 |
|
issue 7 - december 2005 |
kathy.sweeney@state.mn.us |
In this Issue:
- Fourth Annual Fall Business Seminar among Opportunities for WIB Members
- Workforce Service Areas Named as Recipients of WIA Incentive Grants
- Innovate Locally, Grow Globally: Theme of Regional Summit in St. Cloud
- SBA and Job Center Coordination Webinar Gets High Marks
- Announcing the WorkForce Center Registration System
- HealthPartners IT Center Locates in Duluth, Thanks in Part to Jim Mason
From the MWCA Chair
Fourth Annual Fall Business Seminar among Opportunities for WIB Members
By Trish Taylor
There have been a number of great opportunities for Workforce Investment Board members to participate in seminars and training sessions recently. Among these was the Fourth Annual Fall Business Seminar held on October 26 at the Monticello Community Center. I joined Elaine Hierlinger, Vice Chair of the Central Minnesota Workforce Investment Board (WIB); Wright County Commissioner Elmer Eichelberg and more than 45 other members of the business sector, educational and financial service industries, economic development, and workforce development community for the event.
The discussion was valuable because it included identification of business needs, strategies for coaching and motivating employees, workforce challenges and global competition among large corporations. Issues and concerns identified by participants included employee recruitment, motivation of Generation X and Y workers, employee retention and turn-over, sales tax use audit, attraction of youth into manufacturing industry careers, industry specific training, and drug and alcohol abuse by employees.
The event was co-sponsored by a consortium consisting of the Central Minnesota Workforce Investment Board, the Monticello WorkForce Center, the Buffalo and Monticello Chambers of Commerce, St. Cloud Technical College and Wright County Economic Development Partnership. The event was funded through the Central Minnesota Workforce Investment Board, which used funds they had received from the state for marketing purposes. Event sponsors plan to host additional seminars for small businesses to further address these issues during the next six months in Central Minnesota (Workforce Service Area 5). Watch for more information on future seminars in upcoming issues of this newsletter.
Workforce Service Areas Named as Recipients of WIA Incentive Grants
The following Workforce Service Areas were named by the Governor’s Workforce Development Council (GWDC) as recipients of Workforce Investment Act (WIA) Incentive Grants for Minnesota.
- Northwest Minnesota and Rural Minnesota CEP (Concentrated Employment Program) will receive $293,187 for their project “Math Works!”
- Northeast Minnesota and City of Duluth will receive $275,000 for the “Arrowhead Educator Internship Project.”
- Anoka County Workforce Council received $221,476 for Anoka County's project "Adding Up Success."
“I would like to congratulate these WIBs (Workforce Investment Boards) and their local partners and thank them for their hard work and dedication to advancing foundational math skills,” wrote Cyndi Lesher, GWDC Chair, in a memo to GWDC members.
The GWDC received nine proposals from local WIBs across the state. To determine which areas would receive funding, 12 individuals representing the stakeholders associated with the WIA programs were selected to serve on the GWDC Grant Review Team. Deciding which proposals to fund was a difficult decision for the team as there were many solid proposals, according to Lesher.
- Sponsored by Northwest Minnesota and Rural Minnesota CEP
Math Works! has two key goals:
- Develop an alternative math learning method for students who do not succeed in traditional, textbook delivery.
- Use mathematics to expose students to math in high-demand jobs.
These goals will be achieved by changing the way teachers instruct math classes. An advance team consisting of 8th- and 12th-grade teachers, vocational technical instructors from both secondary and post-secondary schools, and Adult Basic Education instructors, will be exposed to best practices in contextual math learning. The team will be responsible for developing modules that provide foundational math instruction within the framework of the region’s high-demand jobs of allied health, construction trades, and manufacturing.
The math module development team will champion contextual learning in the region through a summer symposium (and beyond) where a targeted 50 teachers will test the sample units, shadow industry representatives, and participate in contextual learning themselves. Teachers will then take the modules and test them at their teaching sites over the fall 2006 semester. School board approval will be sought in January 2007 for the contextual learning curriculum. The modules will be refined, budgetary issues incorporated as appropriate, and the Math Works! curriculum will be fully implemented during the 2007-2008 academic year.
MathWorks! will be administered by the Northwest Private Industry Council in Crookston. It is the result of planning efforts by 21 partners including representatives from Adult Basic Education, Rural Minnesota CEP, school districts, two-year post-secondary institutions, and industry.
Arrowhead Educator Internship Project
- Sponsored by the Northeast Minnesota WIB and Duluth Workforce Council
The purpose of the Arrowhead Educator Internship Project, a seven-county Northeast Minnesota collaborative effort, is to increase the achievement of those with low level math proficiency by providing math, career and technical educators with opportunities to learn applied math skills in the workplace. Educator observations will be integrated into the classroom in order to enhance contextual math skills and cultivate real-world relevance to students, thereby increasing their motivation and ability to learn mathematical concepts and technical skills.
In order to achieve these goals, the project will engage in several key activities:
- Recruit educators who work primarily with individuals with low-level math skills. Educators will include Adult Basic Education instructors, secondary school math teachers, career and technical educators, Alternative Learning Center instructors, and post-secondary developmental math faculty.
- Place educators in learning experience internships with
host businesses in order to identify how math is applied in a variety of
career and technical occupations. In addition, participants will gain insight
into desired work attitudes, habits, and occupational preparation that they
can, in turn, impart to students.
- Compile participant reports of observations and strategies to incorporate applied learning techniques into existing curricula.
- Provide reports to all relevant educators across the region in order to enhance the math skills of all students and community members in Northeast Minnesota.
- Track the progress of implementing new strategies throughout the school year, including gathering student testimonials regarding the efficacy of applied learning techniques.
Participants in the Arrowhead Educator Internship Project will be rewarded through stipends, financial awards to participating districts for curriculum and professional development, and the option to obtain graduate credit for their efforts.
The Arrowhead Educator Internship Project aims to enhance the pockets of collaboration between private industry and education already taking place throughout the region and provide an avenue for beginning this important relationship on a much broader scale. The project will be administered by the Northeast Minnesota Office of Job Training (Workforce Service Area 3).
The project plans to begin recruiting teachers and business sites in January 2006, so the actual internships can take place during the summer of 2006. Internship observations will be integrated into classroom activities during the 2006-2007 school year.
Adding Up Success – Anoka Math Partnership
The proposed program will be a collaborative effort to strengthen the math skills of youth and adults who have math skills below high school level competency. The primary partners include: Anoka-Hennepin Independent School District 11, Spring Lake Park Independent School District 16, Anoka-Hennepin Secondary Technical Education Program, Anoka Technical College, Anoka Ramsey Community College, and the Metro North Adult Basic Education Consortium. The employer partners include Kurt Manufacturing, rms Company, Crest View Corporation, Industrial Door Company, and E-Street Makers, Inc. The project activities are focused on enabling future and incumbent workers to acquire the math skills needed in high growth industries such as manufacturing, healthcare and biosciences. The activities will address the different learning styles of the participants by using contextually based curriculum.
Proposed activities will include:
- A scholarship program for secondary school students
in need of math tutoring. Scholarships will be available for families eligible
for free or reduced fee lunch programs. School teachers or administrators
will refer 11th- and 12th-grade students, who are performing below grade
level in math, to 12 weeks of individualized tutoring.
- Connect learners to newly created Math Resource Centers within Anoka County. These will feature instructor support along with access to computers and curriculum that is industry focused on manufacturing, healthcare and biosciences industry sectors.
- Develop a pilot math class for 12th-graders at the Anoka-Hennepin Secondary Technical Education Program and Spring Lake Park Alternative School. It will especially focus on the college Accuplacer test, state math standards and needs of local business and industry.
- Teacher Training: Expand Anoka County’s math teaching system by creating opportunities for Adult Basic Education, secondary and post-secondary math faculty to connect with business and industry. The idea is to build expertise and transfer authentic work situations into the curriculum, as well as create a model for staff development that can be shared across school districts.
- The Anoka County Workforce Council will host a Math Summit and invite math faculty and representatives from industry to present and learn about outcomes from project activities.
The project, to be administered by the Anoka County Job Training Center, is expected to begin some activities in January 2006, according to Sandy Froiland, Anoka County Job Training Center.
Innovate Locally, Grow Globally: Theme of Regional Summit in St. Cloud
One hundred and seventy-five business leaders, government officials, educators and economic development, and workforce development practitioners attended the Second Annual Regional Summit & Workshop on Nov. 18, at the St. Cloud Civic Center. The theme of this year’s conference was Innovate Locally, Grow Globally. Speakers discussed key initiatives in Central Minnesota and the progress made on the local economic development plan since the 2004 summit. The emcee was Tom Schlough, Chair of the Strategic Industry Forum Leaders.
The keynote speaker, Randall Kempner, Vice President, Regional Innovation at the U.S. Council on Competitiveness, in his presentation, “Building Innovative Regions: Regional Imperatives for Competing Globally” emphasized the importance of regionalism in succeeding in the global economy.
“Innovation is a contact sport,” said Kempner. “The development and application of new ideas require significant and consistent interaction. Many times the key advance will come through an informal or unplanned discussion. Both formal and informal interaction is best fostered when people can meet face to face. As a result, regions are the right level to think about supporting an innovation environment.”
Kempner said that the assets in an innovation-based model go beyond the traditional physical assets – natural endowments, infrastructure, and financial – and include more “social assets” including institutional (property protection, predictable regulations, chambers of commerce, unions, cluster collaboration), human (K-12 education, technical training and workforce development, early childhood education), cultural (architecture, music, language, creation attitudes, long-term thinking, connectedness) and knowledge (research and development, sharing of information, universities, market learning).
He gave examples of regional innovation initiatives across the nation and the importance of:
- Energizing the entrepreneurial economy;
- Regionalism;
- Building and retaining talent;
- Creating a tolerant and dynamic culture to attract innovators;
- Transitioning to advance manufacturing; and
- Strengthening knowledge assets, especially the link between business-university-laboratories, so that products could be brought to market.
The good news, according to Kempner, is that regionalism is taking hold around the country as exemplified by the Central Minnesota Regional Initiative-Partners for Strategic Growth. “You have made progress,” he said. “You get regionalism.”
Also featured were presentations by initiative leaders about growing the strategic industries and highlights of initiatives to build the seven forms of capital necessary for that growth. The initiatives were:
- Granite County USA (which promoted the granite industry
and created a video about it),
- Marketing Central Minnesota (a sales initiative to retain
and draw businesses to Central Minnesota),
- Innovation Financing Network (coaching local entrepreneurs
in the financing process through experts in the field),
- Science Initiative of Central Minnesota (whose goal is to
attract at least two new bioscience businesses to the area by 2008 and create
200 new jobs in industry by 2008),
- Success by Six – Imagination Library (a program that sends one book per month to parents who have signed up through the United Way and encourages small children’s interest in reading),
- Building Social Capital Initiatives (defined as “connectedness” and
is based on the premise that social networks have value), and
- Business Mentor Initiative through the Senior Corps of Retired Executives (SCORE). A mentoring success story was given by the founder of The MESSAGE Program, whose non-profit organization collects and ships medical and emergency equipment to local volunteers in countries such as Guatemala.
After hearing about these initiatives, Kempner praised many
of them for the way they built the necessary capitol for regional success in
the global marketplace.
Cyndi Lesher, Chair, Governor’s Workforce Development Council, (pictured) gave closing remarks. She said Central Minnesota is a great place with great companies and great people and that she’s “high on Minnesota” because it’s the right place, with the right stuff and the right people. She said the work ethic among Minnesotans is second to none and praised St. Cloud State University. She recognized Partners for Strategic Growth (the summit’s planning committee members) for their excellent work.
SBA and Job Center Coordination Webinar Gets High Marks
U.S. Department of Labor/Employment and Training Administration Region 5 (serving Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, and Wisconsin) held its first “regionally” broadcast Webinar (web seminar) about the Small Business Administration (SBA) and job center coordination on November 8. It received 150 overall ratings that were higher than “good” and only seven participants rated it lower than “good” out of a total of 209 evaluations. One participant wrote, “It was very interesting. The Webinar is a great way to communicate (since) no traveling is involved.” Another participant appreciated “the real-world examples of successes in a transition to a business-services model.”
The presenters were Patrick Rea, Regional Administrator, Small Business Administration; Mike Myhre, Director, Minnesota Small Business Development Centers, Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development (DEED); and Connie Ireland, Regional Administrator for Southwest Minnesota, DEED. John Scott, Business Services, U.S. Department of Labor/Employment and Training Administration, coordinated the event.
The first portion of the Webinar focused on the Small Business Administration’s vision, goals and available services, and recent research on the future of the economy. Rea presented “The 21st Century Economy,” a recent study that focuses on economic findings in the Mid-west.
The second half of the Webinar focused on how the Minnesota Small Business Development Centers, a resource partner of the SBA, and the Minnesota WorkForce Centers work together to address Minnesota’s business communities’ development needs. Town Hall meetings, industry specific roundtable meetings, and Small Business Resource Fairs were among the proven development strategies and programs discussed. Project Gate (Growing America Through Entrepreneurship), sponsored and financed by the U.S. Department of Labor/Employment and Training Administration, was also highlighted as a successful Minnesota pilot program that provided services to those interested in starting a small business or small business owners.
Service providers for businesses participated through sites at the Brainerd WorkForce Center, Bemidji WorkForce Center, Willmar WorkForce Center, and Anoka Ramsey Community College.
Announcing the WorkForce Center Registration System
When your WorkForce Center managers tell you how many visits your WorkForce Centers have had, do you ask how many unique customers the WorkForce Center is serving? Do you want to know how successful our Resource Area customers are in the workforce? Are you curious about how many people attend WorkForce Center workshops? Do you want to know why people come to the WorkForce Centers? And are you tired of hearing that we don’t have that exact information?
Your wait is almost over. The Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development (DEED) is now piloting the WorkForce Center Registration System, a technology system designed by WorkForce Center staff and leaders explicitly to answer these questions. The WorkForce Center Registration System (WFCRS) is seamlessly integrated with what we now know as the Workforce Organizer and appears on all Resource Area computers used by customers. The system also provides an easy-to-use interface to record workshop attendance.
Seven WorkForce Centers are pilot sites (Hennepin South, Monticello, North St. Paul, South Minneapolis, West St. Paul, Willmar, and Duluth) with the pilot running from mid-October through January. If your WorkForce Center is a pilot site, start asking to see reports from the system. The system will be deployed to all remaining WorkForce Centers in February.
For more information, contact Libby Starling, DEED’s Director of Policy, Planning and Measures at (651) 296-5750 or elizabeth.starling@state.mn.us
HealthPartners IT Center Locates in Duluth, Thanks in Part to Jim Mason
Mason does outstanding job helping to recruit for new center
Jim Mason, Business Services Specialist, Duluth WorkForce Center, provided valuable assistance to HealthPartners in choosing Duluth for its Regional Technology Center and helped to identify qualified applicants to fill more than 10 information technology (IT) positions.
“Jim did an outstanding job for HealthPartners by helping recruit qualified applicants and accommodating our interview process,” said Dave Bergh, Vice President of Health Partners Information Technology. “He provided us space, support, and consultative advice during a time when we were still hunting for permanent space to locate.”
Mason’s involvement came after Chris Maddy, Northspan Group, a regional economic development organization, recruited him to help promote Duluth’s business assets, find an appropriate site for the center and introduce HealthPartners to other community resources. Mason joined in the project just days after receiving his business services training.
Mason used Minnesota’s Job Bank to find and screen candidates and to satisfy Bergh and his team that suitable IT workers were available for Duluth. Bergh eventually chose Duluth, based on the availability of a highly qualified labor force, affordable space, access to technology, and good educational systems. Once the decision was made, Mason conducted a statewide search for qualified applicants, again using Minnesota’s Job Bank and by developing relationships with the computer science departments of three local universities.
“Jim was extremely helpful and very conscientious,” said Jill Holomek Bothwell, Workforce Staffing Manager, HealthPartners. “He sent us many qualified candidates and a significant number of our newly hired employees were hired due to his efforts.”
Mason also arranged for space at the WorkForce Center for HealthPartners staff to interview the candidates. This culminated in the hiring of IT candidates and the opening of the new center in November. The center will be fully staffed by Jan. 1, 2006.
“When we have the need to hire more employees in the future, one of our first calls will be to Jim Mason to assist us,” said Bergh.
Key Contacts:
Kathy Sweeney Stephen Larson Connie Ireland |
Rick Roy Dave Niermann Jim Wrobleski Joan Danielson |
We Need Your Feedback
We're trying to make this newsletter as timely and useful as we possibly can and, to accomplish that goal, we need to know what you want to know. We need and welcome any feedback you can offer – especially concerning topics of broad statewide or regional interest to the WIBs and all other partners. To register your questions, comments, complaints and suggestions, simply send an e-mail to Kathy.Sweeney@state.mn.us. We'll do our best to address your concerns directly and use your feedback to help us develop articles for future editions of the newsletter.
Thanks.