Filling the Need

Collaboration among higher education, industry, states key to addressing workforce demands

BY KRIS BEVILL

Workforce shortages continue to be the most pressing issue for employers throughout the northern Plains. Continued strong economies have warranted expansions and new business growth, but a lack of workers has reached a critical point and poses a real threat to state and local economies if not addressed. Several factors are contributing to the issue, the most obvious being the low population density of the Dakotas and western Minnesota. There are simply not as many people as there are jobs. Secondly, new and expanding industries require employees with certain skill sets and there is a shortage of people trained to fill those jobs. Universities, research park leaders, private industry groups and government officials are all working to address the issue, which will require a widespread effort to resolve.

Working Together

North Dakota State University’s Research and Technology Park is currently working to develop a new strategic plan that will address the changing needs of the state. Kelly Rusch, vice president for research and creative activities at NDSU, says an updated plan is needed in order to lay out the park’s plans to grow with the university and determine its areas of research emphasis. NDSU and the research park are at inflection points after periods of growth and need to step back and evaluate what direction is best for the future, she says. The overall goal is to develop a plan that will mesh with other groups’ plans to address higher education and workforce needs, including the state and the Valley Prosperity Partnership. “We want to make sure we’re impacting the economic and social well-being of the state,” she says. “It’s an exciting time from that aspect.”

Rusch, who recently joined NDSU from Louisiana State University, says she believes research universities like NDSU are the best-equipped to be the “creators of new knowledge” and become actively engaged in their communities. This includes collaboration with the private sector, however, she notes that workforce training is a twoway process that is benefited by businesses becoming engaged in the education process through mentorships, sponsorships and educational enhancement activities.

“The best public-private partnerships at universities are when companies are engaged at many levels,” she says. Rusch points to Sanford Health as an example of multilevel collaboration with NDSU. The organization is collaborating with the university on a nursing program which includes a Centers of Excellence component and provides philanthropic support to the university’s athletics programs. Finally, and most importantly, it hires NDSU graduates.

Rusch believes those types of long-term public-private partnerships benefit both parties and can help to resolve the area’s workforce issues. She sees the research park’s role in the equation as being the bridge between the university and the community, drawing in entrepreneurs and providing an incubation center for new businesses, which may also eventually become long-term supporters of the university.

Bruce Gjovig, director of the Center for Innovation at the University of North Dakota, was one of several representatives from area research centers to attend a symposium held by the NDSU Research and Technology Park in December to address higher education’s role in continuing the state’s prosperity. He says he fully supports a sug- gestion made at the event to shift the focus of research parks away from essentially being real estate developers and instead focusing on collaboration with industry. “I think sometimes there has been too much emphasis placed on buildings and real estate development and not understanding that a tech park is really a place for partnerships,” he says. Likewise, he supports continued and expanded collaboration between research centers like the Center for Innovation in Grand Forks and the research and tech park in Fargo, and increased collaboration between universities and the private sector. “We certainly have been [collaborating]. The question is, are we doing enough of it? I think there’s an expectation there that we need to do considerably more.”

One strategy suggested to foster more frequent collaboration between business and universities that Gjovig supports is the creation of a partnership concierge. With a concierge nurturing relationships between the two parties and bringing them together on a regular basis, Gjovig predicts that more collaboration would occur, potentially resulting in more frequent and effective program develop- ment to serve industry needs and more frequent private industry financial support for education institutions.

State Support

The North Dakota state legislature approved funding this year for a program that supports public-private research partnerships with the intent of leveraging university expertise for economic development and to encourage the growth and diversification of the state’s economy. Research ND is being implemented through the commerce department and has been funded with $12 million to disperse in grants to universities and research parks for projects carried out in partnership with the private sector. Of the total funds available, $2 million is designated to support the commercialization of intellectual property developed at the state’s research universities through spinoffs or startups, $4 million is devoted to biotech-related projects and the remaining $6 million can be doled out for R&D and commercialization projects related to private sector in any industry. The program will provide matching funds to universities for approved proj- ects, capping at $300,000 per non-biotech project and $1 million for biotech projects.

Jolynne Tschetter, commercialization manager for the commerce department, says just three applications were received for the first funding round in November but she expects many more applications will be received for the February round as more businesses will have had time to sign partnering agreements with universities and prepare their projects. Funding rounds will continue to close every three months until the program’s funds are exhausted. Tschetter says she has noticed significant private industry interest in the program and hopes that many North Dakota companies participate.

Additionally, the department has been allocated $500,000 in funding from Research ND to administratively fund projects up to $50,000. “So if a company has a piece of equipment or part fail or they are a startup and need research help, if they have matching funds they can apply and it can be approved within a matter of days rather than wait through the application and approval process,” she says. “If you’re in a time crunch, you don’t have time to wait. This was a way to be as responsive as we could to the needs of the private sector.”

Ask and React

Dwaine Chapel, executive director of the Research Park and South Dakota State University, says the research park there has begun focusing more on recruitment efforts in partnership with the university in response to the state’s workforce shortage. “What we’re looking at is not only the research that needs to take place and working with industries and the university, but also talking to some of our local industry leaders and asking them what some of the key positions are they need to fill,” he says.

SDSU’s research park has also had some success in attracting businesses to the area to hire local workers that already have the skills they required. One example is a Chicago-based company that had been hiring graduates from the Dakotas, but found that it was eventually losing those employees because they were returning to their home states. “After a lot of discussions, we worked out a deal where they expanded their company to the research park,” Chapel says. “This summer they brought on four interns. Out of that they hired two people and they’re looking to hire an additional four this spring.”

Another example of adapting industry to meet workforce supply is the pharmacy industry, according to Chapel. He says SDSU graduates about 100 pharmacy students every semester, but there are no jobs for them in South Dakota. The research park could play a role in attracting companies to the state that could provide jobs for those workers, he says.

Private Role

Private universities also see the need for expanded partnerships between their institutions and private industry to address needed skills training. In June, Bismarck, N.D.-based University of Mary named Lindsie Schoenack as director of business partnerships and continuing education to focus on that aspect of higher learning and build relationships with area businesses in need of specialized training. This month, another staff member will join the effort and will focus specifically on working with businesses in western North Dakota. “The biggest thing we can do as an organization is meet needs,” Schoenack says. “We always ask our partners what they need and what we can do to help them.”

One of the university’s first such partnerships was formed through an academic alliance signed last year with Microsoft. The university is collaborating with Barnesville, Minn.-based Stoneridge Software to offer Dynamics AX training to Microsoft partners, which is expected to help fill the need for AX certified personnel throughout the country. The university was able to develop and launch the program on a rapid timeline, partially because private universities need only their board of directors’ approval to do so compared to the more cumbersome public university approval system, according to Schoenack. She says the university approved moving ahead with the Microsoft training program because it fit well with the university’s recent focus on continuing education and because it offered a good return on investment for the institution.

Another course being developed by the university in conjunction with private industry will focus on project management for a specific skillset. Schoenack says the course is in response to a request from a company that is finding difficulty in filling those specific roles. The resulting project management course will be unique in that it will be developed for open enrollment, but will include a job shadow requirement for that company, enabling it to more easily recruit new workers with the desired skill set. Schoenack says the university wants to work more frequently with private industry and develop more programs of a similar nature. “I suspect those are the types of things we are going to be focusing on — not only in getting the degree seeking, but helping the employer fill their workforce with educated individuals and people who show an affinity for that area,” she says.

Start Young

In his 2014 State of the State address, S.D. Gov. Dennis Daugaard noted that the state’s December unemployment rate fell to 3.6 percent, making it the second lowest unemployment rate of any state in the nation. North Dakota continues to have the nation’s lowest unemployment rate. And like its neighbor to the north, South Dakota continues to battle workforce shortages. Daugaard addressed that topic during his speech and presented a plan to revise the state’s existing strategy focused on recruiting and training indemand workers. The program, known as South Dakota WINS, focuses on youth preparation, technical education/skilled jobs training, rural health care and recruitment of trained workers. Daugaard says the program has been effective so far, but “it’s a continuous effort. It’s not a one-and-done approach.”

Daugaard places special emphasis on beginning workforce training at the high school level so that those students may be more likely to pursue in-demand careers within the state. State programs focused on that effort include SDMyLife.com, a website designed to provide information about various careers, average salaries, education costs and training opportunities. “It’s sort of a career primer,” he says. “We’re not trying to require anybody to do anything, but we try to make sure students make decisions that are informed.” Daugaard is also encouraging more dual credit opportunities for high schoolers. Those types of programs can make it easier for students to graduate from college on time and reduce the cost of tuition, he says.

The South Dakota Board of Regents recently released an analysis of placement outcomes for the state’s university graduates and found that more than 70 percent of in-state students remain in South Dakota post-graduation compared to 30 percent of out-of-state students. The board noted that sustaining and improving placement rates of out-of-state post-grads will be key to the state’s workforce development efforts. Daugaard says he would like to see both in-state and out-of-state placement rates grow. However, considering the significantly higher rate of in-state placements currently, the state is emphasizing homegrown workforce recruitment. One advantage for in-state students historically has been lower tuition rates and that will likely continue this year as Daugaard has proposed a tuition freeze for in-state students only. He did not suggest freezing tuition rates for out-of-state students because those rates are already relatively low and because evidence suggests that if the state wants to build its workforce, existing residents are the best bet. “Obviously we’d like to keep all tuition low whether in-state or out-ofstate,” he says. “[However], if you had to decide what’s your better likelihood of a South Dakota worker, it’s probably more likely that an in-state student will stay and work in South Dakota than an out-of-state student.”

Further evidence supporting the success ratio of recruiting from within versus attracting from elsewhere is another of the South Dakota WINS programs. New South Dakotans, aimed at attracting trained workers from other areas of the country, has admittedly not worked as planned, Daugaard says. While some workers have relocated from high unemployment areas to South Dakota, the program has not been nearly as successful as another program called Dakota Roots, which focuses on contacting people who have previously lived in South Dakota and enticing them to move back.

Daugaard looks to higher education institutions to manage their own recruitment efforts and collaborate with private industry to create in-demand training programs. He says he believes the schools are making every effort to be relevant to industry and meet their needs. To encourage greater collaboration and further develop strategies to address the statewide workforce shortage, Daugaard will be traveling throughout the state this spring to meet with higher education and business leaders as well as economic development officials to discuss specific issues in preparation for a statewide workforce summit to be held later this year. PB

Kris Bevill Editor, Prairie Business 701-306-8561, kbevill@prairiebizmag.com