Jobs With a Future

1. Jobs With a Future A Partnership for Job Quality, Lifelong Learning, and Private Sector Leadership

2. JWF by the Numbers • Delivered over 125 courses • Trained nearly 2,000 area workers • Served more than 100 companies in the region • Implemented worker retention and advancement strategies • Invested $2.25 million to improve training and workforce development • Developed systems to measure workforce development initiatives

3. A Successful Partnership Requires • A shared vision among collaborative public institutions and organizations • Active leadership from high quality local employers • Strong relationships between employers and institutions

4. JWF’s dual infrastructure of institutional and employer-based collaboration leads to tangible results for the region’s employers and workforce

5. How Employers Win “The partnership definitely makes it more feasible to send people to training. Sharing the cost really helps. I do think, from my standpoint, it comes back as value added.” -Sue Spitz, Sunny Industries, 2004 “One of the greatest benefits of the partnership was the ability to be in frequent contact with other [health care] agencies. Good for brainstorming and talking about strategies for overcoming common obstacles.” -health care firm By accessing training that is relevant & affordable By engaging in on-going cross-firm learning

6. How Employers Win “Getting to know people at the WDB & MATC, and hearing what they’re working on, and learning what is happening across the country, has inspired and challenged us. It has also given us connections to meet some of our needs in the future. I am so grateful to have had the chance to interact with people who are ‘in the know’ about state dollars and training in industry. What an invaluable asset to be able to connect with them.” -Marilee Crosby, Cardinal Glass, 2004 By building relationships with public-sector workforce development institutions & utilizing the resources they offer

7. How Workers Win “I got my CNA certification and have a better chance of getting a better job if I choose to.” By accessing training that prepares them for jobs in the local labor market By acquiring skills that improve confidence and boost job performance By building skills and advancing their wages and careers “I learned a more efficient and accurate way of doing my job.” “I now have a job I like with better wages.”

8. How the Public Sector Wins

9. JWF: Broad Lessons Learned • A high road economic and workforce development system requires joint “ownership” by stakeholders (employers, employees, public institutions); it must be led by business, but with public goals and clear metrics on achievement. • Relationship building is hard and requires a conditional commitment (pending success) of long-term investment in the shared partnership infrastructure. • That partnership really increases leverage, economies of scale and scope, and system reform; it’s worth building.

10. Moving Forward: GROW Grant Goals • To strengthen JWF’s partnership model in current and new industries, while extending membership to the Southwest WDB region • To establish, with added ED partners, a shared regional vision for inclusive growth and a clear EWD plan for achieving it • To build, without being overwhelmed by the task of building, more effective coping strategies for dislocation within the region • To document this process for use elsewhere