Published February 2005

Skills panels: Competitors
discussing issues to build
stronger work force

By William Bell
Guest Editorial

Business people are justifiably nervous about sharing internal or recruitment problems with their competitors. Also, business competitors are wary of sharing their successes in hiring and worker retention strategies. So why would the Snohomish County Workforce Development Council invest time and money in bringing industry representatives together and ask them to share their deepest employment, recruitment and worker retention issues?

The more complex answer is, competitiveness is everyone’s business. When leaders of that industry share ideas and solutions within an industry, it not only promotes economic vitality within the community but also increases the county’s ability to compete within the region, the state, the nation and globally.

Working toward that goal, the WDC now has three individual industry skills panels to wrestle with the difficulties of attracting and training the skilled workers that industries currently need, identifying the skills they will require tomorrow, and developing retention and skill upgrade strategies to keep the work force up-to-date with the new and emerging technologies in Snohomish County.

Skills panels in aerospace, construction and health care are actively engaging employers within these industry sectors to discuss their current and future employment and training needs.

The Aerospace Skills panel brings together Boeing suppliers, independent companies and related aerospace vendors to meet the challenges facing engineering and manufacturing demands and how those demands will impact the new skills required of workers in this industry. With composite manufacturing becoming the wave of air transportation’s future, skills in this relatively new manufacturing technique will be in demand. Keeping up with new engineering software innovations, the demands of “lean” manufacturing principles, and the education and training requirements of new employees is of important concern to employers in this industry.

The skills panels advise where investments in industry training made by the Workforce Development Council are placed. Grants and federal training dollars can be aimed at those areas where the need is greatest and where the jobs of the future will be.

The Construction Skills panel is composed of building association representatives, construction and engineering industry members, and local community college and labor representatives. Vance Titus, a career veteran of the construction industry, is the coordinator for the panel.

“The panel will face the hard issues of getting young people to see the career potential in construction, and to identify the training needs for new electricians and plumbers, construction engineers and managers. We know there are more jobs out there than we have people to fill them, yet we have people who, with some training, can fill those jobs and walk into well-paying careers,” he said.

The Workforce Development Council can provide the necessary funding to make these training opportunities available.

The third panel, the Snohomish County Health Services Careers Partnership, is composed of Snohomish County’s largest health services employers, educators and other key stakeholders wishing to address the health-care work-force shortages in Snohomish County. Over the past two years, the panel has identified key training and information gaps and has begun developing positive solutions.

Kristen Gillisse-Howe, the WDC coordinator for the health services panel, said, “We are working as a real team, creating significant positive results in increasing the numbers of people choosing health care as a career, identifying health-care training programs needed to meet demands and reducing the shortages in qualified workers. The skills panel members are committed to addressing work-force demands, and the hard work is paying off in training dollar investments.”

The panel’s upcoming April 26 conference, “Nurses Count: Maintaining Your Value,” is aimed at retaining and valuing nurses in Snohomish County and throughout the state. The conference focuses on communication, career growth, stress management and self care.

It’s essential that the Workforce Development Council know where the jobs of tomorrow will be so that effective strategies and partnerships are created to prepare and train workers to fill those jobs. Financial investments in skills panels and other services to the business community are being made in a variety of industries by the WDC to keep Snohomish County competitive.

William Bell is the marketing director for business services for the Snohomish County Workforce Development Council. For more information about the skills panels or the WDC, call Bell at 425-921-3423 or go online to www.worksourceonline.com.

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