Agencies partner on workforce initiatives

DAVE MOSIER/independent editor

With workforce development becoming more and more important to local economic development efforts, the Van Wert Area Economic Development Corporation has joined Vantage Career Center and Northwest State Community College in their workforce development initiatives.

Pete Prichard, Ohio Technical Center director at Vantage, and Pete Weir, training coordinator for Northwest State, have been partnering for some time on a number of workforce initiatives, including “hybrid” classes that offer area companies a specialized training curriculum and other programs tailored to companies’ workforce needs, as well as a manufacturers’ consortium that provides businesses with a way to provide input on their workforce needs, as well as suggestions on training programs to help fill those positions.

“The first thing was to find out what was the need out there,” Weir said, noting that area companies’ top needs are for employees that have training in electricity, welding, robotics, HVAC, and machine maintenance.

Weir and Prichard’s initiatives were a first attempt to identify and deal with a paradigm shift in workforce development resulting from the large numbers of Baby Boomers that are retiring, or nearing retirement. The retiring Boomers have companies needing to fill relatively large numbers of good-paying jobs that often require some type of specialized training or skillset. Retraining is also needed because of new technology in the workforce, such as robotics.

Now, Stacy Adam, executive director of the VWAEDC, and her organization have joined the partnership. It’s a good fit, since the local economic development agency has much to offer in the area of workforce development — as well as much to gain from success in that area.

Through its contacts with the Ohio Department of Job and Family Services and state workforce entities JobsOhio and Ohio Means Jobs, as well as its Van Wert Works employment website, the VWAEDC is perfectly positioned to provide assistance and resources to local workforce initiatives.

Adam said the manufacturers’ consortiums have been a good tool to find out what companies need in the way of workforce development.

“I thought the piece we were missing was input from the people we were trying to help,” Adam noted. “We gathered folks from manufacturing, health care, education, economic development … all of the key stakeholders in workforce development in Van Wert (County).

“We solicited their input on the challenges they had, what the objectives were from these meetings going forward,” Adam added. “We very quickly learned that we wanted the same thing: We want the current businesses in Van Wert to fill the workforce needs that they have; we wanted to provide opportunities for residents of the Van Wert community, and we wanted to make sure that we were taking better advantage of resources that were available to us….”

One of the tools Adam brings to the table is expertise using a number of development resources, including the federal Work Opportunity Tax Credit, while she can also leverage training grants and layoff avoidance funding to help businesses fill workforce needs.

Adam said the Work Opportunity Tax Credit is a federal program that provides funds for economically blighted rural areas for workforce training and retraining needs. It’s a program that only Van Wert and four other Ohio counties — Paulding County is another — qualify for, although she noted that other Ohio counties had applied for the initiative.

“This (program) gives the employer the opportunity to know that there are training funds, so if they want to go on a hiring spree … they could contract with a provider or provide some of the training themselves,” Adam explained.

Through the Regionally Aligned Priorities in Delivering Skills (RAPIDS) program, for instance, employers could receive equipment allowing them to provide on-the-job training to workers.

Adam also pointed to career development programs in the local schools as a way to help young people who are interested in staying in the area find good-paying jobs and careers.

She said that she feels the Van Wert County community has a number of advantages, when it comes to workforce development — as well as economic development overall.

“I think we have good people, a good location, good schools,” she noted. “We have unprecedented facilities and work that people long before me have done to put us in a position that we can attract businesses.”

Moving forward quickly on workforce initiatives would also provide the community with a competitive edge over communities who don’t move forward, Adam said.

“I think if we work on this together, it’s going to be an advantage for us over the long haul,” she noted. “Those communities that figure out how to dig their way out, or get ahead the best they can, are going to have an advantage.”