Jamie Buss's Blog

Transit advocates who focus on helping people get to work May 17, 2012

I’ve been an advocate, even a bit of a geek, concerning transit and non-motorized transportation (biking and walking) for years, but only recently learned about Community Transportation Association of America, and their program JobLinks Employment Transportation. There are a myriad of reasons to be enthusiastic about transit — environmental, personal health, public health, sensible use of public transportation investment dollars, efficiency of land use, placemaking, and community-building being ones at the tip of my brain. As the name states, this project focuses on the benefits transit offers in the area of economic development, supporting people to get to and from jobs. Inspiring stuff.

Good news — critical thinking skills are back on radar for recruiters May 11, 2012

This WSJ article describes how many corporate recruiters are not completely satisfied hiring business majors. “The undergraduate degrees focus too much on the nuts and bolts of finance and accounting and don’t develop enough critical thinking and problem-solving skills through long essays, in-class debates and other hallmarks of liberal-arts courses.”

Some favorite quotes:

“Firms are looking for talent. They’re not looking for content knowledge, per se.”

“Education is more than technical learning.”

Still, a recruiter for Barclay’s is quoted thus: “applicants from the liberal arts often need to ‘undertake extra due diligence on the industry.’ ”

My summary: for many middle class jobs, a person needs to have underlying general-purpose skills (analysis), enough sense and information to work well within a context (liberal arts information and historical context), as well as specific knowledge for one specific job.

Is the current mismatch between job openings and skills available really the problem? May 7, 2012

I’m fascinated to learn more about this question. Many people in workforce development, and in politics, often decry the “jobs-skills mismatch” as the reason for currently really high unemployment. The theory goes something like this: there are plenty of unemployed workers; and plenty of job openings; but the openings require skills that the available would-be workers don’t have, primarily skills with newer technology.

But not everyone agrees. This article reviews, rather succinctly, a number of studies that poke holes in that theory, adding to my understanding (and perhaps yours) of the current state of job-seeking and job-getting in our economy. One I’m less familiar with — a big part of the mismatch is geographic, and a big part of the reason that persists is the housing finance situation. Many unemployed workers can’t move to where jobs are, because they’re tied to their underwater mortgages.

Another argument that makes a lot sense to me — a great many of the long-term unemployed lack not only technical skills, but basic skills like communication and basic literacy and math skills.

This recent op-ed in the Star Tribune offers an entirely different argument against the jobs-skills mismatch paradigm. While the focus there is to discredit an effort of MnSCU, DEED, and Dept of Commerce, I would argue that MnSCU’s response makes a certain amount of sense even if you agree with the author’s premise. MnSCU’s sphere of influence is mostly in the training of people / workers. For MnSCU to put effort into figuring out what skills those people / workers / students want to learn makes perfect sense, regardless of the question of who *ought* to pay for that training. Makes sense for MnSCU to act within its sphere of influence.

Transportation as a civil rights issue March 15, 2011

Back of the Bus: Mass transit, race, and inequality is a really interesting story about transportation (especially mass transit, but not exclusively) as a civil rights issue, with two case studies from St Paul. It’s available by reading text at a web site (with all the relevant links for further info) as well as a podcast from American Radioworks, in collaboration with Transportation Nation.

Makes me wonder: What will the biking and walking movement look like once we embrace a multi-cultural vision of these modes of transportation? It won’t involve so much specialized equipment, for one thing. It won’t be much about the equipment at all.

Smart Transportation support for state and county officials November 6, 2010

This new initiative is exciting! It’s funded jointly by Rockefeller Foundation and USDOT, administered out of Center on Wisconsin Strategy, aimed at supporting state and local transportation officials to implement smarter transportation policies and practices. Its first meeting happened in September in Minneapolis, despite no Minnesota representation on either of two governing boards. Our combo of “smart transportation” infrastructure must be pretty special — Hiawatha Light Rail, Northstar Commuter Rail, Skyway system (walkways connecting many, many blocks of downtown), Nice Ride bikesharing system, and the relatively new downtown ballpark, Target Field.

State Smart Transportation Initiative

Bike Walk Twin Cities needs volunteers to conduct surveys April 24, 2010

TLC Bike Walk Twin Cities will be conducting pedestrian and bicycle counts and surveys as part of the ongoing evaluation of the Non-motorized Pilot Program, known locally as Bike Walk Twin Cities. These will happen on several dates April 27 to May 10, in locations throughout the City of Minneapolis. For more info:  BWTC survey information. I’m coordinating the survey, so work with me to find a shift that works well in your schedule.

Making websites fun April 5, 2010

Now on a totally different topic, about which I’m also passionate:  website usability, or more generally user experience design. This article defines “flow”, applies it to use of iPhone applications, and sets a course for designing user experiences that are more fun. Really interesting, as I approach designing a new feature for www.iseek.org (a way to search for apprenticeships).

\“Flow\” – the iPhone (and Web) Experience that Sells

Comment after the article is interesting:  ”There’s easy fun, hard fun, people fun, and serious fun. And we better get good at designing all that.”