.bodytext {float: left; } .floatimg-left-hort { float:left; margin-top:10px; margin-right: 10px; width:300px; clear:left;} .floatimg-left-caption-hort { float:left; margin-bottom:10px; width:300px; margin-right:10px; clear:left;} .floatimg-left-vert { float:left; margin-top:10px; margin-right:15px; width:200px;} .floatimg-left-caption-vert { float:left; margin-right:10px; margin-bottom:10px; font-size: 10px; width:200px;} .floatimg-right-hort { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 300px;} .floatimg-right-caption-hort { float:left; margin-right:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 300px; font-size: 10px; } .floatimg-right-vert { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 200px;} .floatimg-right-caption-vert { float:left; margin-right:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 200px; font-size: 10px; } .floatimgright-sidebar { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 200px; border-top-style: double; border-top-color: black; border-bottom-style: double; border-bottom-color: black;} .floatimgright-sidebar p { line-height: 115%; text-indent: 10px; } .floatimgright-sidebar h4 { font-variant:small-caps; } .pullquote { float:right; margin-top:10px; margin-left:10px; margin-bottom:10px; width: 150px; background: url(http://www.dmbusinessdaily.com/DAILY/editorial/extras/closequote.gif) no-repeat bottom right !important ; line-height: 150%; font-size: 125%; border-top: 1px solid; border-bottom: 1px solid;} .floatvidleft { float:left; margin-bottom:10px; width:325px; margin-right:10px; clear:left;} .floatvidright { float:right; margin-bottom:10px; width:325px; margin-right:10px; clear:left;} During a recent national conference held in Orlando, Ralph Smith, senior vice president of the Annie E. Casey Foundation, called Des Moines’ workforce development system “one of the best in the country,” according to Rob Denson.

That remark by an executive of a premier social services foundation indicated just how far the organization that replaced the scandal-ridden Central Iowa Employment and Training Consortium has come in just eight months, said Denson, president of Des Moines Area Community College.

“We’re not quite there yet, but I think we have all the makings of a great system,” Denson said. Last fall, Iowa Workforce Development selected DMACC to serve as both the service provider and the fiscal agent for the regional workforce program that had operated under CIETC.

The restructuring of the workforce development system coincides with the housecleaning that followed the CIETC scandal, in which several CIETC board members and executives were found to have been paid exorbitant salaries and bonuses that took funds away from the organization’s mission of assisting jobseekers.

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Now known as Iowa Employment Solutions at DMACC, the organization is moving forward with an aggressive plan designed to meet the state’s looming labor shortage head-on. The plan, based on recommendations from a 2006 regional workforce development study, will bring together a broad coalition of Central Iowa human services and workforce agencies in a system that will create “career pathways” in eight key industry sectors.

“Last year at this time, we had Iowa Workforce Development, CIETC, all of these different individual workforce entities,” said Michael Wilkinson, executive director of Iowa Employment Solutions. “What we’re trying to do is pull those together into one workforce system to deal with what businesses are saying are the greatest needs. What’s unique is that this model, this kind of wholesale cooperation, never existed before.”

The Casey Foundation provided a $100,000 grant to IES to fund the implementation of the workforce system, and is providing technical assistance through experts who developed a similar system in Ohio.

By 2012, the gap between jobs available and workers to fill them is expected to grow to more than 150,000 unfilled positions in Iowa, according to a statewide workforce study completed last year by the Iowa Works Campaign. Approximately 60,000 of those vacant jobs will be in Central Iowa. And nearly 45 percent of all occupations in the state will require some post-secondary education or training, according to that report.

Comprehensive system

The Greater Des Moines Partnership is deeply involved in the reorganization of the workforce system, working through a “strategic intermediary” board co-chaired by three local executives: Steve Lacy of Meredith Corp., Doug Reichardt of Holmes Murphy & Associates and Steve Chapman of ITAGroup Inc.

“Their goal is to meet about four times a year and get the 30,000-foot level of what’s happening in Central Iowa,” Denson said. “Below them are sector boards, which are basically supervisory committees in each of the various sectors of business. We’re going to pilot four to start with: information technology, financial services, construction and advanced manufacturing.”

The career pathways information will provide job seekers with a good idea of the positions they’re qualified for within each industry, Denson said. “So that based on their skills and experience, we can tell them, ‘Here’s a job you can jump into. But if you want to get a few more credits or a certificate, you can move up.’ So if I enter a career field, I know how I can be the next president of whatever it is.”

Mary Bontrager, executive vice president of the Greater Des Moines Partnership, and Partnership President and CEO Martha Willits have coordinated the formation of the strategic intermediary board, which so far has 16 members.

“The strategic intermediary board was really designed as the oversight and visioning board for the whole system,” Bontrager said.

“The concept has been used in other communities, but has been directed more toward a specific industry or labor pool, such as the unemployed or underemployed, or where an industry has gone away and the work force has specific skill sets,” she said. “Whereas our system is looking at the entire workforce system, from the highly skilled to the unemployed, so it’s much more comprehensive.”

Chuck Palmer, executive director of ISED Ventures, said greater coordination of the services his and other agencies provide should greatly improve the overall workforce development system. His nonprofit agency assists low- to moderate-income residents in becoming self-sufficient.

“I think this opens the door to a greater interface between the education and training aspect of the system and other training opportunities,” he said. “That hasn’t always been a smooth or seamless process. To have this under and in partnership with DMACC will be a great improvement.”

The shift in approach will not be without its challenges, Palmer said, acknowledging that some agencies may feel threatened as they’re asked to integrate with a larger workforce system. A total of 19 agencies have now agreed to become partners in the system, up from seven under CIETC, and IES is in discussions with about five other agencies.

“I think the agencies that figure out how to become part of that process will benefit,” Palmer said. “The pie can get bigger; it doesn’t have to become smaller.”

The Iowa Association of Business and Industry, which is rolling out a three-year initiative to create more advanced manufacturing positions in Iowa, will lead the effort to develop the manufacturing sector board.

That program, called “Dream It. Do It,” was created by the National Association of Manufacturers’ Center for Workforce Success. One of the goals of the campaign, which has already been launched in seven cities across the United States, is to raise awareness about careers in high-tech manufacturing, said ABI President Mike Ralston.

“Many people, particularly educators and parents in some cases, still think of manufacturing jobs as dark, dreary, dingy, low-tech, low-paying jobs,” Ralston said. “The truth is, by far the majority are high-tech, high-paying jobs. The second goal is to actually connect people with jobs, to help young people to find the information they need and to help them get the training they need.”

The new workforce system should also spur better career awareness in the information technology sector, said Irving Hahn, a senior vice president with QCI, a Clive-based IT consulting company. Hahn, who chairs a statewide task force seeking to increase information technology employment opportunities in Iowa, is not involved with the IES effort.

Hahn said the IES program may not directly benefit the hiring needs of a company as specialized as his. However, such a system will ultimately benefit companies like his by drawing more attention to information technology career tracks, which high school students in Iowa aren’t generally pursuing. “There is kind of an additive effect,” he said. “When they have programs like these in specific industries, it tends to draw post-high- school students into the industry, where we’re not drawing them in.”

Denson said he hopes the first four industry sector boards will be formed this fall and that “at least by the end of this calendar year, they’ll be up and going strong. Then we want to add health care rather quickly, and then look for opportunities in the rest of them.”