Of interest to local leaders, WRC rallies business, education, and community leaders around workforce quality.  Certified communities also gain a major competitive advantage to investors wanting to add jobs through business expansion and attraction.

Work Ready Certified Communities (WRC) first blossomed in Oklahoma and Georgia as a key economic development tool. Southwest Missouri and the Heartland 411 workforce partnerships with neighboring WIBs in Oklahoma, Kansas, and Arkansas identified WRC as a key growth strategy in alignment with business, education, and economic development.

ACT/WorkKeys recently launched the ACT-Certified Work Ready Communities program to empower counties and states with actionable data and specific workforce goals that drive economic growth. Participating states are leveraging the National Career Readiness Certificate (NCRC), improving high school graduation rates and educating individuals and businesses on the value of an NCRC and community certification.

ACT recently accepted Missouri into the Work Ready Communities Academy.  Now underway with the goal of implementing the framework in 2012-2013, Missouri benefits in several ways.

• Business and industry know exactly what foundational skills they need for a productive workforce – and to easily communicate their needs
• Individuals understand what skills are required by employers – and how to prepare themselves for success
• Policy makers consistently measure the skills gap in a timely manner at the national, state and local levels
• Educators close the skills gap, via tools integrated into career pathways with stackable industry-recognized credentials
• Economic developers use an on-demand reporting tool to market the quality of their workforce

Additional resources:

• Contacts for more information on how to start a workgroup:   Jasen Jones or Troy Roland
• Download an information flyer about Work Ready Communities
• Current draft criteria for WRC
• Oklahoma Work Ready Initiative
• Georgia Work Ready Initiative

Listening to Joplin…Next Steps is the title of the full CART plan, presented and adopted on January 19th.  The tactics for workforce development are found on page 11 of the 25-page document.  The plan may be downloaded on CART’s website or here on Workforcezone.com.

Goal 6:  Provide workforce soft skills training through adult and student programs

• Assigned:  Joplin Schools, WIB
• Next Steps:
• Review the results / input from employer surveys on required soft skills and align current programs to train those skills
• Develop, through heavy community support, strategic partnerships for students to apply those skills in a real-life work environment.
• Adopt employer-proven programs that teach soft skills, such as Alchemy, into the curriculum

Goal 7:  Establish the Joplin Area as Workforce Ready by strongly supporting state efforts on “work ready” certification at the adult and student levels

• Assigned:  Joplin Schools, WIB, Chamber
• Next Steps:
• Work with the State Workforce Development and Career Center to have all students participate in the “work ready” certification program to the level required to make Joplin a “work ready” community
• Provide additional training at the high school level that would allow for strategic partnerships with higher education institutions, including opportunities to receive an associate’s degree upon completion of the requirements of a high school diploma

CART held the January 19th meeting at the Billingsly Student Center at Missouri Southern State University. The Joplin City Council, the Joplin Schools Board of Education, the Joplin Area Chamber of Commerce, and the Duquesne City Aldermen comprised the group that voted and approved the plan.

CART volunteers and leaders developed during the last six months with the input of several hundred area residents who participated in public meetings. CART collected information from citizens in a variety of ways including public meetings, Boomtown Days, Third Thursday events, and other open forums. They developed two booklets with the comments and priorities detailed that were available at several locations for public review and further comment. This comprehensive community outreach was imperative to the plan development.  The final phase of this planning process is the development and presentation of the implementation steps for approval to put this long term recovery plan into action.

“We’re excited about the community participation that has taken place and helped us reach this point,” said Jane Cage, Chairman of CART. “We’ve listened, documented, planned, and now we’re ready to make the decisions and do the hard work necessary to move forward and rebuild our community. This unprecedented meeting will set the plan in motion.”

• Read about January 19th forum in Joplin Globe newspaper

• News Coverage from Joplin Tri-State Business Journal
• Download the list of exhibitors and JobFest booth map (PDF)

Coordinated by the Business Solutions Center and the WIB, JobFest is pleased to have the radio stations of American Media Investments as event sponsors.  AMI includes New Life Radio 105.3, KBTN 99.7, 96.9 the KOW, Rock 107.1, and Laugh Out Loud Radio 104.3.

The tools help enrich the classroom and lab experiences for students on campus by expediting knowledge transfer, according to MIT Provost L. Rafael Reif.   Non-students will have options to earn certificates, some free of charge and some with a modest fee.  ”If we’re going to do the best job we can for our campus, why don’t we make that available to the whole world? So that everybody can have access to these learning tools, and if you can handle the learning of the MIT-quality of the material, you should just go after it and try,” says Reif.

• Check out the article online

The summit event served as the  36-page summary of workforce gaps and strategies.  The State of the Workforce report is now available for download.  More than 140 businesses in the Joplin/Southwest Missouri region contributed input to the report via surveys throughout the 4th quarter of 2011.  The report includes several Insights on workforce skills in demand along with trends in HR and training trends.  The report contains an integrated array of solutions and strategies aligned with filling key workforce gaps and increasing economic vitality for the region.

Following the research presentation by Jasen Jones, Executive Director for the WIB, Tracey Kelly, Business Representative, moderated a panel of employers and the workforce innovations used in their respective firms.  Panelists included Suzanne Baucom of Bemis, Inc., Sharon Beasley from General Dynamics, and Amber Crook Robertson of Ceradyne Boron Products.

Keynote presenters provided in-depth analysis of best practices for the National Career Readiness Credential and the Work Ready Communities initiative.  Together, these ACT/WorkKeys solutions help employers save time and money in recruitment, help job seekers better match with quality jobs, and help communities strengthen the workforce and overall economic competitiveness.  Keynoters included Jeane Burruss and Kirk Martin from the Oklahoma Department of Commerce and Deb Lyons from ACT/WorkKeys.  The summit concluded with a networking luncheon.

Video archives of the presentations will be made available soon here at Workforcezone.com.  For more information on the research and solutions identified in the State of the Workforce Report, contact the WIB’s Business Solutions Center at 417-206-1717 Ext. 224.

Empire District Electric Company (NYSE:EDE) serves more than 200,000 customers in Missouri, Kansas, Oklahoma, and Arkansas.  Based in Joplin, Empire is an investor-owned, regulated utility providing electricity, natural gas (through its wholly owned subsidiary, The Empire District Gas Company), and water service.  A subsidiary of Empire also provides fiber optic services.

How it Works

If you are willing and able to provide training for new employees through the On-the-Job Training Program, you can select potential employees from a pool of preselected candidates whose skills have been matched to your job requirements.

Potential candidates also may be referred by your company to the Missouri Career Center for eligibility review. Once a candidate is selected, an agreement is signed by your company representative and the employee before training begins.

The training period depends on the type of job with a maximum length of 12 weeks. Hours and specific wage standards apply based on an individual basis.

Employer Benefits

• 50% of the employee’s wages are reimbursed through the Missouri Career Center
• Employee candidates are screened according to your needs
• Training happens at your location with your equipment according to your standards
• Reduced hiring risk

How to Get Started

• Contact one of the professionals on the Business Solutions Team
• Downloadable Flyer
• Employer Application for OJT (save & send to aosborn@jomowib.com)
• Supplemental Forms:
• OJT Program Agreement
• OJT Monitoring Report
• Training Plan Template

Jeane Burruss and Kirk Martin from the Oklahoma Department of Commerce will demonstrate the Work Ready Communities initiative successfully launched across the Sooner state. Debra Lyons, Vice President for Community and Economic Development ACT, Inc. will present on opportunities for Missouri to develop a similar framework. The keynote trio is timely as the Southwest Missouri WIB continues to thrive in cross-state partnerships with workforce partners in neighboring Kansas, Arkansas, and Oklahoma. Missouri’s development of Work Ready Communities will further enhance the business competitiveness of the I-44 business corridor.

Set for Thursday, January 12th, the Workforce Summit gathers local employers along with community and education leaders to examine workforce gaps and hiring trends for 2012. The summit introduces a body of research collected by the Workforce Investment Board (WIB) studying 142 employers over the past few months on specific workforce needs.

A panel of local HR professionals will demonstrate how the NCRC saves time and money in the recruitment of higher-quality workers. The panel is near completion and the WIB plans to announce panelists a few days ahead of the Summit.

Registration is now open online. The $20 registration includes the half-day summit, refreshments, lunch, and the debut copy of the 2012 State of the Workforce report from the WIB. The community center at Fairview Christian Church in Carthage is the location for the summit, slated for 8:30 a.m. to 1:00 p.m. In addition to the summit website, more information is available by calling the WIB at 417-206-1717, Ext. 224.

RSVP Online

December’s EmployerLink features the Alchemy Training SISTEM available from the Business Solutions Center.   EmployerLink opens with a networking lunch from 11:00 to Noon with the program from Noon to 1:00.  Big Baldy’s Restaurant is the location for December’s EmployerLink meeting at 814 E. Highway 160 in Monett.

SISTEM covers an array of soft skill training needs, the skills highest in demand according to local surveys. High-demand training competencies such as customer service, leadership, management, and safety are available as well.

• Visually-engaging multi-media content
• High interactivity of trainees
• Versatile as a stand-alone training option or integrated with your existing programs
• Mobile and can be deployed at your location or in small groups at the Career Center
• Bilingual with English and Spanish language content
• Trackable and verifiable to help manage your training and performance records