Training programs essential for workforce development

BY DWAINE CHAPEL

Workforce recruitment is an ongoing concern for our growing economy. In South Dakota, local, regional and statewide programs have been developed to provide workforce training and development.

Dakota Seeds is an internship and assistantship program established to create a pipeline of employees. The internship is directed at undergraduate students whereas the assistantships focus on creating opportunities for graduate students. The program has had excellent success, creating 384 opportunities for students since its inception in 2008.

The Governor’s Office of Economic Development has also created a training program that encourages wage increases for employees through skills enhancement training. The application is extremely user friendly, allowing the businesses to partner with the state in a dollar for dollar match for its training program. The training is available for new and existing employees. The state may provide up to $1,000 per employee.

Regional community colleges and tech schools have also provided accessible development opportunities for business and industry. As an example, Madison, S.D., partnered with Lake Area Tech Institute to develop a community welding lab. This lab has been responsible for certifying over 100 welders, enhancing their skills and increasing their wages.

Looking into the future, communities may need to look at a combination of different industry sectors to develop its workforce. A community may need to gather its business and industry leaders to determine common skill sets needed across industry sectors. The process can help determine what skills the available workforce may be lacking and how to raise the skill sets above industry standards. Once the common needs are determined, a baseline of those skill sets can be established. As the data is collected over time, trends can be monitored to assist in continued improvement of the process. Initially this may appear to be an overwhelming task. However, if data is systematically gathered, the workforce needs of the community can be monitored and aggressively developed. For example, occupational skills training and educational skills training are two key areas of need for most communities. Technical skills to operate computerized equipment are another priority skill set. Workforce software programs exist to assist in the development of this process.

One way to understand the workforce development process is to compare it to baseball’s minor league development system. The minor leagues provide education, skills training and development of its players (employees) so that they perform more effectively and efficiently in the major leagues. The minor leagues are divided into several classifications: Triple-A, Double-A, and Single-A. Each classification depicts a level of knowledge and ability to play the game. Each classification may represent a progressive increase in responsibility and pay for business and industry employees.

A community would also be able to classify its skill set needs accordingly. Training and education can be developed to adhere to each defined classification. The baseline can be developed by business and industry. Community economic development corporations can assist by systematically collecting the data. This type of strategy would provide a clear path to success and long-term recruitment processes.

Workforce recruitment is a continuous work in progress for communities. Taking a lesson or two from different industry sectors can enhance a community’s ability to develop long-term plans, and utilization of existing training programs, such as Dakota Seeds, can help provide processes to develop a workforce pipeline. PB

Dwaine Chapel Executive director Research Park at South Dakota State University Dwaine@researchparkatsdstate.com