21st Century Workforce: Central Illinois

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21st Century Workforce Central Illinois

• Richard W. Judy
• Workforce Associates, Inc.
• wf21_at_WorkforceAssociates.com
• 317-841-0133

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Workforce 2020 was the starting point.
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Central Illinois defined
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Five axioms

• Economic Development and Workforce Development
  are joined at the hip.
• Every region needs a strong export sector.
• Productivity is the key to growth prosperity.
• Plans for progress change must come from the
  inside.
• Follow-through and implementation are the keys to
  success.

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An overview

• A brief look at how Central Illinois has fared
  economically in recent years.
• Ten basic findings of the study.
• Three scenarios of the future.
• Developing a 21st century workforce for Central
  Illinois 10 key challenges.

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The areas economic growth has lagged the states
and nations
Recent years (conc.)
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Central Illinois Three Historical Eras of
Economic Development, Early Times Into the 21st
Century (An impressionistic view)
Finding 1
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Central Illinois needs new stronger export
clusters
Finding 2

• Export or die.
• Conducive conditions
• Excellent schools culture of learning.
• Physical infrastructure.
• Fair and reasonable taxes.
• Institutional government coherence.
• Regional cooperation.
• First class public services.
• A workforce adequate in quantity and high in
  quality

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Powerful forces are creating a knowledge
economy in America
Finding 3

• Forces driving change
• Technology
• Globalization
• Changing industrial occupational structure
• Profound demographic change

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Competitive success in a knowledge-based economy
Finding 3 (conc.)

• Depends on the ability to
• Produce new ideas, transform old ones, convert
  them into intellectual property.
• Incorporate commercialize knowledge into
  products services.
• Respond quickly to rapidly changing
  opportunities, threats and other market
  conditions.
• Quickly acquire new technologies, skills and
  knowledge.
• True for communities, companies and individuals.
• ?Central Illinois must become part of Americas
  new knowledge-based economy or fall behind.

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Wanted A strategy for economic development in
C.I.
Finding 4

• C.I. has lacked a coherent strategy defined
  direction for its economic development in the
  early 21st century.
• The Bioscience initiative and its outgrowths are
  steps in the right direction.
• We need more than one vine to climb.

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C.I.s workforce growth has lagged seriously.
Finding 5
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Worker dearth The quantitative workforce
challenge
Finding 5 (conc.)
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How to cope with potential worker dearth?
Finding 5 (conc.)

• Augment workforce growth
• Spur growth of working age population.
• Boost participation rates among all groups
  (including minorities, women, older residents and
  persons with disabilities).
• Raise net inbound commuting.
• Raise productivity
• Increase investment improve management.
• Improve workforce quality.
• Improve the match of workers with jobs.

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Improving workforce quality What it means.
Finding 6

• In Americas 21st century knowledge-based
  economy, a successful person and a valuable
  worker will need
• Great powers of flexibility, creativity, and the
  capability to quickly acquire new skills
  knowledge.
• The motivation and ability to quickly learn what
  he/she does not yet know.
• A sound basic education.

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A sound high-school education is an essential
prerequisite
Finding 6 (conc.)

• Without it, the prospect is for a life of dismal
  jobs and meager earnings.
• Much room for improvement in C.I
• In 2000-2001, nearly 700 C.I. high students
  dropped out of school.
• Probably 500 of those will never receive a high
  school diploma or G.E.D.
• Over the course of 10 years, that totals to 5,000
  young people,
• Even among those who do graduate, too many fail
  to demonstrate at least the minimum level of
  achievement according to state standardized tests.

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Improving K-12 education is key to workforce
development in C.I.
Finding 7

• K-12 education is the most important formal
  workforce development most people ever
  experience.
• Reduce dropout rates raise graduation rates.
• Improve learning outcomes
• Cognitive skills (The four Rs reading,
  riting, rithmetic, and reasoning.)
• Communication computer skills.
• Soft skills including teamwork, leadership
  customer relations, other people skills.
• Ability to find and use information and to learn
  things that you dont already know.

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Learning must continue throughout life.
Finding 8

• A dynamic and ever-changing knowledge-based
  economy means that ones old skills knowledge
  can become obsolete rapidly frequently.
• To maintain their employability earning power,
  workers must retool, refresh augment their
  skills knowledge continually.
• Incumbent workforce needs
• Motivation to retool, refresh, gain new skills,
  etc.
• Opportunities to do so.

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The match of workers with jobs
Finding 9

• Already pretty good in C.I.
• But it can be improved
• Career counseling.
• Students.
• Marginal workers
• Incumbent workers.
• Student worker assessment.
• Job profiling.
• Comprehensive and up-to-date labor market
  information.

A promising area for business-education
collaboration!
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C.I.s workforce development system
Finding 10

• Much improved in recent years.
• But it is still too fragmented.
• Multiple agencies departments delivering
  services.
• Each with its own funding streams and
  bureaucratic turf to defend
• Impedes full implementation of the one-stop
  concept
• Its past time to bury all bureaucratic and other
  parochialisms.

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Ten key challenges
Challenges

• Make C.I. a Learning Community and brand it
  as such.
• Reduce high school dropout rates raise
  graduation rates.
• Improve educational outcomes of K-12 education.
• Ensure proper mix of educational and training
  opportunities as well as of career guidance and
  counseling.
• Make the C.I. worker training and retraining
  system the nations most responsive efficient

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What is a learning community?Two essential
components
A definition Conc.

• Motivation
• High awareness among all members of the community
  of the value and critical importance of education
  and lifetime learning.
• An avid enthusiasm and drive for learning
  knowledge throughout the community.
• Opportunity
• Affordable and accessible opportunity for every
  person of every age to further their drive for
  learning and self improvement.

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Ten key challenges (concluded)
Challenges Conc.

• Recruit retain a skilled workforce pool for
  Central Illinois.
• Lower barriers to workforce participation for
  all.
• Make C.I. highly attractive place to live work
  for the kind of talent needed. (PEEP)
• Work together. Banish petty parochialisms.
• Bring the Bioscience Strategy and other viable
  economic development strategies to fruition.

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Thanks Very Much

• Richard W. Judy
• Workforce Associates, Inc.
• dickjudy_at_WorkforceAssociates.com
• 317-841-0133