Now more than ever, displaced workers and career seekers need help adapting their skill sets to fit in-demand and available jobs. To that end, EMSI’s Strategic Advantage gives workforce development and education professionals the ability to compare occupations by knowledge, skills, and abilities using O*NET data.
Among our latest developments, EMSI has introduced a unique way to visualize the makeup (or shape) of specific occupations to target competency gaps.
Below are a set of radar charts that illustrate the knowledge and skill profiles of Registered Nurses, followed by a comparison of two trades that have been in the news lately in different parts of the country. This analysis was done using EMSI’s Career Pathways module, which allows you to link worker competencies to occupations projected to grow.
For a more detailed sample report in PDF: EMSI impact and re-employment analysis
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First, let’s take a look at makeup of nurses (SOC 29-1111). There are roughly 2.5 million Americans in this high-growth occupation right now, with the total projected to mushroom to 2.9 million by 2013.
(Click on the charts to see full-sized images)
Findings
- As you might imagine, nurses must specialize in a broad set of knowledge areas – including customer/personal service, English language, medicine and dentistry.
- The most important knowledge areas are psychology (a level of 82 on a scale of 0-100) and customer/personal service (80).
- The skills chart is also well-rounded. Nurses must be proficient in critical thinking, listening, monitoring, etc. Yet none of the skills extend beyond the “60″ range (expert is between “75-100″ and basic is “0-24″).
Comparing occupations
Now let’s compare the knowledge and skill competencies between Team Assemblers and Cutting, Punching and Press Machine Setters, two occupations that commonly show up in transition scenarios involving manufacturing. These occupations are quite compatible (both are given a “96″ on the Career Pathways’ compatibility index), but competency gaps still exist. By plotting the knowledge levels of Team Assemblers and Machine Setters on top of each other, it’s easy to see areas where training needs to occur.
- Knowledge similarities: mechanical, production and processing, customer and personal service
- Knowledge gaps: administration and management, chemistry, education and training
Next, let’s take a look at the skill comparison between Team Assemblers and Machine Setters. It’s clear, in comparison to the above chart, that both these occupations are predominantly skills-based.
- Skill similarities: learning strategies, instructing, equipment selection
- Skill gaps: troubleshooting, quality control analysis, operation monitoring
Conclusion
Displaying the makeup of occupations in the radar charts can be useful for understanding the training needed to move into target occupations or start a different career. The more jobseekers and workforce professionals know about (and can visualize) the potential competency gaps between occupations, the easier it will be form the right transition and training strategy.
If you have questions about this data or are interested in having a similar analysis done for other occupations, feel free to contact us.
