Published November 2003

Snohomish County 2010: mapping our future

What would you give to know what life will be like in 2010? To know what careers will be available for your children and grandchildren? What decisions would we, as a community, make today if we knew what lay ahead for our economy?

No one knows what the future holds, of course. One event or course of events can change all, as we’ve seen in recent years. Still, experts and analysts from throughout Snohomish County are determined to find out as much as possible about what the economy and the demand for jobs will be like in the years leading up to 2010.

The project is called “Snohomish County 2010: A Blueprint for Education, Workforce and Economic Development in Snohomish County.” It presents a single, collaborative, comprehensive approach to work-force development, education and economic development that will carry us into 2010.

Representatives of a broad range of organizations have been working together since January to develop the plan. Participants include Snohomish County Government; the Snohomish County Workforce Development Council; the Economic Development Council of Snohomish County; Cascadia, Edmonds and Everett community colleges; Everett and Edmonds school districts; and four-year universities, including Central Washington University, Western Washington University and the University of Washington, Bothell.

The project’s goal is to retain and attract jobs in eight key industry “clusters” that experts believe will strengthen Snohomish County’s local economy in the years ahead. By analyzing how factors such as education and training helps attract and retain jobs in these areas, and by using that information to prepare our students for those fields, we can increase Snohomish County’s ability to attract and retain employers.

“Snohomish County 2010” builds on current knowledge and past work. Wisely, this is not an attempt to reinvent the economic wheel. The plan borrows from the Governor’s Competitiveness Council findings, which the EDC has adopted as its own focus.

Phase one of the Blueprint partnership includes a thorough labor-market analysis of the sectors that drive Snohomish County’s economy, as well as the industries that provide the infrastructure required to maintain a healthy and stable economic environment. This information will be used in a number of ways. One of the first will be development of education and work-force training work plans for each of the industry clusters targeted for growth here. The phase-one analysis will:

• Identify jobs that are available or required to expand the targeted industry clusters.
• Identify the knowledge and skills necessary to be successful in those jobs.
• Identify the educational programs and training activities required to develop a skilled work force to fill them.

All the Blueprint participants have pledged the collaboration that will be required to accomplish this body of work. Participants have spent the last few weeks sharing the Blueprint’s suggested course of action with business and economic groups throughout Snohomish County, and the response has been gratifying. All realize that the more we agree on a unified approach, the better use we will be able to make of one another’s efforts.

Perhaps best of all, the collaborative effort defined in this approach has created a model that now can be used to tackle other economic competitiveness issues identified by the Washington Competitiveness Council. Issues, such as tax reform, that have not yet been resolved by state and local governments could benefit from a similar approach.

Knowledge, it’s said, is a precursor to effective action. And effective action, based on deepened knowledge, is what “Snohomish County 2010” is all about.

Deborah Knutson is president of the Snohomish County Economic Development Council. She can be reached at 425-743-4567 or by e-mail to dknutson@snoedc.org.

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