The Lancaster County Workforce Investment Board‘s program has been so effective that it has been the recipient of 8-10% of the state’s Industry Partnership funding in the last few years. Last month, the WIB received an additional $990,000 through several grants from the Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry to further support the productive Industry Partnerships.

“We’re one of a few states in the United States where there’s actually state money that’s put into funding incumbent worker training in an attempt to make companies competitive in the global marketplace,” said Scott Sheely, the Lancaster County WIB’s executive director.

The latest awards will help fund incumbent worker training in production agriculture, renewable energy, long-term care practice, manufacturing, and other key regional industries. Funds will also go to local Centers of Excellence, which focus on training as well as research and development, technology transfer, and entrepreneurial endeavors.

The thriving partnerships and training have been supported by EMSI’s labor market data and analysis. Sheely, who was responsible for putting the grant applications together, included EMSI’s 10-year industry and occupation projections as well as new and replacement numbers (which take into account retirements and other turnover). These datasets give the full employment picture for the region.

The data also help determine high-priority occupations, an important step because training funds can only be used to develop career paths for pre-identified occupations. Much of this process is determined by the state but workforce practitioners are able to give their local input as well. EMSI’s dataset allows Sheely to pinpoint other important, high-performing occupations in his region that may have been overlooked.

“A lot of times what will happen is that the percentage of jobs that will need to be hired in the next 10 years would increase by 20% because of retirement in certain industries,” Sheely explained. “That gives us enough data that we can go back to the state and say, ‘Purely on the basis of this unique data we would like to include (this occupation).’ We usually petition between 60 and 80 occupations beyond what the state automatically approves for us. So that’s a big deal, and having the independent data source is really the only way we could do it.”

More on the grant can be found at the Lancaster County WIB site here. For more from Sheely on developing the right industry focus, click here.

You can find the video below, or you can click here to watch it. For more info, email Josh Stevenson.

Illustration by Mark Beauchamp

By Scott Sheely, Executive Director
Lancaster County Workforce Investment Board

Background

For many years employment in US manufacturing has been in sharp decline. Domestic manufacturers have scaled back, outsourced, or just plain closed down. As a result, US manufacturing has become the “less desirable” industry sector for many workforce boards, economic developers, training providers, and workers themselves. However, in recent times a number of various factors (technology improvements, “inshoring,” and a weak dollar, among others) have changed the face of domestic manufacturing, making it more profitable and productive. As a result, in some regions manufacturers are looking to hire and are having great difficulty finding good potential employees—even amidst high unemployment. This seems to indicate that while the general operations of many manufacturers have changed, the approach to training has not.

This is the situation in south central Pennsylvania, where, despite the recession, our manufacturing sector, which is represented by food processors, packagers, printers, wood products firms, and even biotech has remained very productive and in constant need of qualified employees.

So, as workforce developers, how can we get ourselves up-to-date and assist our ever-changing manufacturing sector? As a general rule, I have found that it’s a relatively simple process. First, be very familiar with the needs, wants, and activities of local industry and second, develop training that directly addresses their needs.

With this in mind, I want to talk a little bit more about how the Lancaster County Workforce Investment Board has been working to address the broad needs of our local manufacturing companies. The results of our efforts have led to significant improvements in the quality and the transferability of skills of our workforce, the satisfaction of our industries with the people we train, and the effectiveness of our investment of public money. I believe our findings could be particularly relevant and useful to many other communities struggling to know what to do about manufacturing.

Why Manufacturing?

Before I get to that, some of you might be wondering, “Why should we continue to focus on manufacturing?”

Here are a few reasons:

• First, these industries are often the source of what I like to call “gold-collar jobs,” which are generally higher-skill, higher-wage, and high-demand occupations.

• Second, these jobs tend to have high “ripple” or multiplier effects. Manufacturing is such a unique industry because it’s almost entirely an export industry. Its products/services are shipped to other regions, states and nations, and when that happens, money from those areas comes back into the local community. This is very important to the local economy because the outside dollars will be spent by the manufacturers on supplies, services, and wages that will drive employment in many other sectors—places like doctors’ offices, grocery stores, and city hall.

• Finally, while it’s true that domestic manufacturing is scaling back on workers, it’s also true that the industry as a whole is becoming more efficient. This means that while employers might need fewer employees, the ones they keep will generally be responsible for more and as a result will be in much higher demand.

The big point here is that if we want to make the wisest investments in training that will lead to greater community prosperity, we need to focus on those sectors that drive money into the community, provide good employment, and are being demanded by the larger economy (i.e., sectors that export goods). Manufacturing is one of those region-driving sectors.

Finding and Understanding the Key Skill Sets

So to really help our local manufacturers we needed to get a better understanding of their skills needs. After many conversations, we generally found that they need people who are “broader-based,” with more troubleshooting abilities. This was interesting because it goes beyond the scope of more traditional machine operators or industrial maintenance occupations.  So we determined that manufacturers overwhelmingly need a skill set that can both service and maintain the increasingly sophisticated automated equipment that is driving domestic manufacturing.

Our research led us to a skill set called “mechatronics,” which has become a generally accepted occupation in Europe and is growing in recognition here in the states. So what is mechatronics? According to Keith Campbell, Project Manager for the Mid-Atlantic Mechatronics Advisory Committee and the Industrial Maintenance Center of Pennsylvania, mechatronics is “. . . the synergistic application of mechanical engineering, electrical engineering, control engineering, and computer science to make useful products.” Mechatronics effectively expands the traditional skill sets of mechanical and electrical engineering found in industrial maintenance to include more high-tech skills commonly associated with electronics and computer networking.

We were very pleased to find this, but realized it would need to be refined to address the specific needs of our local employers. This refining involved three key steps.

First, we needed to understand how and why mechatronics was originally developed. While the Europeans coined the term, training for mechatronics in the United States has several origins. First, several years ago Amatrol, an Indiana-based curriculum development company, in partnership with the US Department of Labor and Midwestern companies, pioneered the development of an “Advanced Manufacturing Integrated System Technology” certificate to better address the skills needs of domestic manufacturers. The program was first implemented as a certificate and is now offered at more than a dozen Midwestern community colleges and several in Pennsylvania.

Next, we took this knowledge of how mechatronics was currently being used and meshed it with what we were learning locally. First, only a small percentage of the manufacturer’s employees actually find their way to the job through formal education. Most follow a career path from machine operator or an alternative path out of manufacturing trades such as millwright, machinist, or welder.  Second, local manufacturers were needing workers with more of a “systems view” into solving problems—essentially a multi-skilled problem-solver who could handle the four or more individual disciplines often needed to solve complicated machine operations problems and, in the process, reduce downtime, and increase productivity.

Finally, we took this info and worked with Reading Area Community College (RACC) to develop an associate’s degree in Mechatronics Engineering Technology (MET), one of the first of its kind in the United States. The new degree used the Advanced Manufacturing Integrated System Technology certificate as its credential and the Amatrol online curriculum as its base with a little additional region-specific content. Since we created the program, John DeVere, Dean of Workforce and Economic Development at RACC, has also developed a way to give academic credit for training that begins in the non-credit workforce education world for incumbent workers, dislocated workers, or emerging workers, and the Berks and Lancaster County Workforce Investment Boards have also created a consortium of 35-plus industry partners and secured funding to provide the training to incumbent employees at participating companies.

The Result

Since the program was implemented three years ago, 250-plus incumbent workers have been trained. We currently have about 35 dislocated workers enrolled in the program. The actual training is provided via online instruction and is followed by practice and evaluation in fully-equipped simulation laboratories at RACC and the Lancaster County Career and Technology Center.  Students from local high schools may also start the program in their senior year, using the articulations with RACC to get advanced standing at the community college. Finally, for the past year we have been using our ARRA funds to provide this in-demand training to a substantial number of dislocated workers.

Can it be Replicated?

As more and more people have become familiar with our success, many have asked if the program could be replicated. For help with this, we reached out to the Packaging Machinery Manufacturers Institute (PMMI). As an industry, packaging is one of the highest-volume users of automated equipment in the nation. PMMI was interested in our offer and helped to organized a meeting in Indiana to bring educators from Pennsylvania, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Indiana, and North Carolina together to identify latest skills needs for the automation industries.

After the input was collected, PMMI and the Industrial Maintenance Training Center of Pennsylvania began working with the US Department of Labor to build a Mechatronics Competency Model as a part of the Competency Model Clearinghouse. That model defines competencies from basic skills in manufacturing to much more specific occupational skills such as mechatronics. It was approved and added to the Clearinghouse earlier in 2009.  See http://www.careeronestop.org/competencymodel/ for more information.

In the midst of all this, we realized that the mechatronics engineering technologist occupation had yet to be defined in the Standard Occupational Classification (SOC) system. So we contacted the Department of Labor and the folks who run O*NET, which is an occupational database operated by the US Department of Labor, to see what we could do to further inform their research and get this occupation officially recognized.

To build our case, we turned to Economic Modeling Specialists Inc. (EMSI), which helped to develop a definition of an MET. EMSI used information derived from existing profiles for industrial machinery mechanics, machinists, and electrical and electronic repairers of commercial and industrial equipment, and built a profile that includes mechanical, engineering, electronics, and information technology knowledge; troubleshooting, installation, repairing, and complex problem-solving skills; and abilities to visualize, communicate orally and in written form, and reason in complex situations. We think that this definition has really hit the nail on the head and are now in the process of validating the definition with industry experts.

In the process, one of our colleagues in Colorado noticed that the knowledge, skills, and abilities seemed to have a lot of similarities with other occupations—careers related to industrial maintenance, renewable energy, industrial operations technology, water quality management, and environmental engineering. We agreed and had EMSI compare the competencies of METs with more than 25 careers in these other industries.

What we found verified our gut feeling. The competencies of virtually every occupation were at least 80% compatible with the competencies of an MET.

Why is Mechatronics so Important?

We believe these findings are very significant for a number of reasons.

• First, the training for METs has a very high degree of skill compatibility to a large and expanding pool of occupations in various fields (including green). This is very encouraging given the need to retrain and advise incumbents, dislocated workers, and new workers about solid job opportunities in tough economic times.

• Second, the overlap of skills means that the curricula developed in our education and training could be used in multiple career paths and to support a wide range of occupations related to manufacturing industries. This means more career mobility for the trainees as they complete training.

• Finally, because these data help educational programs address multiple career paths at the same time, workforce and education professionals can be much more sophisticated about how we talk with the users and potential users of education and training so that programs and skills are tweaked to meet the specific needs of regional industry.

With the help of EMSI, we have been able to add substantial depth to the work that we are doing in mechatronics. Our new understanding will allow us to use significant parts of the curriculum that we put into place over the last several years to develop new career paths leading to “gold-collar” jobs in our regional economy.

Illustration: Mechatronics Techs and Renewable Energy

To illustrate the value of a mechatronics tech’s skill level, the graphic provides a skills comparison between mechatronics techs (the colored bars) and a group of potential renewable energy occupations (HVAC, electricians, construction managers). For the most part the skills areas are highly compatible. The largest gaps mainly seem to be in the soft areas (management, customer service, oral and written expression), which would probably relate to the business aspect of the occupations. A large gap in the building and construction area makes sense.

For more information, email Scott Sheely or call him at 717-735-0333.

Click here for the case study in PDF format

RWA Looks at Demand-Side Competency Needs

Over the past few years Milwaukee-area employers, education providers, and workforce/economic development professionals have come to agree that the region’s approach to workforce training needs an update. The old system relied on helping jobseekers attain degrees or certificates rather than communicating with businesses about the sorts of competencies (knowledge, skills, and abilities, or KSAs) they really need.

To pave the way to a new workforce development strategy, a collaboration of southeastern Wisconsin organizations known as the Regional Workforce Alliance developed a unique and comprehensive “competency” study to take a closer look at the area’s skills needs.

An Example

To illustrate the importance of a new workforce training approach, Patricia Adrian—RWA’s research specialist/project manager—uses an example of an opening for a crew leader at a local production facility. The job calls for a college degree and project management certification, and a few area educational institutions help workers attain these certificates. But when it comes time to apply, qualified job applicants “don’t ‘feel’ right for the position,” Adrian says. After making the hire, the employer realizes its new crew leader has not been adequately trained, so it is faced with two options—reopen the job search or perform unplanned on-the-job training.

Adrian sums up the situation this way, “The employee is frustrated by their limitations when it seemed they had all the right qualifications. Educational institutions continue their existing programs of study, unaware that their students/graduates are falling short in the eyes of community businesses.”

By switching the focus to competencies rather than educational attainment, businesses can more easily find employees that fulfill their job requirements and workers can be more flexible in an uncertain job market.

EMSI Works with RWA to Identify Focus Industries and In-Demand Competencies

To accomplish this new vision, EMSI and project partners I-Open and Regionerate worked with RWA to:

• Explore a broad range of industries and occupations and understand their overall impact and importance to the nine-county region, which included northeastern Illinois;
• Organize the target occupations into either “production” occupations (those that are more technically oriented) or “service” occupations (those that are more socially oriented) to get a sense of the general orientation of the workers in the region;
• Analyze the competencies of the target occupations (using EMSI’s Career Pathways tool) to come up with an understanding of the relevant competencies (a.k.a. KSAs) for the region.
• Focus on how the core competencies can help planners in the postsecondary education system develop career pathways and guides for career transitions.

Visualizing the Data

A part of the analysis that a lot of people found interesting was that work that EMSI did with “radar charts,” which help decision-makers actually “see” the core competencies of occupations under consideration. According to Mike Mortell, RWA WIRED coordinator, “The radar charts really tell the story. You could see the skills that are needed for different careers, different occupations. … I just think it’s a powerful tool.”

The charts are just one component of what Mortell and Adrian hope will be a springboard to develop a common language that employers, educators, and workforce boards can use for linking students to jobseekers via the appropriate skills and knowledge. Applications for the data and charts include at career guidance level in high schools, one-stop job centers, and among program developers at colleges.

“We need new ways of communicating the complex competencies—knowledge, skills, and abilities—that characterize emerging occupations and new career pathways,” wrote Ed Morrison, a partner on the project and member of the Purdue Center for Regional Development. He and others contend that the work done with RWA is a good first step in the challenging process.

The RWA competency study can be viewed here.

If you are interested in a similar project for your region, contact Hamilton Galloway, EMSI’s consulting manager, at hamilton@economicmodeling.com or call 208.883.3500.

Click here for a PDF version of this piece.

Illustration by Mark Beauchamp

Introduction

Over the past year, EMSI has been fielding questions from local planners (workforce boards, community colleges, and economic developers) on how to look at green jobs, particularly at the regional level. To respond, we’ve been doing our best to link labor market information (LMI) to potential green sectors (e.g., renewable energy, energy efficiency, green construction, etc.) so people can gain an understanding of trends, earnings, education levels, and even things like skills associated with “green occupation clusters” in their own economies. In doing so, we have made three general observations:

1. Many of these jobs are going to fall within the construction and manufacturing sectors (e.g., welders, roofers, HVAC installers, etc.),
2. Based on a lack of understanding, concrete information, and large scale demand, “green jobs” can be a very difficult development mission for local planners, and
3. It is vital to speak “from the data” as much as possible for the basic reason that if plans are being made on tenuous assumptions that cannot be supported, real people’s lives, careers, and families could be harmed.

Our purpose in this piece is to examine these observations at a little more length—especially with regard to regional economic and workforce development. So let’s start with a little frame of reference. In an earlier piece we mentioned that much of the thought behind green jobs has sprung from groups like the Center for American Progress, which have been integral in getting these policies pushed to the forefront. To illustrate, last year the Center’s CEO, John Podesta, wrote (in reference to the recession),

At the same time, we face a growing climate crisis that will require us to rapidly invest in new energy infrastructure, cleaner sources of power, and more efficient use of electricity and fuels in order to cut global warming pollution. There is much work to be done in building smart solutions at a scale and speed that is bold    enough to meet this gathering challenge.

It is time for a new vision for the economic revitalization of the nation and a restoration of American leadership in the world. We must seize this precious opportunity to mobilize the country and the international community toward a brighter, more prosperous future. At the heart of this opportunity is clean energy, remaking the vast energy systems that power the nation and the world. We must fundamentally change the way we produce and consume energy and dramatically reduce our dependence on oil. The economic opportunities provided by such a transformation are vast, not to mention the national security benefits of reducing oil dependence and the pressing need to fight global warming. The time for action is now.

This “requirement to invest” in cleaner energy to “cut global warming pollution” rests on an assumption that global warming represents an imminent threat—meaning that nothing should preempt a rapid, decisive response. The actual “investment” in clean energy and things like training are going to be made largely by the federal government via tax dollars collected from American businesses/taxpayers.

Now given the recession, job loss, and our nation’s otherwise dismal financial condition, many are questioning the continued emphasis on things like green jobs, climate change, and cap-and-trade legislation. In recent months we have seen a sizable push back against some of this policy. For instance, certain industry sectors (e.g., agriculture) have voiced economic concerns about “going green.” According to Green Inc., a New York Times blog on energy and environmental issues, the American Farm Bureau issued a memo that says:

Climate change bills in both the Senate and the House will impact our farmers and ranchers, hit America’s consumers and impair the economy of our nation. For farmers and ranchers, it will mean higher fuel and fertilizer costs, which puts us at a competitive disadvantage in international markets with other countries that do not have similar carbon emission restrictions. For the future prosperity of the U.S. economy and American agriculture, climate change legislation must be defeated by Congress.

At its core, the memo indicates a growing concern that new cap-and-trade legislation would have significant adverse impacts on the agricultural economy and, as a direct result, on many rural communities, heavily dependent on agriculture for their livelihood.

In addition, some local workforce/education professionals in charge of industry-oriented training programs that support areas like manufacturing have their own set of concerns about green initiatives. Our example, which comes from Inside Higher Ed, makes the following statement:

As the Obama administration talks up its “green jobs” initiatives, some leaders in workforce development are concerned that more traditional skill trades within the manufacturing and construction fields are being deemphasized by community colleges looking for federal dollars to support newfangled programs.

Among those worried are advocacy groups like the American Welding Society.

“The American Welding Society gets concerned when we see Congress act, as it did this year, to discontinue funding for proven programs like the National Science Foundation’s Advanced Technical Training programs in favor of brand new ‘green jobs’ education,” said Ross Hancock, the group’s spokesman, noting that the vote to discontinue has only passed the House so far. “That’s because, right now, there is a shortage of skilled welders in this country, with welders retiring twice as fast as new ones enter the workforce. This trend is having a critical effect on our ability to compete in both ‘green’ and traditional industries.”

Our general observation here is that there is a certain level of tension between “national policies” and what can be thought of as “regional interests.” This tension seems to arise from how a national policy initiative would or could impinge on the economic interests of a region. This sort of thing doesn’t seem all that uncommon—regional development interests often find themselves at odds with national policy initiatives based on issues like economics, job creation, and local beliefs and values.

A third and final example that typifies the tension between green development and economic concerns comes from a Gallup poll, which indicates that the recession has dried up some of the support for increased environmental regulation. According to Gallup’s Editor and Chief, Frank Newport,

Right now, Americans are more concerned about the economy than the environment…The politician who says, ‘I’m going to cripple jobs and shut down factories’ would be in trouble in this economy.

The poll supports the notion that economic growth and environmental protection are not mutually exclusive. In recent decades, the United States, which is home to the world’s foremost “capitalistic” thinkers, has certainly become a great champion of environmental issues. After all, the US is home to some of the most advanced environmental regulation (Clean Water Act, Clean Air Act, RCRA, Endangered Species Act, etc.), as well as countless national and community-based organizations that emphasize protection, stewardship, and conservation of the environment. Furthermore, huge, multi-national corporations (like GE, Apple, and IBM) never fail to mention something about how their company cares about the environment and makes “Product X” using only the most environmentally responsible practices/materials.

However, since the recession started, there has been a tangible push back against increased environmental regulation. Above all, this seems to be indicating that our ability to be environmentally conscious stems from our overall economic stability. Economics and environmental regulation need to find a way to exist harmoniously. If one makes the other unstable, they both will eventually become unsustainable. Destroying the environment will ultimately kill economic development. Over-regulation also will ultimately kill economic growth and development. If you have no economy at all, you will have no money to support environmental interests.

So we find ourselves at a crossroads between two competing points of view—one that thinks that we need to restore economic stability before we deal with environmental issues, and one that believes that if we don’t address environmental concerns right now, we are forfeiting our future. With these things in mind, we want to delve into three areas which (at least in our minds) illustrate why local interests are sometimes at odds with green development.

Note: If you have found that “green” has really helped your local development efforts, please let us know how and why. It would be a great encouragement to others who are feeling their way through this new and expanding area.

*Click below for the remaining sections of the op-ed:

First Observation

Second Observation

Third Observation and Final Remark

Cultivating a robust regional workforce for Georgia’s fastest-growing industries is the crux of the Work Ready Regions program developed by the Governor’s Office of Workforce Development. The initiative identifies the needs of businesses in regions of all sizes throughout Georgia and seeks to match those employers with appropriately skilled workers.

A key element of the grant-funded program is EMSI’s labor market data and occupational skills analysis. Steven Wilson, Work Ready Region Coordinator, uses EMSI to locate emerging and declining occupations inside the six fastest-growing industries in the state — aerospace, advanced communications, advanced manufacturing, bioscience, energy, and logistics. He also analyzes occupational competencies (knowledge, skills, and abilities) to see where displaced workers could transfer from struggling to healthy occupations with extra training and what programs exist in the area to accommodate that training. “Our main focus has been looking at occupations that are declining overall,” Wilson explains. “Textiles have been declining for four or five years now. And in those areas, we have a couple auto manufacturing plants that we’re trying to look to transition those textile workers into advanced manufacturing jobs.”

With EMSI’s region-specific data, Wilson has a starting point to work with technical colleges and the Georgia university system. Depending on the grant awarded, he could be partnering with a three-county region or 14-county area. Wilson says local practitioners throughout the state verify EMSI’s labor market data is accurate, even in remote parts of the state. “It’s uncanny with the more rural areas,” he says.

The site provides a portal for regional career pathways in health care and a soon-to-be-available look at advanced manufacturing. Included in the portal are projected regional jobs openings and wages using EMSI’s dataset.

For more info on Thrive, check out the “About” page on the new site.

According to the study completed by the Workforce Boards of Metropolitan Chicago, 43% of the region’s jobs are of the middle-skill variety — that is, jobs that require some post-high school training or education but less than a bachelor’s degree. The report used EMSI data to compile regional labor market figures, education and training requirements, and anticipated earnings for a broad range of middle-skill occupations. “We really do credit EMSI in being able to get that data at a regional level to be able to produce the study,” says Jennifer Stasch, Executive Director for the Workforce Board of Northern Cook County and a member of the regional consortium.

The metro Chicago report comes in response to a Skills2Compete study, “America’s Forgotten Middle-Skill Jobs,” and the Obama administration’s challenge for every American to commit to at least one of year postsecondary education or training. It highlights EMSI projections that estimate 8% growth for middle-skill jobs from 2009-2014 in the metro Chicago area. Further, 41% of all new jobs in the region are projected to be middle-skill.

Although the highest demand among associate degree-holders is in the registered nursing field, one goal of the report is to show the variety of sectors outside of health care that need middle-skill labor. The highest-earning jobs include Correctional officers and jailers ($39 per hour) and Operating engineers ($35 an hour). Both occupations require, on average, moderate-term on-the-job training.

Observes Stasch, “We believe middle-skill jobs are the jobs that the workforce system, specifically WIA, is in position to support and train for in a relatively short amount of time. So we thought it was important to share that information with our workforce system.”

Click here to read the full study.

The new self-service tool combines regional labor market data and current job postings with occupational compatibility analysis and a list of local training providers in a web-based format so jobseekers can find new opportunities. To use the tool, jobseekers simply plug in their desired occupation, wage level, and maximum commute distance, and Job Finder produces a detailed report. “It doesn’t get any easier than plugging in the name and information and job-finding the job title that matches,” Shutler says. “You’ve got the match right there. So it’s very simple to use.”

Shutler, who works at an access point for Richland County OneStop job services  on the NCSC campus in Mansfield, advises between 8-10 dislocated workers each week. During these one-on-one meetings, he uses Job Finder “to get some ammunition or talking points to our discussion about where to go next from here,” he says. He also has begun to use the tool in career workshops. 

Regardless if Shutler is counseling a large group or an individual jobseeker, Job Finder has provided value by giving dislocated workers a realistic, data-driven look at what’s happening in the labor market. According to Shutler, “It helps them look at the data and understand, ‘Wow, there’s such limited growth in what I’ve done that maybe I really do need to be thinking about something new.’ ” If that’s the case, Job Finder recommends alternate occupations that require compatible skill sets and are at the same or better wage level.

For more on North Central State’s career services, click here. And for more on Job Finder, including a short video, follow this link.

TCTC has put Job Finder throughout its Career Services and WIA offices so individual jobseekers can explore new career opportunities based on the best available information. According to Chris Marino, Director of Institutional Research at TCTC, staff members have found the tool to be “very straightforward. They sincerely like the suggestion of complementary (occupation) options and the links to the jobs postings.”

The job listings and regional labor market information inside Job Finder also have been useful for evaluating TCTC offerings. If a program at the school doesn’t place a specific percentage of graduates into jobs in that field, it goes on probation. Part of the process for removing a program from probation is indicating local labor market demand. “Over the next five years there might be 150 openings [in welding], but there are 56 job listings right now,” Marino says. “Our program review people have found that to be compelling.”