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Group Links Students With Growing industryEmployers Tell FutureForce Nebraska How to Prepare Future Transportation and Logistics Workers.

Posted on: Saturday, 24 September 2005, 18:00 CDT

FutureForce Nebraska is asking employers how best to prepare today's students for tomorrow's jobs in the transportation and logistics industry.

Transportation, warehousing, distribution and logistics is one of FutureForce's three target industries.

The organization -- a collaboration among state government, business and industry, and education -- works to help students prepare for jobs in Nebraska's growth industries.

Survey results are expected to be compiled by Jan. 1 and will be used in decisions on where curriculum should be updated or supplemented to reflect the global economy, said Larry Johnson, president of the Nebraska Trucking Association. The association is part of FutureForce, which also includes representatives of all levels of education.

"World trade patterns are changing so rapidly, the old textbook logistics models rapidly become outdated," he said. "We want curriculum to reflect a global supply chain management as opposed to a national one."

Johnson said he doesn't expect wholesale curriculum changes.

"The modes of transportation are still the same: air, ocean and ground. It's how you apply it that will be different."

Under old economic models, goods in motion add value, he said, while goods in storage add cost.

Nebraska is promoting its center-of-the-country location as ideal for warehousing and distribution, so the state benefits from new economic models that also place value on goods in warehouses, he said.

"That's where, from an economic development standpoint, being the geographic center creates opportunity for job growth," he said. "We're really excited because these are high-demand, high-wage jobs."

FutureForce and the trucking industry contend that career paths within transportation that begin with truck driving but lead to other jobs could make the trucking industry more attractive to potential workers.

A truck driver shortage is projected to grow to 111,000 drivers by 2014 if economic and demographic trends continue, according to an analysis by the American Trucking Association.

The FutureForce survey will compile information on what transportation employers need in future employees.

The survey is available online at www.FutureForceNebraska.com, under the transportation pathways tab.

Source: Omaha World - Herald

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