Smart Workforce Solutions
Archive for April, 2007
Officials with O’Sullivan Industries in Lamar announced their plant closure. More than seven hundred employees would be affected by the closure. The Workforce Investment Board is allocating extensive resources through the Missouri Career Center’s Rapid Response Team to assist the community and affected workers with workforce/economic recovery efforts. Following a meeting with community leaders, the team will develop an array of strategies, which might include securing additional grant resources through the U.S. Department of Labor and the Missouri Division of Workforce Development.
Comments (0)Southwest Missouri Gains “Strategic Advantage” with New Data Resources
Posted by blog @ 3:54 pm 
Regional workforce and economic development professionals must ensure that their region’s workforce is prepared for the demands of a changing economy. This requires access to integrated, up-to-date, and regionalized data to help decision-makers steer their businesses and communities toward success. The Missouri Career Center is partnering with Economic Modeling Specialists Incorporated (EMSI) to bring the StrategicAdvantage data analysis suite to Southwest Missouri.
The concept behind StrategicAdvantage is simple: give business and community leaders the information they need to shape the economy and the local workforce. EMSI’s database includes 25 combined and augmented data sources, updates data twice a year with fresh information, and implements it all with industry leading web-based tools – Economic Forecaster, Economic Impact Analysis, and Career Pathways.
Tri-State HR Association Releases 2007 Event Calendar and New Website
Posted by blog @ 4:04 pmThe Tri-State Human Resources Association, which serves the corner communities of Southwest Missouri, Southeast Kansas, and Northeast Oklahoma, has released a new website through its affiliation with the Society on Human Resource Management. Check it out online at www.tristatehra.shrm.org. The SHRM affiliation gives the website a convenient gateway to SHRM resources and intelligence. The new website also features a dynamic lineup of events and presentations for 2007.
Meetings are the third Wednesday of each month (except November 2007) and are held in Conference Room 2 at St. John’s Regional Medical Center Conference Center, 2727 McClelland Boulevard. Cost is $5.50 for lunch.
The 2007 Workforce Summit of Southwest Missouri was held in Joplin on April 4th. Surveys of the event indicate that the Summit was well-received. Participants found the content timely and engaging with strategies that are relevant and useful.
A panel on Workforce Competitiveness kicked off the Summit event. The panel featured Rob O’Brian of the Joplin Area Chamber of Commerce, Rod Nunn from the Missouri Division of Workforce Development, and Roger Wagner from Crowder College.
Jasen Jones, Executive Director of the Workforce Investment Board, showcased new innovations for Workforce Competitivess. The presentation included a demo of the interactive Alchemy Training SISTEM, occupational planning and work readiness assessments from WorkKeys, web-based applicant screening through the Virtual Video Interview system, new talent development strategies with industry sector consortiums and cross-state partnerships underway with neighboring workforce regions in Arkansas, Kansas, and Oklahoma.
Pictured above is Ray Uhalde, the keynote speaker for the Summit. Ray’s keynote provided a thought-provoking blueprint to rethink education’s role to prepare students to thrive in a global economy. Ray is the Director of the Workforce Strategies Group at the National Center on Education and the Economy.
Copies of the presentation slides are available for download as a PDF. Click here to download the presentation by Jasen Jones on New Tools for Workforce Competitiveness. Click here to download Ray Uhalde’s keynote presentation, Tough Chocies or Tough Times on the New Commission for American Skills in the Workplace. Both documents contain slides from the presentations converted to PDF files. Podcasts of audio presentations from the Summit will be posted soon in our Podcast section of WorkforceZone.com.