Workers will be retrained several times in career

As the work force becomes more technical and skilled, continuing education will become an essential component of business policy, and offer growth opportunities for new and traditional educators.

``Because the content of jobs changes and will continue to change, the capacity to retrain workers is vital,'' said John Gardner, president of the Quad-City Development Group. The content of all jobs -- top to bottom -- is changing very rapidly, so continuing education is terribly important.''

William Conway, retired Augustana College economics professor, labeled developing job skills as human capital.

``Human capital -- that is the key ingredient,'' Mr. Conway said, emphasizing the importance of businesses investing in people. ``Training early in life becomes more important.''

Just as any company would upgrade machines or computer hardware to work more efficiently, retraining workers can be seen as one of the most important investments an employer can make.

``Thirty years ago, a 50-year-old without a lot of training could get a decent job,'' but not anymore, Mr. Conway said.

``People probably will be trained five to seven times in different careers in the future,'' said Sharon De Frieze, executive director of the Quad-City Area Labor Management Council. ``It will be rare to have one person at the same job for 20 years.''

In a technology-driven office, physical strength is not as important to production as in the heavy industry of the past, Mr. Conway said.

Consequently, Mrs. De Frieze said, analysts are seeing the need to retrain people in a wide variety of fields.

``We need to develop that capacity to retrain,'' Mr. Gardner said.

The question is who will pay for worker retraining. Experts predict some of the cost will be covered with government retraining funds, or by out-sourcing to companies specializing in employee training.

But more traditional education will take the lead. ``Community colleges will play a big role in training,'' Mrs. De Frieze said.

Mr. Gardner said community colleges already have taken steps toward dominating the continuing education market because, put simply, ``they are good at it.''

The benchmark for education continues to rise. Soon, an undergraduate degree from college will not carry a professional through his or her career.

``The undergraduate diploma is enough for three years,'' said Mr. Gardner, pointing to constant education for expanding technical and medical fields. ``Those guys go back for retraining.''

Economists also pointed to the traditional secondary and elementary education systems as partners in training efforts.

Companies cannot become ``fascinated with all the gadgets'' and forget the basics of education, including math, writing and strong communication skills, said Mr. Gardner.