JOBS OF THE FUTURE WILL BE HIGHLY SPECIALIZED

Employees of the 21st century will be highly-specialized to meet the growing demands of employers for workers with well-developed technical skills.

"What we seem to have tremendous shortages in locally, and probably nationally as well, is some type of specialized training beyond high school, but not necessarily a four-year college degree," said John Mehner, executive director of the Cape Girardeau Chamber of Commerce. "That's where we're hurting the most."

Vocational schools and universities are currently redeveloping programs nationwide to meet this demand for trained employees. Mehner said many industries are looking for communities with employees who have specialized training in medicine, machinery and computer technology to offer. These are the communities that businesses want to build in, because they have workers who are already trained.

"Obviously having a skilled work force is an important part of giving them what they need," Mehner said. "We always involve the vocational school and the university when people come, and what we've been able to talk about is the development of these things in our community."

The proposed expansion of the Cape Girardeau Area Vocational-Technical School would provide much-needed training in the community. Local industries are already participating in an industrial development program with the school, and Mehner said those programs could make a great impact in the 21st century.

"I think it will have a significant impact in the next five years," he said. "A lot of the people receiving this training are not new hires; they are people going back to get additional training. When the full implementation of these programs begins, what we'll have will be a highly specialized workforce."

Mitch Robinson, executive direct of the Cape Girardeau Industrial Recruitment Association, said he isn't sure what the industries of the future will be, but he said they probably be smaller, pay higher wages, and have more trained technicians.

"We have to look at industries in higher wage areas because our economy is in such a positive situation," he said. "The industrial technology programs at the Vo-tech school are programs that help us in the long-run and all us to attract these industries."

Industries that come to Cape Girardeau in the future will provide jobs for 50 to 300 employees at a time. Most companies don't want to build large plants, Robinson said. They want smaller satellites that can supply their needs. The types of industries shouldn't change tremendously in the next decade, although the jobs will.

"There's a process of business types that at one point are very active, but are wiped out when another industry comes along," Robinson said. "We probably won't see a lot of that. But there's such a demand for higher paying jobs that we're already seeing more people becoming skilled workers. If you drive around every grocery store and restaurant in town, you'll see help wanted signs all over. People want to be

(paid more money, and they're willing to be retrained to get it.")