Just in time for Labor Day, the Oregon Workforce Partnership released a new white paper titled: Getting Oregon Back to Work.  Getting Oregon Back to Work offers bold recommendations for rethinking the way we invest in worker training in light of the new economy.  The white paper offers a framework for getting Oregonians skilled and back to work.  Among the recommendations are the integration of economic development and workforce incentives to help companies create jobs, developing a robust set of worker training services, and utilizing Local Workforce Investment Boards to align workforce investments at the local level. 

Getting Oregon Back to Work focuses on the most promising practices to address the challenges of today’s economy.  It is intended as a guide for all policy makers as they seek new ideas to move hundreds of thousands of Oregon from unemployment to work.

Click here for the press release.

Click here for the full report.

Tags: Oregon, policy, recession, retraining, training, training programs, workforce development, workforce policy
Posted in: Oregon Workforce Partnership, Uncategorized

Just when news of Oregon’s faltering economic recovery seemed about as bad as it could get a story on KVAL, the Eugene affiliate of KATU TV, pointed out that Oregon’s jobless rate for teens is the fifth highest in the nation.  The story, titled Jobless Teens: ‘We have the potential for a really lost generation’, appeared in print and on the evening news.  Chuck Forster, Executive Director of the Lane Workforce Partnership and a member of OWP was asked to comment on the consequences of high teen unemployment.  He noted that teens who do not get opportunities to join the job market face long term employment challenges and reduced life-long earnings.  More information about teen employment is available at our youth employment web page.

OWP is developing support for an Oregon Youth Employment program to provide young people with job experience while assuring they complete school/earn a GED/gain college credits toward future career opportunities.  We need your help to make this happen.  Please contact us at contact@oregonwfpartnership.org to offer your support, or leave us your comments!

Tags: job creation, Lane Workforce Partnership, Summer Youth Employment Program, workforce development, youth
Posted in: Oregon Workforce Partnership, Uncategorized

Oregon Public Broadcasting did a great job on this morning’s Think Out Loud. The topic was worker retraining.  Hosts Dave Miller and Emily Harris assembled a good mix of people with indepth knowledge about the topic from a variety of view points.  I was lucky enough to be featured as a guest along with Mike McLeren a former Freightliner employee, Alice Todd who had been laid off from Weyerhaeuser, Stephanie Siebold who manages workforce programs at WorkSource in Portland, and Mark Haas of Bridgetown Bakery.  You can download the show directly from the Think Out Loud website and read the blog posts. 

Today’s episode is part of a series exploring the topic of getting Oregonians back to work.  Previous episodes focused on jobs and identify, and entrepreneurship.  I was impressed that the hosts of Think Out Loud were willing to delve into the complexity surrounding this issue.  It’s often challenging to get people to think beyond the common wisdom that getting a 4-year degree is the answer to success in the workforce.  The two dislocated workers did a great job describing the services they received and why they made the choice to go into training for the new careers they selected. 

I was also impressed that TOL chose to include Bridgetown Bakery based on its use of a growing alternative to classroom training, on-the-job training.  This earn & learn option to workforce training often gets overlooked.

Despite the terrific show, the ultimate challenges of getting people back to work in this super tight labor market remain.  Training may not lead immediately to a job in an environment where few new jobs are being created, individuals are staying on the jobs longer, and companies want to rehire those they laid off first before seeking new applicants.  It’s easy to question the value of training in this situation.  But training is still one of the best bets for getting people back to work when more jobs become available.

Would love to hear your comments…

Tags: Oregon, Oregon Workforce Investment Board, policy, recession, retraining, training, workforce development
Posted in: Oregon Workforce Partnership, Resources, Uncategorized