Lexington, KY - If a company can't find qualified workers in an area, the company won't be found in that area. Knowing that, the Bluegrass Workforce Investment Board (BGWIB) has reshaped its mission to survey and serve the private sector in reshaping its workforce to meet the need of employers.
"I like to use the term 'just-in-time solutions,'" said Daryl Smith, chairman of the BGWIB, who is in community and economic development for Kentucky Utilities. "It used to be in the old world Ö you could come to the WIB or Central Kentucky Training Center and say, 'I want to be a plumber,' and we'd try to make you a plumber. And we still get that, where people come in and want to be things. But our whole focus and strategy is to be much more aggressive about the private sector employers - for us to provide solutions to them."
The board is focusing on four main areas: health care, advanced manu-facturing, IT and transportation, and logistics and distribution, all of which they forecast a need for in their region, which is roughly the same as Kentucky's 6th Congressional District.
"We need to listen to more employers, which is why we're geared toward having a business service staff, which is out listening," Smith said. "It's critical for us to have our tentacles out, working with chambers of commerce and other organizations and, in particular, private sector businesses, so we see the need and trends."
The need is something that has been starting to come to a head as Lexington and Louisville government and business leaders have joined together to form the Bluegrass Economic Advancement Movement (BEAM). At the group's first board meeting, Rena L. Sharpe, vice president of North American operations for Brazil-based Westport Axle Corp., said her company has had trouble expanding in the Louisville area after determining the work could be done for less in Kentucky than in Brazil.
"We're struggling and we're looking at other areas - other states, to be honest with you - because we're really concerned about putting more here and not being able to get the employees," she said. "We've just transferred two engineers from Brazil because we had to. We didn't have a choiceÖ We're just struggling."
Similar cries for help have been heard in the Lexington area. When Toyota realized there was a skills gap between what was required to work at its Georgetown facility and what prospective employees were capable of, Toyota teamed with the Blue Grass Community and Technical College (BCTC) to provide training that will turn into jobs.
The BGWIB is also partnering with BCTC to make sure that when a company says it needs employees, there are some ready to work.
Training programs hosted by BCTC are fed by a pipeline of the 300 to 500 people who come into each of BGWIB's six career centers on a weekly basis in search of gainful employment.
The career centers will only train people in high-demand areas, according to BGWIB board member Jennifer Compton, who works for the Bluegrass Area Development District. From there, the center matches the people who possess the sought-after skills sets, or something close to them, with the businesses that need them. BCTC will start a class if one is not already scheduled on a timely basis to get people ready to work.
"We respond, whether it's trying to land the next big whale or to get people trained for 20 jobs," said BCTC's Mark Manuel who is treasurer of the BGWIB.
One way, Manuel said they could respond would be to construct an expanded version of the facility they currently have at Toyota.
"One of the issues with that is it's not just Toyota that needs those folks; it's the other manufacturers in the region. Especially when Toyota starts hiring, they're afraid there's going to be a vacuum there, and the Johnson Controls of the world and the Aichi Forges, Trane and Square D, those kinds of places, will be competing for those jobs, and all of the sudden, they won't be able to find anybody," Manuel said.
BCTC has requested funding in the state budget for the building to be placed on land they have already acquired in the Lane's End Business Park in Scott County.
While the BGWIB has been focusing on this priority since completing a strategic plan last year, President Barack Obama urged Congress during his State of the Union Address in January to help with this type of plan nationally.
He stated a "national commitment to train two million Americans with skills that will lead directly to a job," and told Congress, "you need to give more community colleges the resources they need to become community career centers, places that teach people skills that businesses are looking for right now, from data management to high-tech manufacturing."
Under statute, the board is required to comprise at least 51 percent private sector members, but BGWIB boasts it has 77 percent private sector representation on it board.
The BGWIB has recently received a $65,000 grant from the Kentucky Workforce Investment Board to assist its health care consortium, which is made up of all the human resource directors at hospitals within the BGWIB's territory.
"Because the economy took that turn, the demand hasn't been as great as it has been in the past, but we do anticipate, once the economy really does start picking up, that there's going to be this giant vacuum suctioning sound, and we're all going to be scrambling to find bodies to fill positions," said Lynette Walker, a BGWIB board member and executive director of HR at Central Baptist Hospital, about the need for health care professionals in the Lexington area.
"The average age of a laboratory professional is 56 years of age, so if they all decide to retire at the same time, we do not have enough programs currently in our community to provide all of the Lexington hospitals with that professional to fill those openings that are going to become a reality," she said.
In addition to addressing the imminent needs of Lexington's expanding health care community, Walker said the group is going into schools starting at the middle school level to allow students to experience what a life in the industry might be like and encourage that career path. In addition, the group is aiming to become a 501(c)(3) that will communicate with health-care pro-viders about, among other things, more than just the dates of hire of former employees, "instead of just passing our bad pennies around to each other, and hopefully strengthening our current health care workforce," Walker said.
Smith said the group is looking to hear from other industries and employers who would like help finding potential employees and outfitting them with the skills necessary. More information can be found at www.bgwib.com.