Webinar Announced for Entrepreneurship: A Strong Tool in Community College Education

Workforce3one from DOL-ETA has announced a webinar that may be of interest to Missouri's workforce development leaders, particularly in regions operating Microenterprise grants and programs. Entrepreneurship: A Strong Tool in Community College Education is slated 2:30 p.m. Central time on Tuesday, December 7th.

Community colleges are ideally positioned to be catalysts for fostering economic vitality through entrepreneurship education. Although the type of entrepreneurship education varies widely, including credit courses, consultation, incubators, non-credit courses, and certificates, all programs enhance economic development in their communities. Three community colleges will highlight exceptional programs that demonstrate the breadth of entrepreneurial education available.

Presenters include Timothy Putnam, Associate Director, John Pappajohn Business and Entrepreneurial Center, North Iowa Area Community College; Donna Duffey, Professor, CPF Entrepreneurship, Johnson County Community College; and Christine Pigsley, Associate Dean, Business, Dakota County Technical College. James McKenney, Vice President, Economic Development and International Programs, AACC, will moderate the webcast.

This webinar will feature experienced representatives from three community colleges who will highlight their exceptional programs that demonstrate the breadth of entrepreneurial education available today. The entrepreneurship education offered by community colleges varies greatly from campus to campus including for-credit courses, non-credit courses, certificates, consultation services and even business incubators. They offer expertise and resources in the areas of business planning, financial management, market planning & analysis, succession planning, business growth, manufacturing, import/export, and training in sales, managing payroll, and even tax seminars. Despite these different approaches, all community college entrepreneurship programs focus on increasing economic development and creating jobs in their communities.

Registration for this Webinar is limited and seating is on a first-come, first-served basis. This link takes you to Workforce3one's online registration for the event.

Governor Announces $1.3 Million in Grants to Benefit At-Risk Missouri Students

Gov. Matt Blunt today announced that the state Department of Economic Development’s Division of Workforce Development will award more than $1.3 million to fund school-to-work programs for at-risk students throughout Missouri.

The Jobs for Missouri Graduates (JMG) grants are being released for the 2006-2007 school year in St. Louis City, St. Louis County, Southeast, Southwest, Ozark, South Central and Kansas City and Vicinity and East Jackson County workforce regions. Approximately 800 students will benefit from the program this year through the program, which is administered by local Workforce Investment Boards and their subcontractors.

“Improving opportunities for all Missourians has been one of my highest priorities as governor,” Blunt said. “These resources will help our most vulnerable young Missourians obtain the skills, training and attention they need to become productive members of the greatest workforce in the world. I am particularly pleased that a portion of this years funding will be used to provide career counseling in math, science, engineering and technology, key areas of instruction I have focused on to help young Missourians prepare to enter the global economy.”

To achieve its objective, JMG focuses on keeping students in school through graduation and during this time improving their rate of success in acquiring employability and occupational competencies. The program will provide intensive job and career counseling, employability skills training, leadership activities, work experience opportunities, job placement and follow-up services for 12 months.

JMG is modeled after Jobs for America’s Graduates (JAG) a nationally recognized dropout prevention and workforce preparation program for at-risk youth delivered in the classroom through the support of school and business partnerships. The objective of the program is to help young Missourians secure a quality job that will lead to a good career either directly after high school or after further education at the post secondary level.

The press release from the Missouri Department of Economic Development notes that, since Blunt took office in January 2005, Missouri employers and entrepreneurs have created more than 38,000 new jobs. As governor, Blunt has led the effort to enact meaningful litigation reform, workers’ compensation reform and introduced his Quality Jobs Initiative to help local communities compete for jobs in the national and international marketplace.

High Profile WIB Benchmarking Research Now Online

Four member-organizations of TEAM along with the Missouri Division of Workforce Development, the Missouri Training and Employment Council, and the Corporation for a Skilled Workforce collaborated throughout 2006 on the nation's first comprehensive look at the common factors of quality that indicate excellence for local Workforce Investment Boards. The culmination of the research is now packaged in report-form for study and integration.

The WIB Benchmarking Project researched and identified high-profile, top-performing WIBs for a series of site visits and interviews with staff and Board members at each of the participating sites. The WIBs ranged in geographic scope and population from rural, to suburban, to urban, and were located in the states of Texas, Connecticut, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Indiana, and Florida. Participating groups included the WIBs in Kansas City, Northwest Missouri, Southwest Missouri, and Central Missouri, along with the Missouri Training and Employment Council (state WIB) and the Missouri Division of Workforce Development. Nina Babich and Donna Cruder with the Corporation for a Skilled Workforce (CSW), were contracted as consultants to facilitate the project.

Missouri Creates Job Skills Database

The Department of Economic Development announced today that Missouri will be the first state in the nation to merge occupational employment projections data with ACT’s WorkKeys job skills data. Missourians can use the data to determine which skills are needed in high-growth jobs throughout the state. WorkKeys is part of the ACT college testing organization.

The merged database will consist of statewide 2004-2014 occupational employment projections created by the Missouri Economic Research and Information Center (MERIC) and ACT’s WorkKeys job skill assessment system. WorkKeys has been used by thousands of employers, educators and workforce developers to hire skilled workers, determine the skills needed in specific jobs, and build the skills of the workforce.

The database estimates employment numbers for more than 700 occupations and projects the level of growth or decline in employment over the next 10 years. Occupational employment projections data are used by employers, job seekers, training providers, and workforce developers to gauge future employment demand. WorkKeys is used to identify job seekers’ levels in three skills necessary for most jobs: reading for information, locating information and applied mathematics.

“Missouri job seekers can now use ACT’s substantial WorkKeys database to determine the occupations for which they’re the most qualified, while also discovering which careers have the highest potential for growth in the coming years,” said Don Carstensen, vice president of ACT’s Workforce Development Division. “ACT’s skill level data represents the analysis of more than 13,000 jobs across the country. Missourians will be able to use this data to determine the skill levels they need for the careers they want.”

The Missouri Career Readiness Certificate (MoCRC) assesses an individual’s skill level in each of the three WorkKeys skill areas to ensure that Missouri workers have real workplace skills and are able to compete in today’s rapidly changing labor market. The skill levels have been profiled against thousands of available jobs and are consistently identified by employers nationwide as essential for prospective employees and those considering advancement. Employers may use any of the nearly 500 occupational profiles developed from job profiles found in the tables on ACT’s website: www.act.org. Job seekers who don’t achieve desirable scores are offered remedial training to upgrade skills.

Greg Steinhoff, director of the Missouri Department of Economic Development, praised the groundbreaking collaboration between the department and ACT. “This unique and innovative collaboration will enable Missouri’s job seekers to identify and hone the workplace skills required by an increasingly competitive workplace. It’s a win-win for Missouri’s employers and potential employees.”

The MoCRC is currently being offered in eight of Missouri’s workforce regions (St. Louis City, St. Louis County, Jefferson–Franklin, Northwest, Southeast, Central, and Kansas City and Vicinity, and East Jackson County). There have been 4,373 MoCRCs issued since October of 2005. There are currently 32 sites statewide where the MoCRC can be attained.

Workforce Conference Presentation Handouts Now Online

Presentation handouts for several of the sessions at the recent Missouri Governors Conference on Workforce Development are now available for download.

Wednesday, October 11th:

• Disability Program Navigator
• Lifelong Learning Accounts (LiLAs)
• Training Consortium - How to Make it Work
• Moving Beyond Just Business Services...Becoming a Business Champion

Thursday, October 12th:

• Transitioning to a Demand-Driven Workforce System
• Is America Falling Behind in Math and Science? And What Should WIBs do About It?
• Practical Tools for Workforce Professionals: The Latest in Missouri Labor Market Information
• Missouri Dept. of Corrections - A Philosophical Change in Business
• Operation Jumpstart: Entrepreneurial Opportunities for Non-Traditional Customers
• Missouri's CRC System, Why It Will Work!
• A Dialogue on Reaching and Serving People with Limited English Proficiency
• Healthcare Innovations: Expanding Nursing School Enrollment Through a Hospital-Employed Clinical Faculty Model
• Getting the Big Picture: Combining WorkKeys Foundational and Personal Skills Assessments to Find the Right Employees
• Matching Client Assessment to Career Options
• Achieving Partnerships and Performance with the Adult Common Measures
• Developing the Pipeline for Health Professions
• Rethinking Upgrading & Retention in Healthcare: The Universal Healthcare Worker

Friday, October 13th:

• Benchmarking WIBs: What Makes a Great Board?
• State Administrators Forum

In addition to archives of conference handouts, the conference website operated by DWD has a photo gallery, a bank of press releases, and a participant survey.

New Self-Sufficiency Program Manager Named at DWD

There's a new New Self-Sufficiency Program Manager named for DWD's Central Office in Jefferson City. While unofficial word was circulated at the recent Governors Conference on Workforce Development, it is now confirmed by Christene Garnder at DWD that Susan Peterson has been named for this post. The contact phone number for Susan is the same as the phone number for her previous post with the Self-Sufficiency program, 573-526-8266. Susan fills the post vacated by Bev Kelsay, the new statewide workforce programs coordinator for AO/Lakes Country.

Missouri Workforce Leaders Recognized for Excellence in Collaboration, Service and Innovation

Special congratulations go out to TEAM members and their respective affiliations that were recognized recently by Missouri Department of Economic Development’s Division of Workforce Development Director Rod Nunn and Rose-Marie Hopkins, executive director of the Missouri Training and Employment Council. The two state officials presented Workforce Excellence Awards at the 24th Annual Governor’s Conference on Workforce Development at Tan-Tar-A.

The awards were presented based on three new categories to recognize: 1) Collaborative Excellence - a group of partners who have formed strategic alliances and have designed new initiatives to drive integration among workforce, economic development and education systems resulting in solutions leading to a positive workforce transformation; 2) Service Excellence - initiatives that have effectively served unique populations in the workforce system and have developed non-traditional pipelines to enhance economic opportunities for hard-to-serve populations; and 3) Leadership and Innovation - a workforce leader who has championed the design and application of new products and processes to strengthen a region’s workforce and has made contributions that significantly benefit the broad spectrum of the workforce system.

"These awards embody the innovative, forward looking work that’s underway to help ensure that Missouri’s workforce system is responding to the needs of business and industry,” said Nunn. “We are proud of the noteworthy achievements of this year’s recipients.” This year’s recipients are as follows:

• Collaborative Excellence Award – “Another Smart Move,” Northwest Missouri (St. Joseph Chamber of Commerce – lead collaborator). This program bridged the gap between economic development, education, and the workforce development system by establishing a “think-tank” to communicate the need for and the value of life-long learning. This think-tank environment transformed the community’s perceived value of education as evidenced by 39 employers who have signed letters of commitment to life-long learning. In addition, there are billboards, television spots, and newspaper ads throughout the region promoting the life-long learning concept.

• Service Excellence Award – Project Prepare, Kansas City & Vicinity and Eastern Jackson County. Project Prepare is an initiative with the goal of providing women, minorities and economically disadvantaged individuals career opportunities in the construction trades industry. The collaboration between the Greater Kansas City AFL-CIO, the Builder’s Association, the United Brotherhood of Carpenters and Joiners of America, the Heavy Constructors Association of Kansas City, the National Electrical Contractors association and the Full Employment Council (FEC) resulted in 60 applicants chosen to begin the pre-apprenticeship program, of which 38 obtained jobs with union contractors in the construction field. The City of Kansas City has agreed to fund Project Prepare for the next two years at $200,000 per year.

• The Director’s Leadership & Innovation Award went to Becky Steele, Director, Northwest Region Workforce Investment Board in Trenton, MO. As Director of the Northwest Workforce Investment Board (WIB), Steele’s extensive experience in the non-profit arena, coupled with her ability to envision new and innovative ways to serve the job seeker and business customers has attributed to the success in her region as well as in the State of Missouri. Serving as an independent management consultant, she has provided training and technical assistance to over two dozen private non-profit corporations, Steele conducts lead Program Management as part of the federal Head Start monitoring process focusing on Native American Programs. She is an exceptional ambassador for the workforce system and the Northwest Region consistently leads the State in performance and innovation.

The award presentations followed a keynote luncheon address given Greg Newton, nationally recognized workforce training consultant. Newton is a graduate of Harvard University and has consulted with more than 400 different businesses, organizations and associations throughout the country. More than 800 professionals from education, workforce and economic development are in attendance.