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WHYY public radio in Philadelphia previews our Town Hall at Rutgers University

The Heldrich Center's Carl Van Horn and Maria Heidkamp talk about narrowing the skills gap for mid-career workers with WHYY's Dave Eller.
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To promote the August 8 Town Hall co-hosted by WorkingNation and the John J. Heldrich Center for Workforce Development at Rutgers University, two of our scheduled panelists appeared on Philadelphia’s WHYY public radio.

Carl Van Horn, director of the Heldrich Center and Maria Heidkamp, director of the Heldrich Center’s New Start Career Network addressed the main topic which will be discussed at the Town Hall: re-skilling the mid-career workforce to prepare them for jobs in the new economy.

“Fasten your seatbelts, change is happening faster than ever before. That’s why we need to provide people a way to cope with that turbulence,” Van Horn tells WHYY’s Dave Eller, “This is the new normal: rapidly changing economies, jobs and whole occupations and skills becoming no longer relevant.”

The Heldrich Center’s New Start Career Network is helping these mid-career workers get back on their feet through career coaching and skills-training. As Heidkamp explains, an aging workforce needs specialized counseling to adapt to changes brought on by automation.

“We encourage them to look for ways to keep their skills up while they are looking [for work],” Heidkamp says, “Maybe that is taking advantage of free online training or doing skills-based volunteering with a non-profit to help with networking.”

The Town Hall will kick off at 4 p.m. at the Victoria J. Mastrobuono Theater at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, N.J. PBS NewsHour anchor Hari Sreenivasan will moderate our panel.

There is still time for you to register for this free event. Click here to sign up.

You can listen to the entire interview below.