| 2007 Theodore E. Small Workforce Partnership Award
Winners |
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At its annual Forum held February 24 – 27, 2007, in
Washington, D.C., NAWB announced the winners of this year’s
Theodore E. Small Workforce Partnership Award (Award). Named
in honor of Theodore E. Small, a pioneer in customized
training and a respected leader in workforce development, the
Award has become a hallmark for excellence in workforce
partnerships and each year honors innovative business-led
community partnerships that address workforce needs.
This year, from the 50 nominations received, the NAWB
Board selected and honored one grand prize winner and two
distinguished honorees, each representing highly-successful
partnerships that took the lead in engaging WIBs, business,
economic development, education, labor, and other partners
toward the goal of ensuring a highly-skilled
workforce.
Grand Prize Winner: OneStop Career
Centers/Aegis Communications Partnership, Workforce
Development Board of the Treasure Coast - Port St. Lucie,
Florida
In Program Year 2005, funding cuts forced
Florida’s Region 20 along the Treasure Coast to close two core
One-Stop Career Centers. Businesses in the area, including
Aegis Communications Group (Aegis), felt the effect of those
closures. As a result, talks began between Aegis, the
Workforce Development Board of the Treasure Coast (WDBTC), and
Arbor Employment & Training (the local Board’s One-Stop
operator). Those talks resulted in a One-Stop Career Center
being placed within Aegis facilities, which now provides the
opportunity for local residents to get the assistance they
need to find and keep jobs, and provides a win/win for Aegis,
which now has on-site recruitment assistance and access to a
pool of applicants on their property.
The Aegis Career
Center is a bustling beehive of activity. Aegis provides
prime, professional, and comfortable space, as well as a
receptionist who accepts and routes calls to the Career
Center. A row of computers displaying job web sites sits along
one wall and a private office is set up with a desk and chairs
for a career counselor. Customers can search for jobs, get
assistance with their resumes, obtain job referrals, find
labor market information, fax resumes to employers, and
receive information regarding job training and education for
careers most in demand.
How do job seekers learn about
this new center? Aegis has hosted open houses to inform the
community about the services and readily talks with the media
about the public/private partnership. Their in-kind marketing
draws job seekers, including professionals, to the Career
Center and use of the center continues to grow as the word
spreads throughout the community.
What are the tangible
results? The partnership increased the WDBTC placement rate by
15%, cut the cost per customer served by 53%, and reduced the
per placement cost by 67%. And, Aegis reported an amazing
$78,000 cost savings on their recruiting budget!
This
public/private partnership model is a proven way to reduce
costs, project a more professional “business” image in the
One-Stop, and build the understanding among other businesses
in the area as well as a trust of what the public workforce
system can accomplish. The Aegis/WDBTC partnership has
widespread implications for our nation’s workforce system,
such as:
- Moving the national workforce system from a job
seeker-focused system to a business-driven system – from a
government-sponsored program to an employer-sponsored
program.
- Relieving local workforce boards of high infrastructure
costs, thus freeing up dollars to meet employers’ needs and
train more workers.
- Improving the image of the workforce system as the
deliverer of human resources.
- Building consumer confidence in the system’s ability to
meet the needs of all employers and all job seekers,
especially the professional.
- Assisting businesses with workforce issues, such as
turnover, employee morale, recruitment, advertising, etc.
- Providing immediate REACT services, if warranted.
According to Carrol Frischkorn, Chair of the WDBTC
Board, “This partnership has significantly lowered Aegis’
costs for recruiting, while reducing both turnover and
unemployment compensation claims. In turn, the WDBTC is able
to reduce the cost per customer served and placed, allowing
the investment of funds in other ways that will improve and
expand the workforce development system.”
For more
information about the Aegis/WDBTC Partnership, contact Gwenda
Thompson, President/CEO, Workforce Development Board of the
Treasure Coast, at gthompson@tcjobs.org or
772-335-3030.
Distinguished Honoree – Regional
Workforce Development Network, Northwest Pennsylvania
Workforce Investment Board – Meadville, PA
The
Northwest Pennsylvania Workforce Investment Board (NPWIB) has
developed an active, effective Regional Workforce Development
Network (RWDN) that joins economic development, workforce
investment, and education providers to serve employer needs.
The network, representing a remarkable list of partners
including County Level Teams, Industry Partnerships, and a
Career Education Partnership, creates a pipeline for resources
that ensures both competitiveness and workforce
retention.
The RWDN serves employer needs through a
cooperative process. Needs are identified through outreach
efforts by County Level Teams and prioritized for submission
to a Regional Workforce Development Team (RWDT). This creates
a One-Stop system for employers, who can call any member of
the network and be confident their needs will be presented to
all members. The RWDN meets monthly to review county-level
submissions and connect employers to the organizations who can
provide them with adequate funding to access training or
services that will build the knowledge and abilities of their
employees.
According to NPWIB Board Chair Eugene Ware,
“An impressive example of the success of the network is the
presence of shared staff in the form of Business Service Unit
(BSU) representatives. Five of the six counties in the
Northwest region, with the sixth being served by a neighboring
county, have a BSU representative to serve as a One-Stop
service contact for employers. These positions are funded
jointly by workforce development and economic development
interests.”
The RWDN is the source of industry
partnerships that allowed employers to fund training for
hundreds of employees in 2005-2006. As the following examples
demonstrate, these collaborations improved the competitiveness
of companies with similar products or services and human
resource needs, and focused resources on industry clusters
that provide jobs with good wages and benefits.
- The Northwest Pennsylvania Healthcare Industry
Partnership received $500,000 in incumbent worker training
funds. Nine of 10 member companies trained 1,358 employees
by July 2006.
- The Great Lakes
Building and
Construction Trades Industry Partnership (GLBCT IP) received
$85,000 in incumbent worker training funds and helped
workers earn Leadership Energy and Environmental Design
(LEED) certifications for Green
Building projects.
- The Transportation Education Economic Network (TEEN)
received $200,000 in Incumbent Worker Training Funds for
trucking companies in the region.
- The Manufacturing Education and Economic Network (MEEN)
received $400,000 in Incumbent Worker Training Funds. The
Metals and Metal Fabrication Industry Partnership’s $200,000
in incumbent worker funding through the MEEN industry
partnership trained a total of 131 employees.
- The Electronics Manufacturing Service Provider Industry
Partnership (EMS IP) received $150,000 in IP funds and
educated the industry about new European Union regulations
that will impact the industry.
For more information
about the NPWIB Regional Development Network, contact Michele
Zieziula, CEO, Regional Center for Workforce Excellence, at michelez@nwpawib.org or
814-333-1286.
Distinguished Honoree – Tulare County
Agribusiness Collaborative, Tulare County Workforce Investment
Board – Visalia, CA
The Tulare County Agribusiness
Collaborative is a unique and unprecedented approach to
bridging the agricultural seasonal employment cycle by
accommodating and expanding traditional agricultural work
patterns.
Services offered to the industry include the
creation of a unique Agribusiness Resource Center. Located in
a primarily agricultural area, the Center is open to the
public and contains numerous resources, including a computer
lab with Internet access, reference books on various crops and
pest control, available meeting space, and most importantly an
Agribusiness representative staff member to assist with
agribusiness needs. The staff member focuses on collaboration
with industry and local farm bureaus to develop solutions to
agribusiness’ business needs. The current representative has
over 40 years in agribusiness, first as a farmworker, then
farm labor contractor, and finally a farmer. This experience,
in addition to the resources provided by the Agribusiness
Collaborative, allows for the development of solutions to
agribusiness’ problems.
Clients that participate in
the Agribusiness Collaborative receive a wide array of
services to help them obtain employment in their off season.
Farmworkers are trained to work for local business during
seasonal layoff and then return to their agricultural job
during the season. In agricultural off-seasons, companies will
hire workers back as temporary employees to meet their needs
and reduce recruitment and training expenses. The clients are
provided training, vocational language skills, and placement
in local businesses. According to Joseph Daniel, Administrator
for the Tulare County Workforce Investment Board, “The
development of the Agribusiness Resource Center is a great
benefit to the regional agribusiness community.”
Identification of counter-cyclical industries that
have busy seasons opposite the region’s crop cycles has
provided a resource of potential employees, creating a win/win
situation. Collaboration between the Agribusiness Resource
Center Specialist, Tulare County Workforce Investment Board,
Inc., Proteus (Service Provider), Employment Development
Department, and the Tulare County Economic Development
Corporation has resulted in a detailed analysis of the flow of
cyclical employment in Northern Tulare County.
An
example of this project’s success is evident in the
relationship developed with the City of Dinuba. The City has
reformatted the Parks Department’s special projects to
correspond with the local agricultural off-season. Clients
from this program are hired by the City as extra help to
complete a municipal golf course, remove debris from city
property, and many other local projects. One of the goals of
this project is to facilitate employment for farmworkers in
their off-season in order to decrease the outflow of
unemployment insurance payments. Since its inception in the
fall of 2005, this project has provided services to 120
seasonal farmworker clients. Many of these clients have
obtained employment in their off-season, developed additional
job skills, participated in a Vocational English as a Second
Language (VESL) course, participated in career counseling, and
become more self-confident.
For more information about
the Tulare County Agribusiness Collaborative, contact Joseph
Daniel, Administrator, Tulare County Workforce Investment
Board, Inc., at jdaniel@tcwib.org or
559-713-5200.
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| Innovative Practices |
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This year’s Forum included a new opportunity for WIBs
to showcase innovative practices recently implemented and now
impacting their communities. The Forum’s Innovative Practices
Showcase boasted 13 extremely innovative initiatives that can
easily be replicated in workforce regions nationwide. We will
randomly highlight several of these practices in each upcoming
issue of Workforce Boards in Action (two have already been
highlighted above as they were also winners of the Theodore E.
Small Workforce Partnership Award!).
“Gotta Jet?”
The Dallas/Fort Worth Regional Aerospace Cluster
was formed as a result of both a targeted analysis of industry
trends and an employer-driven collaboration to address the
issues of an aging workforce and a lack of youth migrating to
careers in science and math. The mission is to be the Regional
Center of Excellence in meeting the education and workforce
needs of the aerospace industry.
In March of 2005,
Workforce Solutions for Tarrant County awarded an employer
intermediary grant to the Fort Worth Chamber of Commerce to
hire a coordinator tasked with supporting the work of the DFW
Regional Aerospace Cluster. Three priorities were identified
as follows:
- The completion of a common entry-level training program
- Development of a marketing campaign to attract young
people to the industry
- Summer workshops for educators to share “real world”
applications of math and science theories.
The
marketing campaign was titled “Gotta Jet?” – a popular,
instant messaging shorthand amongst the target audience and
very appropriate for the message at hand. The campaign was
launched in January 2006 during a high-level education
engagement meeting attended by industry representatives, over
17 regional school districts, 4 community colleges, and 8
schools of engineering. At the launch, attendees received a
professionally-designed 8-page brochure and an 8-minute DVD
which were developed with the help of subject matter experts
contributed by Bell Helicopter, Lockheed Martin Aeronautics
Company, and Vought Aircraft Industries. Lockheed also donated
the time and expertise of one of their graphic artists, and
all three companies donated camera crews and on-screen talent
for the DVD. Taking the collaboration even further, one of the
Tarrant County WIB Board members volunteered the services of
the General Motors video production crew to produce the
DVD.
The scope of the “Gotta Jet?” campaign is broad –
reaching out to almost 200 school districts. The DVD and
brochure are available in all GO Centers (designated space on
high-school campuses for college information) in Tarrant
County and soon to be in Dallas County. These materials
supplement a speaker’s bureau in spreading a consistent
message.
The collaborative nature of this project is
historical, since the three companies generally compete
against each other in areas of recruitment and marketing.
Having a common voice is helping educators understand the
nature of the work and the type of employees needed for the
future workforce. It is estimated the project has reached over
30,000 students and the effort is ongoing.
According to
Lillie Biggins, Chair of the Tarrant County Workforce
Development Board and Vice President of Operations for Harris
Methodist Hospital Fort Worth, “Gotta Jet?” is able to convey
a high-tech, consistent message to a variety of audiences –
high-school juniors and seniors, their parents, teachers, and
career counselors. The bottom line is that math and science
define the roadway to high-paying, challenging careers. And
students are listening.”
For more information about
the “Gotta Jet?” initiative, contact Judy Bell, Senior
Business Development Manager for Workforce Solutions for
Tarrant County, at 817-413-4440.
Health Care Career
Pathways
In 2002, the Workforce Development Council
of Seattle-King County (WDC) and the Washington State Hospital
Association brought together a group of local hospital
executives, labor leaders, and college administrators to
examine critical staffing shortages in health care. The WDC
published the panel’s analysis and its recommendations in a
February 2003 report called In Critical Condition:
Seattle-King County’s Hospital Staffing Crisis. Among the
problems identified was that despite hospitals’ desperate need
for nurses and technicians and a high interest in these
careers, community colleges and nursing schools could not
offer enough classes to meet the demand due to high costs and
reduced state funding. Another challenge was the lack of
support for career progression in the health-care sector.
Those who wish to upgrade their skills – especially those at
the lower-skill levels – face many barriers in their career
path, including the high costs and limited availability of
training.
The WDC responded by stationing One-Stop
Career Specialists at 6 (now 5) hospitals to offer career
options to hospital employees, not just to nurses and allied
health workers who want to move up, but also low-skilled
employees in housekeeping and food service who are interested
in starting health-care careers. Because the Career
Specialists are employees of the community-based organizations
who provide services through the One-Stop system (called
WorkSource in Washington State), they offer a connection to
training subsidies (including WIA Individual Training
Accounts) and other services, such as English language
learning.
Meanwhile, the WDC, community colleges, and
hospitals worked together to expand the capacity of two- and
four-year nursing and radiology technology programs in King
County – essentially, opening the “pipeline” so that more
students could be trained in these highly-desired but
high-cost programs.
The WDC has invested approximately
$1.3 million since 2003. Hospitals contribute over $1 million
in in-kind support, such as paid release time for employees to
attend training, use of equipment for clinical training, and
office space and equipment for the on-site career specialists.
The WDC pursued federal and state grants to invest more than
$1 million to expand the capacity of two- and four-year
nursing and radiology technology programs in King County.
Community colleges were close partners in adding these dollars
to state funding to make the best use of limited resources.
The hospitals also contributed $300,000 to leverage the WDC’s
state incentive grant to add 90 new slots in community college
training programs.
Since 2003, more than 1,500 hospital
employees have received assessment and/or career counseling
through Career Pathways, and more than 500 have enrolled in
subsidized health-care training. Many have moved into higher
positions – not only securing their own career advancement,
but also filling the hospitals’ need for more skilled workers.
At the same time, local community colleges have created 371
new training slots in key health care training programs
through WDC and hospital investments, leverage, and support.
The hospitals ensured the sustainability of Career Pathways in
spring 2005 when they agreed to fund 50% of the cost of the
on-site staff – an investment of $13,500 for each hospital.
Now in its second year, this investment is more than
$130,000.
“Our board members listened to the remarks of
a participant who as a single mom had dropped out of high
school upon getting pregnant as a 16 year-old, and we were
moved to the point of tears,” said Rich Berkowitz, Board
Chair, Workforce Development Council of Seattle-King County.
“Through the Career Pathways program she had found a calling
in health care to return to school and be enabled to seek out
a four-year nursing degree. Her commitment, honesty, and
fortitude reminded us all of why we dedicate our time and
effort to the Seattle-King County Workforce Development
Council.”
In November 2004, Jobs for the Future, an
early funder of the program, published Creating Pathways to
Advancement: A Manual for Project Developers based on the
Career Pathways pilot project. It has been shared
throughout the country and can be found at www.jff.org/.
For
more information on this initiative, contact Kris Stadelman,
CEO, Workforce Development Council of Seattle-King County, at
206-448-0474.
Model One-Stop Implementation – Better
Late Than Never
For years, New Mexico has had a
secret – there were no One-Stops in the state until now.
(Don’t tell anybody!) After the Governor and the state
legislature literally laid down the law, there were
reorganizations, new organizations, and actions aplenty on the
part of the State Workforce Board, the State Workforce Board’s
Business & One-Stop Committee, partner agencies, and four
local workforce boards.
They’re late, but they think
they’re going to be better!
A multi-organizational
team representing state agencies, service providers, local
workforce boards, the State Workforce Board, the State
Workforce Board’s Business & One-Stop Committee, and the
Governor’s Office of Workforce Training and Development has
combined to produce a Workforce System Guide, a four-part
series of Models, six One-Stop Business Plans, and has begun
implementing two Model Workforce Connection
One-Stops.
What makes them different? New Mexico’s
models include demand-driven, integrated workforce service
delivery for business, industry, job seekers, and workers.
They have incorporated co-located services, cost-sharing, a
new workforce culture, and resource alignment. The new system
of One-Stop Workforce Connections is the first step in
creating a new integrated workforce development system for New
Mexico’s businesses and workers. Leaders pledge the resources
of agencies and programs to the immediate implementation and
future growth and development of New Mexico’s workforce
system.
New Mexico’s organizational model is both
functional and team-based, allowing a hierarchy for business
services, job seeker services, and administrative services,
while also providing for teams for operations, service
delivery, proposal development to priority businesses, and
customized and tailored service delivery to priority
businesses.
According to John Sapien, Board Chair,
Workforce Connection of Central New Mexico, “As the owner of a
State Farm agency, I live by service and results. To be good,
service must respond to customer requirements, be customized,
and delivered reliably and flexibly. Two factors make those
things happen in the New Mexico Models: (1) local Boards, and
(2) an emphasis on service and results. Our local Boards have
the authority and responsibility to identify priority
industries, allocate funds, structure services and set
expected performance levels. Our Service Delivery Model builds
its service and results based on local business and worker
requirements. Our local Boards’ authority allows the workforce
system to have the flexibility it needs to deliver service
that meets requirements and is responsive, customized,
reliable, and flexible. There is no better place to understand
and respond to the service needs of business than at the local
level.”
For the first time, workforce and
workforce-related institutions and programs are combining
resources (including staff, experience, and enthusiasm) to
respond in a concerted way to the stated demands of industry,
businesses, workers, and job seekers.
Download
a One-Stop Guide for New Mexico that includes full details
about this model. For more information about this initiative,
contact Alan Varela, Executive Director, Governor’s Office of
Workforce Training and Development, at 505-827-6827.
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Letter from the COO |
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I am very pleased to report that we had 1,736 total
registrants at this year's Forum! Thank you for your loyal
support and active participation which contributed so much to
the overall success of the conference!
By the way, if
you have not had a chance to complete and return a Forum 2007
evaluation form, there is still time. To obtain a form, please
go to our Forum
2007 website, and complete and return the form as soon as
possible. In early May, the staff will begin to design and
plan next year's Forum, so it would be very helpful to have
your input between now and then – as in prior years, your
feedback will help shape next year's Forum!
Annual
Membership Campaign
Not only does the arrival of
spring bring April showers and May flowers, so too does it
bring NAWB's annual membership renewal campaign. Please be on
the look-out in the mail for your WIB's annual dues invoice.
We know you will be facing some tough decisions on how best to
spend your limited budgets. We hope that renewing your
membership in NAWB is not a tough one...and, trust that you
will renew right away so that you can take full advantage of
all of the member benefits and services, including the Forum
2008 "early, early bird registration discount" that will be
offered to members only!
Innovative Alternative
Funding Strategies
As many of you know, the theme
of our closing session at Forum 2007 was "Innovative
Alternative Funding Strategies." Due to the enthusiastic
response we received to that session, we are now giving
serious thought to offering the program throughout the year.
If you would be interested in co- hosting a session in your
local community, please let us know!
NAWB is also
examining new ways we can better use our various
communications tools – this quarterly e- newsletter, our
weekly brief, webinars, video conferences, and on-line
training – to generate new sources of revenue!
In
addition, NAWB is about to launch a new initiative – Helping
Communities Work (HCW). Through HCW, we plan to develop and
offer a series of fee-based services that provide a new source
of revenue for NAWB and our members. HCW is also designed to
appeal to corporations and foundations that respond favorably
to social enterprises that provide large-scale delivery of
services that connect workforce, economic, and community
development. In the near future, we will post additional
information regarding HCW on the NAWB website, and we will
alert you once the information is available and
accessible!
Closing Comments
In closing,
let me repeat what I said last September. The one constant at
NAWB is change. While our overall mission and vision remain
the same, like any dynamic membership organization that wishes
to remain relevant and viable, we continue to adapt to meet
the ever-changing needs and interests of our members. This is
because, first and foremost, NAWB is a member-driven
organization!
The NAWB Board and staff realize that we
have a very big mission to fulfill on your behalf. Please know
that we are fully dedicated to achieving excellence and to
finding new ways to improve the quality and delivery of
services to our members!
At the same time, please know
that the one thing that will NOT change is the high value we
place on our members' loyal support. Many thanks again for
supporting Forum 2007, and thank you in advance for renewing
your membership. We do not take any of this for granted. We
value your faith and trust in NAWB and, in exchange, pledge to
do our best to increase the value proposition for our members!
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