering with colleges and universities, high-tech
industries will see a more highly trained workforce entering their
industry and employees who are more committed to the organization.
The main idea behind cooperative education and internships are that
they provide students the opportunity to apply theory learned in the
classroom to the workplace. High-tech industries now consider the use
of partnering with a university's cooperative education and internship
programs as the number one recruitment tool for long-term commitments
of regular employment.
For example, the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs
recognized this as an important investment in students' futures. In
addition to helping their own students with internships, the University
itself provides internships to students from other universities without
internship opportunities. The University has formed partnerships with
community, junior, and 4-year colleges without engineering programs.
In conclusion, this is a critical time; we must start today if we
want to solve the high-tech employment problem. The signs are
everywhere that high-tech is booming, but high-tech employees are not.
We must act fast, for studies show key math and science decisions are
made by a student at the 5th to 7th grade level. This means that there
can be up to a ten-year lead-time for bachelor degree level technology
workers. There are four areas that I think we should focus on in order
to help solve the problem.
No. 1, Clearly understand the challenge, communicate it to our
teachers, parents and students, and consider the consequences of not
acting on this issue immediately.
No. 2, Better connect education systems and industry.
No. 3, Find innovative ways to remove barriers to education in math
and science, and continue improvement in higher education.
No. 4, Leverage government funding through greater collaboration
among government agencies, educational institutions and the private
industry.
We need to work together in order to solve this problem. Our
universities need to increase engineering and computer sciences
scholarships, improve distance learning, and expand their internship
and cooperative education programs to meet the needs of the high-tech
industry. Our government needs to upgrade training and out-source more
work, education, and training. Our industries must increase recruiting,
build higher retention rates, and offer on-site courses. And finally,
our public schools must increase partnerships with outside entities,
educate our teachers about technology, and make science and math fun
for our students.
The examples I have given from my home state of Colorado demonstrate
that through increased internships, partnerships, teacher training, and
K-12 student programs, communities can do something to meet the
employment needs of the 21st Century.
The United States will continue to be a global leader in the
technology arena if these ideas are implemented tomorrow and we ensure
that our schools are producing the best, most educated workforce in the
world.
Mr. President, I yield the floor.
Mr. WARNER addressed the Chair.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Virginia.
____________________