‘Something to Point To’
As we focus on workforce development in this month’s edition of FlexPack VOICE®, I’m reminded of the classic book published in 1974, Working: People Talk About What They Do All Day and How They Feel About What They Do, by Studs Terkel. Terkel explores the experiences, frustrations, and hopes of more than 100 American workers from the working class to the professional elite. The book inspired a 2023 four-part Netflix docuseries, Working: What We Do All Day, and before that, in the late 1970s, the musical Working, with music and lyrics from Stephen Schwartz, Craig Carnelia, Micki Grant, Mary Rodgers, James Taylor, and Susan Birkenhead. In this edition, some of our authors highlight important workforce research being conducted by our colleagues at the National Association of Manufacturers (NAM) and PMMI, The Association for Packaging and Processing Technologies. Our federal lobbying team, Capitoline Consulting, points to work being done in Congress and through federal agencies to expand apprenticeship opportunities and address aging, talent shortages, and the rapidly changing technologies within the American workforce.