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Workforce Needs of Industry
Objective:
Creating and retaining a world-class workforce is an integral part of
a prospering economy. If Oregon is to compete globally, it must
be able to attract, retain, and train a workforce that can compete
with any in the world. To achieve this goal, we must create new
high performance work environments and flexible, responsive education
and job training programs that are competency-based, responsive to the
demands in a rapidly changing labor market, and are tied to new
technologies, customer needs, and evolving production processes.
To address the upcoming labor shortage, Oregon must drastically expand
its pool of qualified workers, and we must take steps to ensure that
all Oregonians are able to participate in the workforce.
Business
Initiative
Leaders: Eileen
Drake, PCC Structurals; Elizabeth King, ESCO Corporation; Don
Skundrick, LTM, Inc.
Tell
us what you think!
Public
Sector Partners: Lucy
Baker, Oregon Business Leadership Network; Claire Berger, Workforce
Policy Coordinator, Office of the Governor; Mimi Bushman, Workdrugfree;
Lita Colligan, Workforce Policy Advisor, Office of the Governor; Tom
Olson, Oregon Employment Department; Greg White, Executive Staff,
Oregon Workforce Investment Board.
2006
Agenda and Progress
Section
1: Better
Connect Education And Training With Skills That Meet Employer and
Worker Needs
| Recommendation |
2006
Progress |
| Renew
the Value of the High School Diploma. |
The State Board of Education
is
seeking input on a proposal that would update high school diploma standards,
including math and science requirements. The goal is that
this diploma will have currency both in the workforce and at
institutions of higher education by clearly identifying the
essential skills needed for success in both school and work. |
| Develop
a standardized skills assessment tool and accompanying work readiness
certificate. |
Employer
focus groups were conducted earlier this year to determine the
level of interest and potential use of the workforce readiness
certificate in the employment process. Overall, there is strong
employer support to
move forward with the work by choosing an assessment tool that
fits employer needs and assembling a group of employers to guide
the process. Next steps will be to collect and analyze assessment
tools and formalize the employer advisory group. |
| Adopt
a policy that clarifies the state’s role in incumbent worker
training |
A
policy on current worker training was formally adopted by the
Oregon Workforce Investment Board. The policy includes investment
principles that guide the state in funding current worker
training. The
principles are focused in the areas of connecting regional to
statewide needs, investments in traded sector companies, workers
gaining transferable skills through attainment of
certificates/credentials, and training workers for jobs that
enhance their economic
stability.
|
| Tailor
community college training programs to better reflect current and
future employer needs. |
The NorthWest High
Performance Enterprise Consortium
was awarded a grant to implement
the Oregon Manufacturing Workforce Strategy in which involving
business leaders in academic instruction is one of their
strategies.
|
| Involve
business leaders in academic instruction |
|
| Modularize
training & build flexibility into curriculum. |
Oregon
Community Colleges have been granted $424,600 to expand Career
Pathways while another $350,000 has just gone out in an RFP for
incentive grants to further expand Career Pathways.
Pathways to Advancement
is a systemic framework that focuses on easing student transitions
across the education continuum and helps Oregonians attain
certificates, credentials or degrees that lead to demand
occupations and higher wages.
A career pathway is an
articulated sequence of educational and training courses and
student supports that enable students, beginning in high school
and across the educational continuum, to progress to the next
level of education and employment.
|
| Review
OBP Cluster Submissions to identify clusters with specific
workforce challenges |
Funded
consortia-building projects in workforce development for
bioscience, food processing, metals, semiconductors, wind
turbines, and wood products industries. Also, partnering with
Oregon InC. to align cluster strategies.
|
|
|
Section
2: The State Should
Continue to Support Three Critical
Workforce
Priorities
Section
3: Increase
Participation and Stability in the Competitive
Workforce
Diversity
Accommodation
for individuals with disabilities
| Recommendation |
2006 Progress |
| Develop
a private/public clearinghouse of accommodation resources |
The
OBLN affiliate businesses, Incight, and state partners are
developing a new section in the OBLN clearinghouse of resources
on accommodation, recruiting, and hiring needs. The
Internship and Summer Hire Center is
a targeted effort that links business with the emerging talents
of students with disabilities from Universities, Community
Colleges, Universities, and High Schools. Web pages for
the Center that will support the needs of business, students,
families and faculty around work experience and internships are
currently being designed. Intern placements and evaluation
are being tested by Intel, OHSU, Fred Meyer Stores, City of
Wilsonville and others over the summer of 2006. State
partners helping to design and evaluate the key mechanisms for
matching and placements include the Youth Transition Program (OVRS),
the Commission for the Blind, Business Education Compact,
Chemeketa Community College, and Incight. Incight, Inc.
provides $200,000 annually of scholarships to promising students
with disabilities to further their educations and careers.
The Internship and Summer Hire Center will be open to all
interested businesses in Oregon in 2007 at www.IntershipCenter.org. |
| Initiate
a dialogue between businesses and state resource organizations around
creating mechanisms for a smoother interface between accommodation
expertise and Oregon business. |
The
OBLN has joined the Leadership Committee for the Competitive
Employment Project grant being administered by Oregon Vocational
Rehabilitation Services. The Leadership Committee is
composed of all major state workforce partners who support
aspects of hiring, retention, and recruitment of people with
disabilities. The OBLN will assist the Leadership
Committee in its goal to “engage business in a dialogue about
employing persons with disabilities by presenting the business
case and seeking to learn and understand what employers want and
need..” OBLN affiliate businesses will be
participating in these dialogues with state workforce partners
that are projected to occur over the next 2 years.
Starting
with the Metals Industry, the OBLN is collaborating with
workforce partners to develop overviews of disability specific
information for individual Oregon industry sectors. The
information is designed to assist sectors consider how it
currently includes the talents of Oregonians with disabilities
and areas of opportunity to expand its efforts. The
information will be included in a presentation for the Metals
Industry Breakfast, August 3, 2006. The statistics
are being compiled with assistance of the Employment Department,
Worker’s Compensation Division, and Oregon Vocational
Rehabilitation Services.
|
| Maintain
an interactive website that provides resources for accommodation |
The
OBLN has initiated the planning phase for the development of a
Small Business Center at the OBLN clearinghouse website.
The Center will be overseen by an OBLN Board Committee of small
business representatives who successfully employ workers with
disabilities and the state employer incentives that are helpful
to small business. The OBLN is working with job developers
and the Preferred Worker program to identify such businesses and
document their success stories in the OBLN’s e-magazine,
Inclusion @ Work. This has included Portland Store
Fixtures (5/2006), Metro West Ambulance Services (6/2006) and is
planning more such coverage. The OBLN Board committee for
the Small Business Center will convene in early 2007 to oversee
the development of the clearinghouse, leadership forums, and
other business led forums for small business. |
| Provide
a series of business-led leadership forums on linking accommodation
strategies and measures to business plans. |
The
Oregon
Business Leadership Network and its business
partners in collaboration with sate resources provide regular
forums on key aspects of hiring retention and inclusion for
people with disabilities that link strategies to business
outcomes for successful firing, retention and
recruitments. Forum topic include:
- Key aspects of the ADA for
business: January 2006
- Accommodation
and Supervision issues around mental health in the
workplace. May 2006
- Disabilities awareness and adaptive
equipment in the workplace. August 2006 (Portland)
September 2006 (Salem)
- Internships and Summer Hires for
Students with Disabilities October 2006 (Portland)
- Job Developers as a Business
Resource December 2006 (Portland)
|
Strategic
Investments in Early Care and Education
Drug
Free Workplaces
| Recommendation |
2006 Progress |
| Mount campaign to boost percentage of drug free
workplaces from 25 to 75 |
The campaign to encourage Oregon employers to adopt drug-free workplace
policies was launched on June 6 with the naming of Bend, Klamath
County and Prineville-Crook County chambers of commerce as
initial pilot sites. Don Skundrick, Drugfree Workforce
Initiative Chair, said the goal is to improve the
competitiveness of Oregon employers. “This campaign will
help businesses overcome the three biggest obstacles to
drug-free worksites – lack of expertise, fear of the cost and
not knowing how their workforces will be affected.” To measure progress toward
the 75% goal, initiative leaders will meet Aug. 10 with Graham
Slater, Oregon Employment Dept., to design a statewide employer
survey to be conducted Fall 2006 fall in order to have data for
the 2007 Oregon Leadership Summit.
In April, the initiative received a $10,000 grant from
the American Society of Safety Engineers, Columbia Willamette
Chapter, to support the work of the chamber-led pilot sites. |
| Raise legislators awareness of the impact of drugs
on competitiveness |
Executives of Columbia
Forest Products, Hoffman Construction, IBEW, Medford Fabrication
& US Bank briefed legislators and state agency leaders June
27, Northwest Natural, on the impact of drugs in the workplace
and workforce. Eileen Drake, PCC Structurals &
Workforce Initiative Chair, called for a second session this
fall to focus on specific solutions to employer concerns in the
2007 legislative session. Unemployment
insurance statutes related to drug and alcohol adjudication,
revised in response to the OBP white paper, became effective
March 12th. |
| Assist OWIB in establishing a substance abuse
prevention standard |
Oregon Workforce Investment
Board members have scheduled a Sept. 23 work session to develop
a “Job Seeker Substance Abuse Prevention Policy” for clients
of Oregon’s public workforce system. The policy will
address the “biggest surprise” of the 2004 OBP bus tour –
employer difficulty in hiring otherwise qualified job applicants
precisely because they cannot pass a pre-employment drug screen. |
| Assist state board of education in creating a
career related learning standard |
Oregon Department of
Education officials will forward to the Board of Education new
language to be embedded in the high school graduation
requirements. The language will insure students are aware of the
impact of substance abuse on employability and job success.
Drugfree
workplace expectations already have been added to Program
Quality Criteria for Professional Technical Education.
|
*This is a new initiative of the Oregon Business Plan in 2006
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