Many workers go through their entire working lives without focus or direction, and without learning career management skills. They fall into the work they do or make do with whatever is available. For them, the old paradigm has not worked. They are spending 50 percent of their conscious lives in inappropriate work settings. This impacts the other 50 percent of their non-sleep hours. Wherever there is a mismatch between workers' strengths, the nature of the work and current labour force needs there are problems. These workers either stay on the job, unsatisfied and going through the motions, or leave. In both cases, there is a loss of productivity and a waste of human capital, whether measured in training costs or unrealized human potential. Investment by both the public and private sectors yields an unacceptable return. The fallout from gaps between people's skills and workforce needs includes enormous costs in social spending: on education, health care, social services, protection and correctional services, and more. Equally staggering is the loss of revenue to employers and governments.
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