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By Peter Szekely
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - In an effort to help fill a "skills gap" in the country's work force, a government-created panel has taken its first step toward creating uniform nationwide standards for a wide array of jobs.
The National Skill Standards Board on Wednesday announced the creation of a panel of 150 business, labor and academic representatives that will standardize the skills needed to perform manufacturing, installation and repair jobs.
"It's an attempt to do what nobody has ever done in the world," said board Chairman James Houghton, retired chief executive of Corning Inc.
The newly created panel, the Manufacturing Skill Standards Council, is the first of 15 such groups covering various occupations that will set voluntary uniform national skill levels for numerous jobs in the country by 2015, said board Executive Director Edie West.
The council is expected to finish creating manufacturing sector skill standards in the next 12 to 18 months and will continuously update the standards, the skill standards board said.
Once it has standards in place, the board said it will disseminate them to employers, workers and educators.
"A national skill standards system will provide all workers with portable certificates of skill achievement, or 'passports' they need to communicate their training, education and experience to all employers," said Houghton.
The next two panels the board plans to create would set skill standards for wholesale and retail sales and for business and administrative services. The remaining 12 panels will be in place by the end of next year, it said.
Backers of the board said national skill standards will help ease the shortages for skilled workers that employers in several parts of the country have experienced.
"As I look forward to the next five to 10 years, the greatest jeopardy to our potential growth will be a lack of an adequate supply of workers or adequately trained workers," National Association of Manufacturers President Jerry Jasinowski told a news conference.
"We're going to have a skill shortages problem that doesn't end for the next couple of decades," he said.
Lauding the effort to standardize skills, Jasinowski said manufacturers already are experiencing "huge skill shortages," with nine of 10 association members unable to find enough skilled workers to meet their needs, Jasinowski said.
To ease the shortages, he called for increased immigration. He also said companies should devote funds equal to 3 percent of their payrolls to training.
United Steelworkers of America President George Becker also hailed the work of the skills standards board, saying unions' apprenticeship programs alone cannot go far enough to provide training for workers who enter the work force without marketable skills.
The National Skill Standards Board, which was created in 1994, has 24 business, labor, academic and government members, some chosen by the president and some by Congress.
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