Local Workforce Council Chairs in attendance:

Governor’s Workforce Council Members in attendance

Staff in attendance:

Guests:

After welcoming remarks about Governor Ventura's vision for workforce development by Mr. Coleman and Mr. St. Martin, each local council chair had an opportunity to present a brief update on local council activities.

Summary of Local Workforce Council Reports

Minneapolis: Working especially hard on School to Work activities and defining the new role of the Youth Council; are interested in having youth represented on the Youth Council by youth. Good success in the welfare to work area but more progress is needed in School to Work. Incumbent workers services are key and there is great difficulty locally in shifting resources from disadvantaged groups to all groups (federal and state funding is very categorical and does not allow local flexibility). Minneapolis’ approach to service is very neighborhood/decentralized in approach; there has also been great value realized from the building of two Workforce Centers serving all city residents.

Northeast Minnesota: Challenges include covering a very large geographical area. Priorities of the Council have been focused on insuring quality services and the board continues to place a priority on reviewing programmatic and financial reports. Board also works to foster close alliances with local elected officials and all community partners including economic development efforts; this council worked with others to sponsor the Northeast MN Workforce Summit earlier in the year.

Ramsey County: Working toward a merger with the St. Paul Workforce Service Area has been an important area of concentration. Pleased with their Local Youth Council which includes youth members representing Youth. The local council has also focused on recruiting a diverse membership and urged other councils to do the same.

Southeastern Minnesota: Training remains a major focus including actually providing welding training for incumbent workers as well as developing language training for new Americans from Somalia. The Council strongly supports Return on Investment analysis and has developed a model, which they have used for the last 5 years. They are looking at sponsoring an economic summit and want the council to be the local focal point for discussions about workforce development. It was stressed that employers need to be able to go to one place, one board, and to be good stewards of our public investments. We should encourage changes when we see a need for them.

Hennepin/Scott/Carver: The council is taking advantage of the Workforce Investment Act to change, readjust, and create new and innovative approaches. Recently they supported writing a grant proposal to begin a technical training consortium. Partners include local businesses, colleges and the MN High Tech Assn. They have hired the University of MN to do a study to analyze why some people do not participate in required welfare to work services. One idea that has come out of the discussion is that people could be served via television. A group of Council members have put together an outline of a series of programs focused on the essentials of job finding and job seeking and job keeping; that group would like to find other councils to work with on this idea.

Stearns/Benton: Is reorganizing the Council so that all four core partners have a chance to participate in recruiting the council membership and feel vested in the Council. Practical concerns they have dealt with in putting together local core partner agreements include: no clear understanding of partner resources, no budget information, differing performance accountability and standards across both programs and partners. A great deal of positive progress has been made and the Council would like to work with other local councils on these issues.

Duluth: A big focus of the Council has been the summit which this Council as the lead agency for. (A report was given later on the Summit by Sharon Finch who is staff to the Council). The Council is reorganizing to focus on the two main sets of activities that are in their work plan: the oversight activities and organizing workforce development activities and initiatives in their community. This year they intend to focus on fewer activities and to concentrate on doing those really well. One item they remain concerned about is how to measure the success of their efforts across programs and systems.

South Central: They have concentrated on setting up three centers. Other activities have included setting up a new Youth Council, working with the local health care industries, working with more minority populations.

Central Minnesota: Are working on a strategic planning process with local partners at the table; their steering committee includes all partners. Their Youth Council has been formed. They are working closely with local business alliances to keep people in their local area in good jobs. They realize a great need for providing services to incumbent workers.

St. Paul: Focused on a method to detail their assets as a community to put together a balance sheet of investments and assets the City has to offer both employers and employees.

Winona: Youth Council is up and running and is very strong. Workforce Shortage issues are a big concern; it is challenging to figure out how to train employees when there are no employees to do their job when they are being trained. Older folks could help out but for all of the restrictions on their income.

Anoka: We are working closely with other countywide efforts in housing, childcare and transportation services to make the most of our local resources.

Washington: We are working on putting together housing, transportation with workforce development efforts to make the most of all that we are doing.

Gordon Aanerud: The Association of Minnesota Counties recently sponsored a meeting on the workforce shortage and it was very well attended. More and more counties realize the import of helping local employers find and retain workers.

Rural Minnesota CEP: Council has streamlined business processes so that they use a consent agenda and spend time only on items, which have value added by discussion. A great resource of the Onestop center is the Resource Room but there are still plenty of challenges of how to pay for these. Each of the current funding streams come equipped with a "set of handcuffs" and the nineteen counties in the Workforce Service Area operate 25 different programs; they would love to see "the handcuffs" removed so that they could get more done. They believe that providing services to youth can prevent problems down the road.

Mary Haug: Requested that Councils with info on services for noncustodial parents let her know more about those.

The next part of the meeting was an overview about two local area best practices. The first presentation was made by Bonnie Elsey on behalf of the Workforce Development Committee of the Governor’s Workforce Development Committee.

Summary of the East Central Minnesota Workforce Partnership Presentation

The Workforce Development Committee met with the East Central Minnesota Workforce Partnership in early November to identify "Best Practices" in creating a community partnership for workforce development.

The purpose of their partnership is "to identify, create, develop and maintain a qualified workforce within the five county East Central Minnesota area by assisting and encouraging the development and enhancement of communication and cooperation among and between business, community, public agencies, K-12 education, and higher education".

The impetus for the partnership was the lack of qualified workers in the region. Key business community leaders contacted Pine Technical College for assistance in identifying ways to develop their current workforce and to retain workers in the region. Under the leadership of Pine Technical College past-president Gene Beaver, a partnership was formed. The partnership began with informal breakfast meetings to discuss skill shortage areas and continued to grow with the addition of Cambridge Community College, high school superintendents, and local Workforce Center staff, as well as additional business leaders. Today the partnership is incorporated with a part-time executive director. The partnership has profiled many of their jobs in their community, identified training needs, created a high school report card requirement for job applications, established apprenticeship programs, created a teacher exchange program in business, and developed an active school-to-work program. The strength of their partnership is common mission, vision and values and a real sense of community ownership.

The first ever Economic and Workforce Development Summit to encompass the regional labor market including Duluth, Hermantown, Proctor, Cloquet and Two Harbors, Minnesota as well as Superior, Wisconsin was held July 22nd, 1999, at the Duluth Entertainment and Convention Center.

The goal of the Summit was to bring together leaders from business, education, labor, and government. The co-sponsors sought to engage employers in a discussion of: 1) their vision of the future direction of existing and emerging industries and the implications for workforce development, 2) their vision of opportunities to strengthen our workforce to meet future needs and attract new business and industry, and 3) opportunities for public/private partnerships.

The information gathered and summarized below will be used by: the Duluth-Hermantown School-To-Work Partnership to develop strategies for systemic change in the educational system, the Duluth Workforce Council to inform the future direction of employment services offered to job seekers and employers in the Duluth Workforce Center, and by Team Duluth to develop a workforce action plan that will sustain economic development initiatives.

Summit participants identified business and workforce trends and ranked them in order of importance:

1. Advancements in technology in general, and the growth of information technology specifically, are having a significant impact on the manner in which business is conducted and in workforce needs of each cluster. Businesses have seen an increasing need to upgrade the skills of existing employees and to hire additional highly skilled technical staff.
2. Growth is occurring in the following specific business clusters: tourism, personal services, business services including software development, senior services, telemarketing, health care, home health care, manufacturing for the communications industry, heavy industry manufacturing, information technology, cost accounting, aviation, retail, transportation, environmental, knowledge management, telecommunications, entrepreneurism.
3. An increasing number of skill-specific jobs are developing in the following business clusters: trade, health, information technology, tourism, telemarketing, telecommunications, transportation, and entrepreneurship. Many business clusters are increasingly looking for more specialists than generalists.
4. Workforce shortages are occurring in the following specific business clusters:. health care, information technology, skilled trades (construction, steelworker, millwrights, carpenters), education (special education teachers).

1. More young workers entering the labor market have limited workforce and soft skills. Desirable skills include: basic skills, teamwork skills, interpersonal skills, and job specific skills.
2. The manner in which work is valued in society is changing. The social contract between employers and employees has changed. The relationship is increasingly shorter term with less commitment. Work options that allow more flexibility to work from the home and spend more time with family are becoming increasingly desirable.
3. More incumbent workers have skills that are becoming obsolete. Industry standards are rapidly changing in many business clusters. It is a challenge for worker's skills to keep pace.
4. More prospective employees have limited basic and soft skills. Desirable skills are: reasoning, critical thinking, problem solving, communications, and life coping.
5. Fewer full-time workers are available. Both employee and employer expectations are higher. Fewer workers are available that meet the expectations and are interested in full-time, long-term employment. Temporary and short-term employment options are becoming more desirable. Moving between employers and cities for career gains is becoming more common.
6. The regional workforce and population are aging. Employers are considering both succession planning and creative ways to retain senior employees.
7. The regional wages are lower, and under-employment more common. The regional wage base is lower than the Twin Cities resulting in some workers leaving and others choosing to trade increased pay for quality of life or lower cost of living.

Summit participants identified workforce and business development strategies and ranked them in order of importance:

1. Continuous skill development, lifelong learning, and development of educational options for incumbent workers as a primary means of strengthening the workforce. Educational options include: customized training, apprenticeships, internships, job shadowing, short-term programs, technological options that allow distance learning, and combinations of work and training that provide a balance between academic and hands on skills.
2. Partnerships and joint ventures between community based organizations, government, education, and business as a means to develop, fund and deliver educational options. Partnerships include: shared training program design, shared or pooled technological or funding resources, and shared sites.
3. Early career exploration and workforce preparation. Beginning in kindergarten and going through college, preparation includes: exploration, assessment, planning and skill building.
4. Development of a universally accepted set of basic and soft skills for new and incumbent workers. The skills include: basic computation, oral and written communications, customer relations, interpersonal practical time management, organization, software, and life.
5. Improved recruitment and retention initiatives. Recruitment initiatives include: promotion of the region's quality of life, cultural and recreational opportunities, and communities. Retention initiatives include: development of a common vision and goal to retain high school and college graduates and invest in current employees.
6. Strengthening the infrastructure to support working individuals and families. Infrastructure needs include: child care, health care, transportation, affordable housing, benefits packages and additional family recreational facilities.
7. Engagement of those currently unrepresented or under-represented in the workforce. Includes reaching out to: unemployed, communities of color, disabled, hard-to-employ, retired, and corrections populations.

1. Regulatory and structural changes, including: worker's compensation system, economic development system and energy regulation system.
2. An ongoing dialogue to promote community understanding. Including discussion of embracing change, need for political support of economic growth, need to neutralize negative competition, individual needs of the clusters, understanding of core government functions, and need to explore what others are doing.
3. Targeted growth, including: recruitment of larger businesses, encouragement of entrepreneurism and specific business clusters.

The meeting concluded with comments by Mr. Hale that minutes of the meeting would be sent out as would a mailing list of all of the participants so that members could continue the networking between local Workforce Council Chairs. Mr. Hale thanked all of the participants for their reports and asked whether there was an interest in meeting again on April 28 with the Governor’s Workforce Development Council members in a joint meeting on workforce development strategies in Minnesota. The 28th was suggested as a good date since by then the State and Local Workforce Investment Plans for the year beginning July 1 will be completed and the state legislative session should be completed.

Mr. Hale summarized what some of the key areas of interest seemed to be across all of the Local Workforce Councils:

1. What is "workforce development" and what is the role of the Local Council /State Council in supporting the community discussion?
2. Youth Councils: What is working especially well? What challenges remain?
3. Customer Focus: Who is the customer? What does it mean to focus on the customer when we also have to follow state and federal mandates?
4. Partnerships: What are they, what are we doing to make the challenges acceptable?
5. Marketing: What is a Workforce Center? How can we do a better job of marketing our statewide system? Why are our services still important even though we have record-low unemployment insurance (i.e., Why are we needed when there is a workforce shortage)?
6. Labor Market Information: The role of Local Labor Market Analysts and their work with the Local Workforce Councils.

Mr. Hale noted that he would encourage local council leaders with an interest in volunteering to help plan the April 28 joint meeting to notify Kathy Sweeney if interested. Kathy’s phone number is 651-296-3700; e-mail is ksweeney@ngwmail.des.state.mn.us.