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Regional Industry-Driven Centers of Excellence as a Vehicle for Investment in Innovation

Regional Industry-Driven Centers of Excellence as a Vehicle for Investment in Innovation. Scott Sheely Lancaster County Workforce Investment Board Lancaster, PA “A Demand-Driven Incubator Site”. Industry Cluster Analysis.

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Regional Industry-Driven Centers of Excellence as a Vehicle for Investment in Innovation

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  1. Regional Industry-Driven Centers of Excellence as a Vehicle for Investment in Innovation Scott Sheely Lancaster County Workforce Investment Board Lancaster, PA “A Demand-Driven Incubator Site”

  2. Industry Cluster Analysis • Foundational for understanding what industries are important within the local industrial mix; • Which industries are growing and which are failing? • Which industries are growing good jobs? • In what career ladders should we invest?

  3. Moving to Action • Shared understanding and vision; • Action by policymakers to institutionalize the vision; • Give clear direction to the existing system that change is expected; • Begin changing the things that you control; • Start trying to influence what you don’t control.

  4. Concentrate on What You Can Do • Spend more time developing better intelligence about businesses; • Occupational information; • Career ladder mapping; • Skill mapping; • Really address employer relations with the right people; • Strategic; • Operational;

  5. Concentrate on What You Can Do • Focus on priority industries; • In contracting; • In the way one-stops are structured; • In bringing funding streams together; • Educate your staff; • Develop relationships; • Economic development; • Educators.

  6. Drilling Down • Industry cluster analysis is historical; • Problem facing most of America is how do companies stay competitive in the world marketplace…forward-looking; • Cost and process control will get us so far; • Innovation is the key; • New products; • New technologies; • New companies.

  7. Deep and Wide • Every cluster has a local competitive advantage; • Challenge is to identify what that is; • Need to build an innovation system that supports the competitive advantage; • Wide…all of the partners • Deep…concentrating on the right thing;

  8. Regional Industry-Driven Centers of Excellence • Centers of Excellence are normally attached to universities, hospitals, or government entities (NASA, NIH); • Our Centers focus on enhancing local competitive advantage; • Pulling together many actors to accomplish the task.

  9. Functions of a Center • Research and Development; • Technology Transfer; • Entrepreneurial Development; • Incumbent Worker Training; • Connection to K-12 and Higher Education for Career Ladder Development.

  10. Industry Clusters Health Care Biotechnology Ag and Food Communications Construction Metals and Metal Fabrication Automotive Centers Long-Term Care Packaging Poultry Sciences Construction Tech Hospitality and Customer Service Wood Finishing Automotive Tech In Lancaster County

  11. Structure of Centers • Part of Lancaster Prospers, a coalition of economic development partners in Lancaster County; • One of seven strategies; • Run by the WIB which functions as the administrative entity providing fiscal, staffing, and promotional support;

  12. Structure of Centers • Each has a host organization which may or may not be an educational institution; • Each has a Steering Committee which is entirely private sector and a Support Committee of everyone else; • Website is the public face of the organization.

  13. Wood Finishing • Competitive advantage of a large concentration (4,000+ employees) of high-end custom kitchen cabinet manufacturers (75+ employers); • Shortage of skilled finishers; • No established skills curriculum in companies or at schools; • R & D rests mostly with vendors.

  14. Wood Finishing • Steering Committee operational; • Contracted with company to develop curriculum in conjunction with a standard-setting organization…American Wood Finishing Institute; • Found R & D partners in ETAC, an EPA-oriented organization, and Penn State School of Forest Resources; • Networking with Hardwood Development Council; • Incumbent worker training consortium with six companies.

  15. Packaging Operations • Packaging is at the heart of the biotechnology and ag and food clusters in the area; • No packaging technology programs in the region; • Higher-end process control skill training not available at any institution; • R & D…big guys have it internally…little guys are at the mercy of vendors.

  16. Packaging Operations • Support Committee operational; • Hired two engineers to do assessment of capacity of schools to upgrade and of the state-of-the-art in packaging technology among companies; • Cooperating with NSF recipient in MN on curriculum development; • Hershey Foods driving force; • Three WIBs, ten county area; • 18-company Food Training Consortium already in place.

  17. What We’ve Learned • Think deep and wide…deep understanding of the industry…wide in terms of linkages with other entities; • Think beyond workforce to innovation; • Think beyond WIA in funding.

  18. For More Information Scott Sheely Executive Director Lancaster County Workforce Investment Board 313 W. Liberty St. Suite 114 Lancaster, PA 17603 717-735-0333 ssheely@paonline.com

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