April 14, 2016 VO LUM E 1 1 | IS S UE 46
ArvadaPress.com J E F F E R S O N C O U N T Y, C O L O R A D O
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Colorado workforce demand in focus
A CELEBRATED COUPLE
A special report by Colorado Community Media Staff Report
The Arvada Chamber of Commerce’s Man and Woman of the Year, Jim and Jean Scharfenberg, are recognized at last week’s annual awards ceremony luncheon. The duo were recognized for 20 years of work with multiple volunteer efforts, including the start of the Arvada Food Bank. Photo by Glenn Wallace
New campus is well and on its way Red Rocks Community College Health Campus finish in sight By Crystal Anderson Canderson@coloradocommunitymedia.com A new educational facility is nearing completion, bringing with it a world of innovative health care instruction methods and technology to Arvada and the surrounding area. The Red Rocks Community College Health Campus remains on track to be built and ready for use for this fall’s enrollees. “We’re excited to be at the front of health care education with the IPE (Inter-professional education) and the science labs,” said Cathy Rock, construction manager for the facility. ”This community college has a lot of strengths ... What an opportunity it’s going to be for students.” Nine months ago, construction crews broke ground on a $22 million health sciences campus. This addition, which will be connected to the current Red Rocks Arvada campus building, is just three months away from completion.
With snow blowing in, security system installers work in all types of weather, keeping the new Red Rocks campus project on track. Photo by Crystal Anderson As of early April, the two-story facility is still on schedule. While major construction of the facility done, crews still have some work to go. Over the next
few weeks, crews will be still finishing placing drywall in few areas, have to Campus continues on Page 14
PLACES OF WORSHIP BATTER UP
Pomona gets the better part of Valor. Check out more baseball coverage on PAGE 18.
We offer an inside look at several of our community’s holy sites PAGE 12.
With the fourth-lowest unemployment rate in the nation, 3 percent, Colorado has made mountainous gains when it comes to economic development following the recession that struck in December 2007 and lingered for years. Businesses are flocking to the Centennial State, and Coloradans are finding work. But employers increasingly are finding it difficult to find the right workers to fill their jobs. Metro North Chamber of Commerce President Angela Habben said, at least in her organization’s part of the Denver area, the workforce isn’t meeting the market demand. “Either employers can’t find workers willing to do the job or they can’t find prospects with the training required to meet position qualifications,” she said.
WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT
Information technology, skilled trades among the careers in demand Simon Fox, deputy director of Business and Funding Initiatives for the Colorado Office of Economic Development and International Trade, said the demand is great for wokers in the fields of information technology and skilled trades. “There aren’t enough welders or carpenters,” he said. Democratic and Repbulican state lawmakers are working together to adMORE INSIDE dress this. The 10 bills comOn pages 6 and 7, prising a biparwe take a look at tisan package the Colorado Ready called Colorado to Work package, Ready to Work and at what is being are making their done now to train way through the the workforce in the Legislature. face of growing and The overchanging demand. riding theme is creating partnerships between the business and education communities, with the goal of developing a workforce that can meet Colorado’s growing and changing demands. For many business leaders, measures like these can’t be passed soon enough, given the massive growth the Denver metro area figures to see in coming years. “That’s a real supply-and-demand dilemma if we don’t act soon,” Habben said.