Business owners should follow legislature’s lead and create a skilled workforce from the inside
When the Vancouver Business Journal introduced Workforce Development as one of its six areas of special focus in 2005, we saw on the horizon the challenge to fill knowledge-based positions locally with educated innovators. We could also see the pipeline for skilled employees shrinking throughout the metro area in other areas like machining, construction and nursing with apprenticeship programs and two-year colleges overcrowded and underfunded.
Lately, we are barraged with headlines about the "baby boom echo," whereby more than one out of four workers will reach retirement age by 2010, creating a shortage of nearly 10 million workers. This projected shortage, writes Megan Patrick in today’s Workforce Development focus section, isn’t going to be cheap.
And a recent study by the Alliance for Excellent Education estimated that if high school dropouts who currently head households in Washington had earned diplomas, the state’s economy would experience a $1.1 billion boost.
As evidenced by the recent collaboration of the Southwest Washington Workforce Development Council and the Columbia River Economic Development Council, a specific emphasis is being placed on the connection between workforce and economic development.
The two agencies are bringing to Vancouver nationally recognized journalist and speaker Hedrick Smith to address some of these topics in context of global competition from China for the best and brightest minds.
The just adjourned state legislature did a superb job of funding projects that will speak to broadening the pipeline between education and the workforce, putting $1.1 million toward the Clark County Skills Center; $140,000 to expand local math and science mentorships, almost $32 million toward Washington State University Vancouver efforts, including an applied technology building, other classroom buildings and the creation of an electrical engineering program; $27.2 million for Clark College’s East County Satellite; $1 million for the Evergreen School District Health and Biosciences Academy; $135,000 to study the creation of a statewide innovation zone and more.
"We’ve been doing very badly," Smith said, referring to preparing the way for students to find success in the workforce that is before them. He said internships and mentorships will be the bridge, and China’s workforce development model focuses on just these things. Smith also said students need to be taught to be flexible and re-trainable because of rapid technology changes and their effect on the marketplace – one’s job could be completely different less than ten years after one enters the job market.
Clark College, WSU Vancouver, the Clark County Skills Center and other institutions are addressing many of these concerns. Business owners can take the cue and look at their own organizations. How deep are they? Is there room for growth? Are training opportunities available? How flexible are the positions and people in them? Is the organization open to advances in technology. While Clark County is focused as a whole on readying folks for the workforce, companies should make sure they can recruit and retain competitively and compentently.
