Workforce Development launches initiatives in Southern Nevada

During the past five years Southern Nevada, along with other areas in the state and across the country, has been hit hard with the loss of jobs and slow moving economic recovery. In an effort to improve Southern Nevada’s economic outlook and address employers’ and job seekers’ concerns, the Southern Nevada Workforce Investment Board, known as Workforce Connections, has a full-press plan in place .

The core of Workforce Connections’ operation is its one-stop delivery system that brings all local workforce development resources to bear. The system is designed to support businesses and job seekers residing in Southern Nevada, which includes the counties of Clark, Esmeralda, Lincoln and Nye, and the cities of Boulder City, Henderson, Las Vegas and North Las Vegas. Such a push to secure comprehensive workforce development service delivery takes a concerted effort among interested stakeholders to get it right.

To help move the needle in a positive direction, Workforce Connections is constantly seeking partners to join its effort of serving the residents of Southern Nevada. Such partners are sought to become vested in Southern Nevada’s workforce delivery system, thereby creating a network of partners among businesses and employers, education and training institutions, trade unions and associations with focus on equipping job seekers with skills that match Southern Nevada businesses’ or workforce needs. In the workforce development community, such skills with job match is a formula viewed as demand-driven forces that bring both businesses and job seekers to a critical mass reaction to fuel our economy.

Southern Nevada Workforce Development System

For more than a year, Workforce Connections has been working to put together a workforce delivery system that answers most every job seeker and business call. For example, its board of directors has approved to move forward in targeting unique and special populations — those having the most difficulty getting skilled training leading to gainful employment.

The objective of Workforce Connections is to build a workforce delivery system that ensures everyone wanting employment and training services is connected to solid employment opportunities. With its network of employment training and service providers, Workforce Connections plans to reach out to those most in need of assistance as well as those who may need help in getting the right connection to businesses and industries seeking their skills.

Through its service delivery network, Workforce Connections’ partners are connected (electronically) in a way that allows them to communicate and share data and information relating to individuals and businesses’ employment and training needs. This initiative is not something new, but for Southern Nevada it’s an enhancement to previous workforce systems.

The array of partners with different employment and training services offer a comprehensive menu that allows job seekers and businesses to pick and choose what fits their workforce needs.

Workforce Development Products and Services

To meet the workforce demands, Workforce Connections’ and its partners are in the process of assembling a systematic group of employment and training services they expect will propel many job seekers into the new age of industry sectors supported by STEM (science, technology, engineering and math). With the introduction of STEM into high school classrooms and integrated into adult and dislocated worker programs and services, Southern Nevadans will be well-positioned to compete on a global scale with a talented workforce.

Skilled workers will be readily matched with new and emerging businesses and industries. Other workforce development products and services, such as job seekers’ online and classroom courses, are made available along with necessary supportive services geared to help job seekers who enter into training stay the course with successful completion by earning skills certification credentials meeting industry standards and recognizable by businesses and employers. This initiative will definitely give job seekers and the residents of Southern Nevada an opportunity to position themselves to compete with the necessary tools needed to secure gainful employment in this ever-changing economy.

Access to Employment and Training Services

Even with all of the bells and whistles in place for businesses and job seekers in Southern Nevada, if access to such services is challenging, one may not be able to see or take advantage of the opportunities at bay or achieve their elusive dream of 21st century workforce skills that match today’s world of technology. To that end, Workforce Connections has laid the framework that will streamline its workforce development employment and training service delivery.

From the foundation of its one-stop delivery system, Workforce Connections will be aligned to streamline service delivery strategies that will increase access to services while reducing the timeline of actual point of service delivery. This initiative alone will constitute a significant break in the action for both job seekers and businesses, and allow them to have prompt, ready access without the lengthy bureaucratic red tape, yet complying with all rules associated federal, state and local directives. No longer shall it take weeks or months to access critically needed workforce development services.

Creative Workforce Development Initiatives

Such prompt access to employment and training services will require creative workforce development initiatives that remove unnecessary steps that serve little or no purpose. Where requirements are needed, they may be modified to aid in serving workforce clients faster and more efficiently, resulting in better services with positive outcomes.

The board of directors and its staff at Workforce Connections have committed themselves to finding ways to work with system partners and businesses. The streamlined intent is to produce and deliver better services in a most creative way that enhances both job seekers and businesses’ productivity. This productivity increase translates to improved businesses’ bottom line and enhanced job seekers’ job employment opportunities with an overall positive economic impact for Southern Nevada.

Workforce Practitioners — Managing the Development Process

With the foundation in place, Workforce Connections contracted funded partners have the task of working hand-in-hand with job seekers and businesses to manage through the workforce development process and connect the two together. For example, practitioners are charged to facilitate service deliveries with established goals aiming toward “beyond the best.”

Workforce Development practitioners or case manager work intensively to formulate individual job seekers and employers’ customized strategies to connecting people who want good jobs with businesses to want good workers. Practitioners have proven their commitment to work hard in support of continuous improvement of Southern Nevada’s workforce in this most difficult economy.

With Workforce Connections’ funded partners well-established, they are allocated resources to ensure Southern Nevada’s businesses and job seekers have ready access to employment and training services at no-cost to them. The following are the current funded partners with frontline practitioners to deliver training services in Southern Nevada:

n Bridge Counseling Associates: Assists individuals in realizing and achieving their goals for self-sufficiency. The organization has served Southern Nevada for more than 40 years with exceptional substance abuse and mental health treatment services.

n Foundation for an Independent Tomorrow: Arms Southern Nevadans with skills to find and maintain gainful employment — particularly ex-offenders.

n GNJ Family Life Center: Assists adults, dislocated workers and youth in job placement into technical, mechanical, information technology, health care services and clean-energy industries.

n Goodwill of Southern Nevada: Specializes in delivering programs and services tailored to meet specific needs of adult job seekers and youths with disabilities. For example, on-the-job training with employer reimbursement and youths with disabilities gaining work experience to maximize their quality of life.

n Southern Nevada Regional Housing Authority: Provides adults and youths career development and job readiness training with supportive services to help participants become self-sufficient.

n Latin Chamber of Commerce Community Foundation: Partners with employers to identify and train or upgrade the skills of existing adult workers for high-demand jobs and youths seeking high school graduation/education.

n Nevada Hospital Association: Facilitates incumbent health care workers’ training and education to meet demand-driven health care requirements throughout the state.

n Nye Communities Coalition: Connects individuals with public agencies, businesses, facilities and other services in the community to assist and offer support to those at-risk and seeking gainful employment.

n HELP of Southern Nevada: Provides at-risk youths education and work readiness services along with positive support systems that help to aspire participants to achieve successful careers.

n Nevada Partners: Offers employment and training services to adults, dislocated workers and youths with focus on livable wage employment.

n Southern Nevada Children’s First: Provides vocational and occupational certification to youth clients in child development programs, behavioral health training and high school GED preparation.

n Lincoln County Youth and Adult Workforce Development: Specializes in rural area employment and training services with focus on meeting employers and adult job seekers’ needs.

n Youth Advocate Programs: Offers direct services to youths in all age ranges and serves as youth advocacy for positive change in support of improving youth employment and training service delivery. Engages Southern Nevada’s human service system to rely less on institutional care and invest more in support families and neighborhoods.

In addition to Workforce Connections’ funded partners’ practitioners, other partners have signed up to participate in the workforce delivery system. Well experienced workforce development agencies and businesses such as:

n Manpower of Southern Nevada: Specializes in employment placement in all industries.

n AARP/Division for Aging Services: Focuses on services to older Americans with associated work to meet their needs and desires.

n Acelero Learning Clark County Head Start: Delivers full-scale prekindergarten programs and services.

n Clark County School District: Offers education and training services to high school youths seeking skilled trades through YouthBuild programs.

n Financial Guidance Center: Provides financial guidance to help stabilize individual income, assets and self-worth.

n Las Vegas — Clark County Urban League: Delivers a multitude of services in support of employment and training leading to adult job seekers’ self-sufficiency.

n Nevada Division of Welfare and Supportive Services: Provides public assistance to those individuals and families most in need of subsistence and services.

n New Growth Nevada Corp.: Delivers adult and dislocated worker employment and training services using Workforce Investment Act resources.

n Sierra Nevada Job Corps: Offers specialized employment and training services to youths seeking skilled trades.

n The Learning Center: Provides critical, specialized computer and automated information technology certifications to adults seeking gainful employment.

n Standing Up Southern Nevada Comprehensive One-Stop Career Center: With all of the tell-tale signs pointing toward the need for collaborative workforce development efforts, Workforce Connections, along with its associated partners, launched its quest to stand up a sorely needed One-Stop Career Center. Its intent is to bring the fragmented workforce development parts and components together to make for a cohesive, comprehensive system that provides customers with the quality services they deserve.

Workforce Connections’ One-Stop Career Center is expected to open during the June-July 2013 time frame. Advertisement and public service announcements will be made about the ribbon-cutting event. Special guests are expected to be present during the One-Stop Career Center’s grand opening; state, local and national level public officials will be in attendance.

The center will have all of the required workforce development partners as well as some business stakeholders located in one location. The product box of services is expected to offer every resident of Southern Nevada something that will help improve their qualifications, outlook and employability in the 21st century.

From training classes and skills development workshops to spot-hiring events, the One-Stop Career Center will bring about a refreshed outlook for job seekers and businesses to raise Southern Nevada economy to the robust level of the past decade.

Even with this centralized One-Stop Career Center operation, businesses and job seekers may still access workforce development services from several affiliate sites located throughout the Southern Nevada Workforce Investment area, including rural areas. Affiliate sites will be linked to the Southern Nevada one-stop delivery system, thereby allowing businesses and job seekers ready access to any and all workforce development services offered in the comprehensive One-Stop Career Center.

Businesses and job seekers may attend and participate in the One-Stop Career Center workforce development workshops, hiring events, training activities and other initiatives needed to push workforce development services forward to help energize Southern Nevada’s economy. Although the previous few years may have looked bleak for both businesses and job seekers, Workforce Connections’ re-emerging workforce development employment and training services have prepared objectives for positive future outcomes.

To access services offered by the Workforce Investment area’s one-stop delivery system or contact its partners, go to nvworkforceconnections.org.