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Will We Have an Emergency Manager Personnel Shortage in the Future?

Fewer people are attending college.

Yesterday I attended a supply chain event. Workforce development was not one of the topics, but in a side conversation someone who works in the community college system told me that college enrollments, at all levels, are down about 30 percent across the board.

The primary reason appears to be the cost of tuition and then how long you have before you get a return on investment. For people already working, many are taking a second job instead of going to school in order to make ends meet at the end of the month.

Does this foretell that in five years we’ll have a shortage of people coming into the emergency management system due to the number of students matriculating decreasing? Time will tell. I think that it might be time to look at workforce development for our profession.
Eric Holdeman is a contributing writer for Emergency Management magazine and is the former director of the King County, Wash., Office of Emergency Management.