Sector Strategies 101: What,
Why, How and Impact
April 1, 2015
Sponsored by the Montana RevUp Grant
Presented by Lindsey Woolsey
Designs by
Today’s Industry Partnerships:
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Are employer driven
Are regional
Are convened by a credible third party
Act as a coordinating body across multiple education,
workforce development, economic development and other
programs
Create highly customized responses to a target industry’s
needs, and therefore highly accurate responses
They are about more than workforce training
Treat employers as partners, not just customers
Are NOT a grant program, a short term project, a passing
fad; they are a long term partnership
THEY ARE DIFFERENT FROM:
• Your state workforce investment board
• Your regional or city economic development
board
• Your Chamber of Commerce
• An industry association
• Your Community College Advisory Boards
• A career pathway employer group
Why Sector Partnerships?
I.
There is increasing debate about a skills mismatch in our economy: by
2020, nearly two out of every three U.S. jobs will require some postsecondary
education and training, but 42% of adults in the U.S. (25-64) have no PSE credential.
• 64% of companies say they cannot find qualified applicants for
management, scientific, engineering or technical positions.
-McKinsey Survey
• 67% of small and midsize manufacturers report moderate to severe
workforce shortages, and they predict this will get worse not better.
-National Manufacturing Institute Survey
II.
III.
We are back in a tight labor economy, where skills matter more than
ever in order for workers to get an edge and foothold in the jobs market.
We must address these challenges with fewer
in investment since the eighties.
resources: steady declines
• Federal employment and training expenditures (non-veteran) down.
• Higher education enrollments/tuitions up; appropriations down.
What’s our response?
EDUCATION, WORKFORCE & ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
I. Education
I. Workforce Development
I. Economic Development
Historically: Train & Pray
What’s our response?
EDUCATION, WORKFORCE & ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
I. Education
I. Workforce Development
I. Economic Development
Today: Career Pathways
What’s our response?
EDUCATION, WORKFORCE & ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
I. Education
Career Pathways
I. Workforce Development
I. Economic Development
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Designs by
What’s our response?
EDUCATION, WORKFORCE & ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
I. Education
Career Pathways
I. Workforce Development
I. Economic Development
Historically: Business Attraction
Designs by
What’s our response?
EDUCATION, WORKFORCE & ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
I. Education
Career Pathways
I. Workforce Development
I. Economic Development
Today: Industry Clusters
Designs by
What’s our response?
EDUCATION, WORKFORCE & ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
I. Education
I. Workforce Development
I. Economic Development
Career Pathways
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Industry Clusters
Designs by
What’s our response?
EDUCATION, WORKFORCE & ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
I. Education
Career Pathways
I. Workforce Development
Historically: Customized Business
Training + Job Matching
III. Economic Development
Industry Clusters
Designs by
What’s our response?
EDUCATION, WORKFORCE & ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
I. Education
Career Pathways
I. Workforce Development
Today: Sector/Industry Partnerships
III. Economic Development
Industry Clusters
Designs by
Designs by
Greater Metro Denver
Healthcare Partnership, CO
Challenges:
• Surging demand for HC services
• Rapid facility expansion
• Difficulty filling positions
• Employers being asked by too many
programs, councils, program staff to
partner/help
Solution:
• One Greater Metro HC Partnership
• 7 Major Hospital Systems
• 8 Educational Institutions
• 4 Economic Development Orgs
• 3 Workforce Investment Boards
• Activities:
– Narrowed highest priority need down
from 145 different occupations to 4:
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Nursing (ADN, RN, BSN)
Laboratory Technologists
Medical Laboratory Technicians
Surgical Technicians
– 5 New Education and training pathways to
direct employment in middle-skilled,
higher wage jobs
• Impact:
Exceeded all training and placement goals
Single point of contact for industry
Pooled resources and expertise
Surprise by employers that they shared
problems and that solutions better
implemented as a group
– Regular discussions about HC policy in
region and state
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Power Generation Skill Panel, WA
•Convened by the Centralia Community College
•Involves major power generation plants (coal, hydro,
and wind), plus major public utilities around the state
•Key partners are Labor, community colleges,
workforce Boards, and industry experts
•Products include:
• 17 articulated “skills standards”manuals for
key occupations
• Shared purchase of OJT key curriculum
• Revised apprenticeship program
• Creation of hands-on training facility at an unused nuclear power plant
“The Power Generation Skill Panel has effectively
met the needs of employers, workers, and the
training system through collaboration and
focused work on critical issues. By meeting the
demand driven skills needs of industry we are all
more competitive.” --Bob Guenther, IBEW Local 77
Cochise Utilities Partnership, AZ
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Problem: Sulphur Springs Valley Electric
Cooperative (SSVEC) realized no local pool
of skilled line workers
Cost: Recruiting from outside the area
expensive, and relocating workers risky
College could not create a program for
just one company – no economy of scale
Convener: SSVEC
Corporate partners: SSVEC, Sierra
Southwest Cooperative, Apache Nitrogen
Products, Southwest Gas, Valley Telecom,
Cox Communications
Public partners: Southeast Arizona
Workforce Connection, Cochise
Community College
Outcomes:
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New 1-year Utility Industry Certificate
Industry guest speakers and instructors
Company sponsored, for-credit internships
Shared job fairs across corporate partners
Company-to-company networking formerly nonexistent
“Getting approached by a peer company was a
breath of fresh air, someone who is actually a
competitor. The resulting utility program and
certificate would not have happened without that
outreach. And there’s so much more to do.”
– Elaine Babcock, HR Manager, Southwest Gas
The Green Alliance (Energy-focused
Manufacturing), PA
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J&J Mechanical, a small commercial HVAC company, quadrupled their employee base as a result of
expanded connections to residential retrofitting needs
= 20 NEW JOBS
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Maccabee Industrial, a steel fabricator, expanded product line to include windmill skeleton construction
= NEW PRODUCT LINE, 10 NEW JOBS
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Gerome Manufacturing, steel fabricator, expanded wind mill parts production, added new product line to
product brackets for construction of green buildings
= NEW PRODUCT LINE, 18 NEW JOBS
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Therm-O-Rock East, Inc., manufacturer of vermiculite (material used to insulate batteries) discovered
through the Partnership that the material could be used in retrofitting insulation, as well as in green soil
for potted plants and gardens
= 2 NEW PRODUCT LINES, 20 NEW JOBS
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Tri-State Biofuels, a small woodstove pellet manufacturer, connected with Marsalis Shale oil and gas
drilling companies via the Partnership, researched uses of wood pellets as absorber of drilling waste, and
invented a new product.
= NEW PRODUCT LINE, 25 NEW JOBS
= TRIPLED SAWDUST PURCHASES FROM LOCAL SAWMILLS
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World Kitchen, formerly Corningware, now makes pyrex glass for solar panels.
Via Partnership networking, added new production line to meet regional demand
= NEW PRODUCT LINE
= 60 NEW JOBS
* Launched in 2010, over 153 jobs created by Summer 2012
Sector Strategies Coming of Age:
EDUCATION, WORKFORCE & ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
I. Education
Career Pathways
I. Workforce
Development
III. Economic Development
Industry Clusters
Designs by
Why the Big Push Now?
Many Actors – Same Call to Action
• Education – At all levels
• Workforce Development – Boards and Job
Centers
• Economic Development – EDOs and Chambers
• Community Based Organizations – Goodwills,
United Ways, others
“Build Strong Partnerships with Industry”
This slide created by Collaborative Economics, Inc.
Imagine the Map: Where are your
sector partnerhips?
A Partnership’s Geographic Footprint
• Depends on region’s labor market
• One labor market region should only have one
sector partnership focused on the same industry
• Actual boundaries of “region” may vary depending
on target industry – be flexible
• The State of Montana should probably have:
– A few manufacturing partnerships
– At least one energy partnership
– A few healthcare partnerships
• Statewide partnerships generally too big; cityfocused too small; aim for “just right”
• But leverage synergies for statewide impact
Next Steps for Montana
Got an Existing Sector
Partnership?
• Take it to the next level
– Expand industry
engagement
– Expand community
support partners
– Expand the agenda
• Give it staying power
– Explore ways to make it
sustainable
Got a Clean Slate?
• Get organized
– Convene education,
workforce, economic
development and others
– Discuss critical industry
sectors in your region
– Jointly decide what merits
your collective action
• Get started
– Launch a Partnership
Any area can do this!
Technical Assistance Available
• Track One: Intensive
Technical Assistance
– Bozeman Manufacturing
– Central Montana/
Lewistown
Manufacturing
– Northwest (Kalispel/
Flathead) Manufacturing
– Billings Energy and
Energy-related
Manufacturing
• Track Two: “Light”
Technical Assistance
– Great Falls
Manufacturing
– Missoula Manufacturing
What kind of T.A.?
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Full day training
Promising practices
Planning and design
Onsite facilitation
Implementation toolkit
Questions Now?
Questions later? Contact me anytime: Lindsey Woolsey
[email protected], 509-826-7991