Transforming Workforce Development

Categories:

The state of Ohio is revamping the way it prepares talent for the jobs of the present and the future. The overall by the state is taking shape here as the Regional Talent Network initiative.

Last week, the Fund for Our Economic Future gave that work a boost by approving three grants that will accelerate the development of a new system that will make it easier for residents to be trained for high-demand jobs, and make it easier for employers to fill available positions.

Here's how Tom Breckenridge described the effort in a story in the Plain Dealer:

Frustrated business leaders say the state's worker-training program is not supplying enough skilled workers for needy industries, including health care, high technology and advanced manufacturing.

Gov. Ted Strickland responded with the Ohio Skills Bank, which calls on Ohio's 12 economic development regions to tailor job-training efforts to local industry needs.

The fund awarded $156,800 to a Chicago consultant -- the Council for Adult and Experiential Learning -- to coordinate job-training strategies across three economic development regions in Northeast Ohio.

That strategy, dubbed the Regional Talent Network Initiative, will bring together chambers of commerce, adult-training centers, colleges and social-service agencies.

Business leaders will take charge, and that's important, said Randell McShepard, head of the fund's talent-development effort and vice president of public affairs for RPM International Inc. in Medina.

Too often, employers didn't know about the state's worker-training program or viewed it as a welfare-to-work plan incapable of delivering highly skilled workers, said McShepard, past chairman for the Cleveland-Cuyahoga County work force board.

The fund also awarded $75,000 to hire a director for the regional talent network, to work out of the Greater Akron Chamber of Commerce.

You can also listen to a report on the Regional Talent Network Initiative from WCPN here.

Bookmark/Search this post with:
  • Delicious
  • Digg
  • Reddit
  • Magnoliacom
  • Newsvine
  • Furl
  • Google
  • Yahoo
  • Technorati
  • Icerocket

Comments

# Submitted by Arnold L. Johnson (not verified) on Mon, 07/07/2008 - 12:40.

I've been a part of some worker training efforts here in Ohio, there are a few focus problems. The training of younger people into high tech fields seems fine except the focus is usually to produce leaders and the super talented. Whom once trained only use their skills to manage and delegate. Who is training the folks that they are to delegate and manage?? If a person doesn't make it as a delegating authority, they are usually not skilled enough to be an effective subordinate doing the actual work. Then, a young person might aspire to be an engineer, they have time to pursue that career path. Many folks are retraining and upgrading skills and happen to be older workers for whom it would not be advantageous time wise to pursue a higher career rung. So you have young people who don't seem interested in high tech fields and older people who don't have the time to be fully retrained. Is there a middle step or ground we are not looking at? The transition has to be as important as the outcome. 








		

		

			#
			Submitted by laurasteinbrink on Wed, 07/23/2008 - 12:22.		

		
Arnold,


I concur with the last statement of your post.  Thanks for continuing this important dialogue.


One of the "facts of life" I've been tuned into lately is the seemingly growing trend of people reinventing themselves.  Some people do this because they can - they have flexibility to just go do whatever the wind or their gut sends them towards.  Others do this because something happened - life changing event (divorce, lay-off, termination, etc).  Either way, starting with the outcome (or as Steven Covey says, "With the End in Mind") - the vision of themselves in a new place one strong first step towards a successful transition.  The question I ask myself is this:  If, as a region, we recognize the need for people to embrace new possibilities for themselves, what are we doing to support our people - our citizens - our workers - in defining that possibility, and getting there?  Are our workforce systems really helping people get where they could go - to a place that matters to them and the region - or as you capture above, into a dysfunctional cycle?  We have to focus both on the outcomes and the systems in place to get people there.



Laura Steinbrink Director, Regional Partnerships lsteinbrink@futurefundneo.org