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4/25/04
Employment Looking for a job right away? Try healthcare and construction. That's the advice from Lucas Group, a national executive search firm. It maintains that employers in those two industries are particularly optimistic about hiring projections throughout the country. The company also said that employment will likely inch up as the year continues as employers gain more confidence in the economic recovery. In all, the construction industry has had a 58 percent increase in hiring since 2003, the Lucas Group said. The firm executive search company said its own placements in construction were up 68 percent. At the same time, healthcare continues to be a boon to workers with the right skills. ''We have seen an increase in the medical and health fields during the past four to six months,'' said Ira Bershad, senior managing partner. ''Companies are realizing that there is a renewed war for talent occurring, and that the cost of not reacting is the loss of top industry talent to their competitors.'' Enhancing sales forces, building marketing departments, and strengthening regulatory affairs are three key areas where hiring has increased, said the firm. For those who are wondering about future employment, government reports suggest that the demand for services, particularly healthcare and private sector social services programs, will heat up over the next eight years during the first wave of the baby boom generation retirements. In all, one of every four new jobs created in the United States will be in healthcare, social services, or private educational services, according to the Bureau of Labor Services' Occupational Handbook. ''Healthcare and social assistance, including private hospitals, nursing and residential care facilities and individual and family services, will grow by 32.4 percent and add 4.4 million new jobs,'' it said.
EDUCATION Thirty years ago, high schools relied on typing, shorthand, and general accounting classes to prepare students for business careers.
Today, some Massachusetts students are learning how to market a product, calculate return on investment, track a company's progress, and handle management and employment issues by working together in teams. Others are studying the critical interplay between corporate officers and the people they employ. ''Learning about business management and making decisions that will change product pricing, sales, or inventory for a company is very challenging,'' said Nicole Flieger, a junior at Wayland High School. ''Each decision can make or break your company. Teamwork is very important.'' Flieger is among 500 students who took part this year in a seven-week business simulation and competition offered to high school business classes or afterschool clubs free of charge. The program is the brainchild of Junior Achievement of Eastern Massachusetts, a nonprofit organization whose goal is to get youth excited about careers in business and economics. It was created in the 1980s and has since gone national. Last week, eight teams of students representing several different companies competed at MIT's Sloan School of Management for first, second, and third place in the last round of the competition for Eastern Massachusetts. Their goal: to produce a product with the best market share and return on investment. Called JA TITAN, the web-based simulation program and contest allows students to go online and, in a virtual world, assume the role of corporate officers charged with researching and selling a product called the Holo-Generator, a fictitious device that displays 3-D, holographic music videos in the palm of one's hand. The winner in last week's JA TITAN contest was Boston Latin School. Its two teams captured the top two spots. The first-place team, SEVENTEEN Inc., attributed its success to healthy capital investing. In the end, the Boston Latin school team produced more product - and made more money - than its challengers. Its corporate officers were identified by Junior Achievement as Brian Nowak, Johnny Pimentel, and Michael Moran, all of Boston. Members of the second-place team, SWASS Corp., were identified as Felipe Paes, Mary Le, and Nicholas Michaud. The adviser for both of those teams was Jonathan Bonds, an economics teacher at Boston Latin School. The third-place winners were Ben Adler and Justin Ball, both from Tri-County Regional Vocational Technical High School in Franklin. Their fictitious company was Silly Wabbits Inc. All participants received a book from Charles Schwab on investing, and the winners took home trophies, according to Susan Green, education director at Junior Achievement. She said SEVENTEEN Inc. will participate in a computerized competition from their local school. that will pit the team against other students from the East Coast. If it wins, the team will be invited to a national competition in Florida. Wayland High School business education teacher James Page said he introduced his students to JA TITAN because he wanted them to have fun while learning about the business world. Page designates one class a week to the Junior Achievement simulation program. ''Business classes are stereotyped today as the old keyboard and typing classes,'' said Page. ''That's not true anymore. The way to teach is by doing. That's the way to build future business professionals, officers, managers or entrepreneurs.''
Workplace A dozen years after ''Take Our Daughters to Work Day'' was launched by the Ms. Foundation for Women in New York City, the program is still going strong in a more expanded form. Celebrated on last Thursday, the program was renamed in 2003 and called ''Take Our Daughters & Sons to Work Day.'' The change in 2003 came was in response to the demands of parents and other observers who felt boys were just as eager to go to work with mom or dad as girls. Since its inception in 1992 and every year since, more than 11 million girls have participated in the event. Now, millions of boys will go to work with their parents, family friends, or mentors, too. Last week, Lotus Software in Cambridge, a division of IBM Software Group, welcomed 400 girls and boys as part of its celebration of the annual workplace holiday. At the Suffolk County Juvenile Court system in Boston, 30 boys and girls 8 to 14 years old reported to work at 8:30 a.m. Once there, they took on the roles of probation officers, court officers, witnesses, and attorneys as well as a judge. -- DIANE E. LEWIS
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