Recent economic challenges have forced public- and private-sector organizations to execute their strategies with more precision than ever before and to do it with fewer resourcesespecially people. The elimination of large numbers of jobs and the start of the Baby Boomer retirement wave have created new skills gaps in many agencies and organizations. And some experts predict that skills shortages will intensify in the coming years as employers find they need to hire more knowledge workers for high-skilled jobs that will help their organizations perform as the economy rebounds.