Connections: Collaborations, Partnerships and Linkages

1. Connections: Collaborations, Partnerships and Linkages Fred Dedrick Executive Director Pennsylvania Workforce Investment Board NGA Workforce Development Policy Forum January 11, 2005 Miami, Florida

2. Outline • New economic realities • Pennsylvania’s challenges • Next Generation Workforce Strategy • Industry partnerships • Strategic Investments • High priority occupations • System accountability

3. New Economic Realities • Rapid technological change • Disruptive technology • Technology travels • Skilled labor accelerates learning curve • Globalization • Hard for US to compete on price • Requires high quality products and market niches • Requires higher skills • Shift to service economy

4. New Economic Realities • New business models • Outsourcing, Off-shoring, Value Chains • Embedded service in supply chain • New skills and flexibility • Human capital needs change quickly • Life-long learning • Demographics changes • Loss of experienced workers • Regional disparities

5. Pennsylvania’s Challenges • Education achievement levels • PA ranks 45th in percent of workers with no more than a high school degree • PA ranks 46th in percent of adults over 25 who have post-secondary credentials • Community colleges serve only 2% of population, compared to 4.6% nationally • Stagnant population growth • 0.3% increase for year ending July 1, 2004 • 45th slowest growth rate • Aging workforce and retirements • 3rd highest percent of population over 65

6. Pennsylvania’s Challenges • Manufacturing tradition • From August 2000 to December 2004, PA lost 177,000 manufacturing jobs • Manufacturing still very important • 690,000 jobs • Avg. wage = $44,341 • $64 billion of PA’s GSP • Small Firms : HR & innovation challenges • Strong demand for health care occupations

7. Next Generation Workforce Development Strategy • Support competitive industries • Organize industry partnerships • Invest in multi-firm strategies • Provide incentives for innovation • Focus on high priority occupations • Hold programs and systems accountable

8. Support Competitive Industries • PA Targeted Industry Cluster Analysis • Employment data • Identifies regional concentrations • Nine clusters and seven sub-clusters • Deloitte Study (MEPs) • Manufacturing: • 12% of employment, 20% of wages, $64 billion to GSP • Uses output data, describes regional differences • Recommends: Support 16 driver industries

9. Targeted Clusters • Nine targeted industries: Employment • Life Sciences 867,868 • Bus. and Financial Services 776,404 • Education 536,572 • Manufacturing 495,482 • Building and Construction 347,795 • Agriculture and Food 314,088 • Information Services 209,442 • Logistics and Transportation 136,946 • Lumber Wood and Paper 105, 525

10. Industry Partnerships • Enhance firms’ competitiveness and workers’ skills • From data to information to intelligence • Multi-firm, cluster specific • Multi-agency: workforce, education, economic development, welfare, etc. • Strategic innovations • Identification of key occupations

11. Strategic Investments • Kick start new partnerships • Enhance existing sectoral efforts • Wood finishing • Life Science Career Alliance • Promote Centers of Excellence • An alliance of business, education, workforce and economic development

12. Strategic Investments • Build statewide partnerships in statewide sectors: • PA Center for Health Careers • PA Manufacturing Partnership

13. PA Center for Health Careers • Address health care workforce needs • Fix nurse education capacity issue • Retain health care professionals • Recruit and retain allied health care professionals • Address needs of direct care workers

14. Nurse Education Capacity Initiative • Proposals: • A Nurse Education Faculty Fund to generate “loaned” faculty for nursing education programs • A Faculty Partnership Fund to education 50 new MSN prepared faculty • A Clinical Education Expansion Fund • An Attraction and Retention Fund to attract non-traditional applicants and improve the retention of current nursing students and new graduates

15. Manufacturing Workforce Partnership • Governor’s Summit: March 2004 • Cost of health care #1 issue • Skill needs #2 • Multi-firm, multi-organization learning collaborative • Focused on innovation • Oversee and advise manufacturing incumbent worker training grantees

16. Strategic Investments • October 2004: $5 million manufacturing incumbent worker training initiative • Purpose: Accelerate innovation strategies • Provide incentives for industry innovation • Require agency collaboration • Rolling deadline • Interactive grant review: Learning process is part of product --- “not a traditional training program” • Required review by Manufacturing Partnership

17. Manufacturing Initiative • Assumptions: • Lowering cost, improving productivity, quality control, and better skills are not sufficient • Firms must innovate: new products, new business models, new services, new markets • Innovations can come from: • Knowledge of industry: domestic and international • Collaboration within sector • Linkages with tech councils, centers of excellence educational institutions • Shop floor managers and workers • This requires a smarter workforce

18. Manufacturing Initiative • Requirements for funding • A partnership of multiple employers linked by similar markets, labor pools, technologies • A demonstrated understanding of industry needs, especially of the chosen cluster • Must understand business and innovation strategies necessary to make cluster more competitive • Must have an action plan to implement innovation strategies

19. Challenges • Companies used to traditional training • WIBs, MEPs, Econ. Dev. Orgs, trining providers, Community Colleges don’t believe you’re serious • Staff not trained for this • Innovation is not easy • Fear of sharing intellectual property, trade secrets • Takes time

20. Proposals From • Food processing • Manufactured housing • Plastics • Packaging technology • Biotech • Metal Fabrication

21. Next Steps: Invest in High Priority Occupations • Identify and understand • Define gap • Develop curriculum, programs, providers • Deliver training • Measure success

22. Next Steps: Accountability • PA performance management plan covering $623 million of investments • Quantitative Measures • Strategic Measures • Annual report on outcomes of workforce investments

23. Conclusion • Analysis is the start • A strategic approach is important • Investing in that approach makes it credible • Close attention to implementation is essential • Collaboration, cooperation and linkages brings support, continuous improvements and unexpected goodies

24. Thank You Fred Dedrick Executive Director Pennsylvania Workforce Investment Board 901 North 7th Street, Suite 103 Harrisburg, PA 17102 (717) 772-4966 fdedrick@state.pa.us