Workforce Taskforce Meeting Notes for November 11, 2012

Workforce Taskforce Meeting Notes for December 11, 2012

Attending: Reed Morgan, Marry Warren, Pam Southworth, Cyle Forney, Terry Bailey, Greg Olenick, Carol Morgan, Martha Bruckner, Paula Fastenau, Kim Jones, Bill Stazzoni.

1.) Discussed the HRAM survey which was sent out the week of December 3rd to approximately 400-600 Human Resource personnel in Pottawattamie County from the Employers Council list provided by Carol and utilizing Survey Monkey as the delivery format. To date, Mary reported that 139 responses have been received. Initial responses indicate that work ethic is a concern as well as a deficit in job applicants. The Omaha HRAM (Human Resources Association of the Midlands) group also sent out a survey to about 400 (mostly larger) employers and we will compare the results that will give us a better idea of where we are at regionally. We will have this information compiled by the February 2013 meeting for further discussion and to develop action steps to address these issues.

The reason for this survey was to find out where the existing companies are at with their workforce (size and skills level) and what they need for their employees to improve skills. The goal of this survey (how this relates to our group) is to find the gap. The goal will be to identify these concerns and to find ways to overcome these by introducing new or modify existing (tools, programs, training) to assist these and all Pottawattamie County businesses to succeed.

One possible action step would be to have a roundtable hosted by the Pottawattamie County Growth Alliance with workforce as the topic.

1A.) Website Updates – Mary has added the monthly minutes to the site.

2.) A brief discussion was had regarding the Omaha presentation and it was decided to reschedule this until Butch was present to delve deeper into the recommendations listed. The goal of this review is to see if any of the recommendations the Omaha group accepted and put into practice that would be viable for our group.

3.) CB Schools update –

Proactive plan for NCRC that validates work ready skills and expanding the assessment to more students

Senior project program

4.) LC Schools update

Proactive plan for NCRC

Paula mentioned that she will be meeting with both districts regarding NCRC testing and utilizing the Key Train program to better prepare students for the test. She is also in the process of evaluating the ROI certification by following the testing participants.

5.) The next meeting will be held on Tuesday January 15, 2013.

6.) Comments/suggestions:

STEM – Mary touched on the States’ STEM initiative and how this relates to our mission. She noted that the Southwest Iowa STEM hub was out of Southwestern Community College (SWCC) in Creston and that she has heard Google had hired an education person for this. Discussion was had to have Beth Kudlow from SWCC and/or the person from Google give us a presentation on this program and to see if it is possible to start a STEM center in Pottawattamie County.

Article – an article from NBCNews.com titled “Employers may be aggravating the “skills gap” was briefly discussed. Although general in nature it states that the growth in technology, the decline of vocational training and the retirement of skilled workforce has left businesses in a bind. The issue is that businesses are reluctant (unwilling or unable) to invest in training with the current market conditions (just coming off of a recession) and yet the new workforce is not educated with the skills to be productive.

This article reinforces the skill gap issue that we are looking at.