Workforce Innovations 2008 - Success Decoded

Sessions by Audience Interest Topic

Your interests range from A-Z and so do the offerings at Workforce Innovations 2008! Preview sessions here on just some of the audience interest topics you'll encounter at the conference:

4-Yr Universities/Land Grant Colleges
Agricultural Workers
Apprenticeship
BRAC
Business Engagement and Leadership
Community Colleges
Disabilities
Economic Development of Regions
Economic Shock
Entrepreneurship
Ex-Offenders
Faith-Based Community Organizations
Federal Partners
Foundations
Homelessness
Immigrants and Limited English Proficiency
Indian/Native Americans
Job Corps
K-12 Education
Labor Market Information
Literacy/Adult Basic Education
Older Workers
Rural Workforce Issues
STEM
TANF
Technology-Based Learning
UI Claimants
Union
Veterans and Military Spouses
Youth

4-Yr Universities/Land Grant Colleges

Expanding Distance Learning to College Students in the Teaching Profession
Get the “close up” on a demonstration designed to increase the number of qualified rural teachers, particularly in the hard-to-fill disciplines of mathematics and science. Western Governors University (WGU) of Salt Lake City, Utah will describe its three-year project to expand distance learning to college students in the teaching profession and to provide mentoring and placement services.

Accelerating Education: Building High-Performance Partnerships
Shift your organization into high gear by attending this session on building an agile workforce by partnering with your local academic institutions. Learn how BJC HealthCare, a not-for-profit health system, has put the "rubber to the road" by creating a rich partnership program offering employees the opportunity to begin or extend their academic career, from a high school to a master’s diploma with all points in between.

Partnering to Credential a Workforce and Move a State Toward Economic Prosperity
Tinker Air Force Base’s Oklahoma City Air Logistics Center employs over 12,000 civilians -- nearly half of whom are eligible for retirement. This session will discuss the partnership between the Tinker and Oklahoma’s educational institutions to provide credentialing (degrees, certificates, and training) services to meet the growing workforce needs for central Oklahoma’s largest employer. Learn how Tinker and Oklahoma’s colleges and technology centers collaborated to build career pathways benefiting the employee, the employer, and the state.

Universal Talent Development: Advancing Workforce Capabilities in Rural Utah Communities
The College of Eastern Utah, Western Energy Training Center (WETC) serves as the primary catalyst for energy workforce talent development in rural Utah. WETC, which originated from a DOL-ETA grant awarded in 2005, is focused on attracting, developing, retaining, and advancing a diverse energy workforce in the region. In just over two years, WETC has trained over 6,000 people and participated in multiple talent capacity building activities.

Making Healthcare Work!
Although Rhode Island is the smallest state in the union, it has one of the largest healthcare workforce shortages in the nation. Thanks to support from the Governor’s Workforce Board-Rhode Island (GWB-RI), this is changing. Development of an innovative, strategic partnership between healthcare employers, postsecondary education, state agencies and the GWB-RI ensures a brighter future. Learn how Rhode Island is building its healthcare talent pipeline.

Business Services University: Building a Critical Staff Skill Set
Minnesota's Business Services University offers monthly courses for the state’s Business Services Specialists and Business Services and Job Service Managers. Forged in partnership with four post-secondary institutions, the goal of the University is to develop staff capacity in assessing, brokering and providing solutions to the complex issues faced by today’s businesses and industries.

Adaptive eLearning: How Customized, Just-in-Time Training Modules Can Make A Difference in Your Workforce
eLearning technologies provide a foundation upon which both adaptive and just-in-time presentations may be built. However, production of this complex training has traditionally been too costly. Mississippi State University has partnered with the Mississippi Virtual Community College to investigate the effectiveness of adaptive eLearning for workforce training. This session will describe the successes of this partnership and how to take advantage of adaptive eLearning techniques with new, inexpensive and easy-to-use authoring software developed at MSU.

Building Successful Demand-Driven Workforce Development Partnerships: The Human Capital Academy Model
The workforce system, higher education, and private sector organizations bring numerous and diverse assets, expertise, and resources to workforce skill and talent development. How do these partners collaborate to support regional talent development strategies? Hear about the Human Capital Academy model that the Full Employment Council and the University of Central Missouri have implemented in the Kansas City metropolitan area to educate and train workers in order to meet the needs of a competitive workforce.

The Role of the Public Research University in Engaging Regions for Economic and Talent Development
In a global, knowledge-based economy, public research universities hold tremendous potential for supporting regional economic and workforce development efforts. This presentation will outline roles and methods in which universities engage in talent development — along with their workforce, education, business, and economic development partners — to support regional economic growth. It will provide “on-the-ground” examples of successful partnerships, their objectives, and the engagement principles that helped them succeed.

(Educational Tour) Accelerated Nursing Program at Tulane Medical Center
Learn from those who have made investing in training for high-growth occupations a priority and have produced successful RNs in just 10 months! Hear how the Tulane Medical Center, Our Lady of the Lake College, and the Workforce Investment Board have come together to create the Accelerated Nursing Program to address the critical nursing shortage in the New Orleans area, made all the more serious by the impact of Hurricane Katrina. Thursday, July 17, 7:30a.m.-9:45a.m.

Agricultural Worker

(Research Showcase) Findings About Who Works on U.S. Farms from the National Agricultural Workers Survey
The National Agriculture Worker Survey offers a wealth of information on farm worker demographic characteristics. Learn about the major changes in these characteristics over the last 20 years, how to access current regional and national level data, and the implications of recent trends on workforce training. Issues to be explored include migrant sending areas in Mexico, educational levels and languages spoken by the newest workers, and occupational safety and health.

Restoring Their Hope, Restoring our Environment
The restoration of Florida’s Everglades requires the implementation of training programs to meet new employers’ need for skilled workers. This effort has also created new career opportunities for many unemployed and underemployed residents of rural southwest Florida. As agricultural workers are a significant segment of the local workforce, the National Farmworker Jobs Program has joined with the WIA boards, colleges, and public and private schools to recruit, train, and place many farmworkers into these jobs.

Apprenticeship

The Middle Apprenticeship Project: A Career Development Opportunity for At-Risk Youth
This session will discuss the experience and learnings from the Bayless Middle Apprenticeship Project (MAP), a joint effort of industry, vocational educators, a labor-management apprenticeship-training program and a community college targeting at-risk youth. MAP combines apprentice-level technical training with contextualized classroom learnings and leads to living wage employment in the trades as well as concurrent enrollment in an articulated College AAS program. The session will detail program design, discuss implementation, and highlight student and industry outcomes.

National Offender Workforce Development Partnership: Collaborating to Meet the Needs of the 21st Century Workforce
Obtaining and maintaining employment is a vital key to successful reentry of offenders into the community. An unemployed offender is four times more likely to return to prison. This session will present examples of effective, outcome-based, collaborative efforts between the workforce investment system, educational system, apprenticeship programs, employers, and the criminal justice system to provide career opportunities for ex-offenders and a trained workforce to meet the needs of the 21st century economy.

Expanding the Talent Development Pool through Registered Apprenticeship
This innovative session explores two approaches to preparing at-risk youth for apprenticeship opportunities in the construction industry, thereby diversifying the talent pool for high wage, high demand careers. This session will also explore how WIA-funds can be used to ease the transition to gainful employment.

Career Prescriptions for Success (CAPS): An Employer-Driven Apprenticeship Model
This workshop will feature the apprenticeship model that CVS/pharmacy developed with a HGJTI grant. Career Prescriptions for Success (CAPS addresses a projected industry shortfall in Pharmacy Technicians and Pharmacists in the Detroit market and four replication sites. Presenters will provide lessons learned and resources to create a training and apprenticeship program for unemployed and underemployed populations in collaboration with the local workforce system, faith-based and community organizations, community colleges, and institutions of higher education.

(Super Session) The Power Couple: How to Maximize WIA Funds and Performance by Partnering with Registered Apprenticeship
Many workforce professionals mistakenly think that WIA funds cannot be used for Registered Apprenticeship because the programs are too long or the apprentice activities are disallowable expenses. These myths and others will be debunked as experts not only explain how WIA funds can be used for Registered Apprenticeship, but also how to count them towards performance goals. The innovative efforts of the states of Washington and Alaska will be featured.

Innovative Approaches to Developing Regional Talent: Registered Apprenticeship, WIA, and the Community Colleges
North Carolina has developed distinctive coalitions and partnerships among apprenticeship sponsors, community colleges, WIBs, and Registered Apprenticeship to help build highly-skilled workers and regional economies. Learn how this pioneering strategy has helped North Carolina retrain dislocated workers from the disappearing textile industry as well as others.

Advanced Manufacturing Your Way to College
Are you interested in meeting the talent demands of the advanced manufacturing industry in your region? Join this exciting session to learn about the techniques a local community coalition developed to collabortate with employers, the education system, public workforce system, and economic development entities to meet the skilled labor needs of its advanced manufacturing industry.

The Global Apprenticeship Renaissance: New Models for Skilling the Workforce in the U.S. and Abroad
Our major global competitors are aggressively addressing skills shortages through the Apprenticeship model. The UK believes that “the world is no longer in an arms race but rather a global skills race, because the nation that shows it can bring out the best in all its people will be the great success story of the coming decades.” Learn how countries like New Zealand, the UK, Canada and Switzerland are implementing the Apprenticeship model.

Home Grown: Apprenticeship and the Development of Regional Economies
Providing focused solutions to the San Francisco Bay Area’s employers supports economic vitality and business growth, and sharpens the local employment outlook. The Contra Costa County Workforce Development Board’s Business Enhancement Services Team (BEST) offers a menu of services to local businesses, from apprenticeship program development and placement assistance to market research and green business consulting. Learn how you can adapt the BEST model to support the economic prosperity of your region.

(Educational Tour) Northrop Grumman Shipbuilding's New Orleans Operation
Experience what it takes to build a ship and a vibrant workforce development environment. Hear about Northrop Grumman’s significant involvement with workforce development and training programs and its Registered Apprenticeship program. Interact with company executives, tour the shipyard, and find out how the company has made its workforce, charitable, and educational relationships successful. Tuesday, July 15, 8:30 a.m. - 11:30 a.m.

BRAC

Talent Trumps All: Virtual Solutions to Talent Development in the All American Defense Corridor
Experience innovative, high tech solutions for regional workforce development. The All American Center for Workforce Innovation (AACWI) uses web-based and interactive 3D technologies to create a network of talent development solutions among the full range of workforce and economic development stakeholders across the Fort Bragg BRAC region. This presentation will demonstrate the AACWI’s virtual technologies and describe a collaborative program that is transforming the region’s economy.

Business Engagement and Leadership

(Super Session) Assembling Community Partners to Find Opportunity in Adversity: A Dialogue with Gus Whalen
Featherbone Communiversity is the creation of the Warren Featherbone Foundation in association with Brenau University's Department of Nursing, the Interactive Neighborhood for Kids (ink), and Lanier Technical College's Manufacturing Development Center. Located at the site of the former Featherbone Company in Gainesville, Georgia, the Communiversity contains a training site for 300 nurses, a business incubator for eight new entrepreneurial ventures and a world of work museum downsized for kids to facilitate their learning experience.

Captivating the Business Partner: A Presentation Skills Self-Assessment
Building strong working relationships between business and industry and its regional workforce partners is paramount in ensuring the success and sustainability of any economic development strategy. Oftentimes, the most efficient and economical method of engaging new business partners is in a group setting. While the content of the message is always important, a well-prepared and dynamic delivery of that message is often the key that opens the door to successful new partnerships.

Stealth Isn't for Fighter Jets - The Sky’s the Limit When Collaboration Replaces Competition
Is it possible to convene three competitive aerospace manufacturing companies for the purpose of developing shared programs and deepening the partnership over time? For the Dallas/Fort Worth Aerospace Cluster it is. Learn how key staff from Bell, Lockheed and Vought Aircraft Industries left their competitive cloaks at the door and developed two cutting-edge training programs to increase the pipeline of qualified workers for the aerospace manufacturing industry facilitated by the local Workforce Investment board.

Building a Statewide Manufacturing Skills Solution From a Single Project: Why Business Leadership Matters
Need manufacturing technicians? Learn how to create statewide training, assessment, and certification system for this skill set. This session will emphasize the pivotal role of the two collaborating statewide employer associations — the Virginia Biotechnology Association and the Virginia Manufacturers Association — in negotiating alignment and collaborative solutions among a number of independent manufacturing skills initiatives in the state, using a single, relatively small project to create a statewide WIRED initiative.

Petite but Powerful: Small Business’ Impact on the Global Economy
This session will explore strategies for small business to compete in the global marketplace. Rural and urban Chambers of Commerce will present successful strategies for engaging small businesses and highlight how these businesses have established a strong economic foothold without a national footprint.

The Power of Partnerships: Driving Regional Economic Growth
The nature of business is changing and we must ask ourselves, “Are we changing with it?” As resources continue to dwindle, more and more partners are relying on one another to build meaningful relationships that leverage each other's strengths. Join Wes Jurey, Chairman of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Institute for a Competitive Workforce, for a roundtable discussion and question and answer session on how to effectively form strategic partnerships with regional businesses.

Unplugged: The Latest Trends in Alternative Energy
Never has the focus on alternative energy been so prevalent, particularly with the dramatic rise in the price of gas and oil. Solar, wind, and other forms of alternative energy offer environmentally friendly power generation solutions. In this session, we will explore innovative ways alternative energy is being used, its importance to the future of America, and define green jobs and how they will impact the energy workforce.

Hire Learning: A Collaborative Approach to Career Academies
The career academy model is one that effectively engages businesses and makes learning more relevant to students’ thorough hands-on activities and work-based learning opportunities. Hear from presenters from the Florida workforce system, CHOICE, the Association for Career Technical Education- Lake Travis Project and Siemens Building Technologies on how business and education can successfully collaborate to develop programs and curricula that meet the needs of high growth, high demand industries including finance, information technology and engineering.

Not Over the Hill, Just Picking Up Speed
In this overview of effective partnership-based strategies for retaining, retraining, and attracting older workers, participants will discover universal challenges and successful solutions developed by employers from two different industries: health care and financial services. The session will focus on low-cost and no-cost strategies that can be easily adapted to other industries. After a brief presentation, attendees will break into groups led by employers to share or develop promising practices.

Innovative Solutions to Meet Employers’ Critical Needs
Learn how the partners of the Texas Workforce Solutions use business intelligence to develop long-term strategic collaborations. For example, Central Texas Workforce Solutions and the Texas Veterans Leadership Program help employers find the talent they need while collaborating with the Central Texas Economic Consortium to provide leadership and business services to local community partners. This session is a must for anyone interested in learning to leverage the power of dynamic partnerships and to grow economic resources.

An Unprepared Workforce: Calculating the Cost to Business
The United States faces a critical challenge in preparing students to meet workplace demands in an increasingly competitive, knowledge-based global economy. The American Society for Training & Development, The Conference Board, Corporate Voices for Working Families, and the Society for Human Resource Management are working together to conduct an in-depth survey examining corporate practices on the training of recent entrants to the U.S. workforce. Learn about the knowledge and skills levels of this talent pipeline.

Understanding Trends in Learning Through Data
As business leaders in the private sector continue to understand the value of training, learning leaders are increasingly able to demonstrate success in several areas: increased efficiency and effectiveness of learning; alignment between learning and other organizational activities; and the sustainability of the learning function. Data in this presentation, drawn from several research studies by ASTD, will identify trends in workforce development and help participants benchmark learning investments and practices against leading organizations.

(Educational Tour) Transforming New Orleans' One-Stop Career Centers
Visit a New Orleans' One-Stop Career Center "under transformation" to see and hear how the Center coped following Hurricane Katrina and, as a result of the necessity to rebuild, has designed a new facility focused on the integration of WIA, Wagner-Peyser, UI and other related services. Wednesday, July 16, 1:30 p.m. - 3:15 p.m.

(Pre-Conference) MEP's Role in Talent Development: Linking To and Leveraging Partners with Postsecondary Institutions, Public Workforce System, and WIRED Regions
This session will focus on manufacturing trends, including workforce implications and solutions. The Manufacturing Extension Partnership (MEP) is a national network focused on manufacturing competitiveness. Their 1,600 field experts and partners provide resources and services on a variety of workforce issues. Come and learn more about how MEP is growing the labor supply pipeline and maximizing the potential of manufacturers with innovative solutions.

Community Colleges

Turning Acorns into Oak Trees: Decoding Stakeholder Needs and Growing Financial Resources for Workforce Training
This session will focus on the experience of a small community college in northeastern Wyoming which used a $2 Million Community Based Job Training Grant to increase workforce training enrollments by over 50% in the first year and 100% the second. Our success in focusing intense effort on decoding stakeholder training needs has led to additional public and private investment of over $60 Million to build additional training capacity since the grant was awarded in 2005.

Creating Regional Workforce Training Partnerships that Work
The Arkansas Delta Training and Education Consortium is a partnership of five community colleges united in providing a regional response to workforce development in the Arkansas Delta. This consortium has matured to the point that it is now the recognized workforce development model for Arkansas. In addition, the partnership is engaged with the Eastern WIB of Arkansas and the Workforce Investment Network of Western Tennessee to seek resources to jointly provide STEM workforce training.

Nebraska Mechatronics Education Center: Experiential Education and a New Level of Technical Training
Discover how Nebraskan business and education leaders use resources from the Mechatronics Education Center (MEC) to integrate STEM training and awareness into their environments. Hear how innovative “Return-to-Work” business-education partnerships expand educators’ experiential instruction. Learn about the 10 new products from the MEC and receive an MEC overview DVD. See how your organization may use technical simulation programs as a complement to existing education or as part of an entirely new program.

Decoding the Three R's of Career & Technical Education: Rigor, Relevance, and Relationships
Does developing partnerships that are powerful, combine education and the workforce systems, and lead to innovative practices seem beyond your reach? This session can help you by illustrating the benefits of collaboration and cooperation. Learn how powerful partnerships have been initiated and nurtured in Campbell County Wyoming between K-12 education, the Gillette College, the public workforce system, economic development, and business and industry, just to name a few of the players.

Growing Entrepreneurs in Rural America
In rural areas, entrepreneurship is a critical strategy for building prosperous, dynamic, and competitive economies. In the West Alabama/East Mississippi WIRED region, The Montgomery Institute, eight community and junior colleges, the University of Alabama, the Mississippi Technology Alliance, and numerous service providers have partnered to grow entrepreneurs and enterprises that will create high-wage jobs and catalyze economic prosperity. Experience a live demonstration of the MyBiz.AM entrepreneurial tool.

The Art of Partnering: Achieving Common Goals Through Large-Scale Collaborations
In this dynamic, interactive session, participants will learn the steps required for constructing effective and long-lasting partnerships: developing a collective vision with partners; moving from written agreements to on-the-ground action; and planning for long-term sustainability. The Chemeketa Community College will share “Five Cs” of partnership building — Context, Communication, Clarity, Credibility, and Complexity — which they implemented to build a multi-college/multi-sector healthcare demonstration project that includes 126 education, employer, WIA, and community partners across Oregon.

Indiana Partnerships: Transforming Public Policy in Education, Workforce and Economic Development
The public workforce system, community colleges, employers, and economic development agencies all recognize the need to improve the education levels of the current workforce. Featuring CBJT grantee Ivy Tech Community College and several of its partners, this session will illustrate how, by using regional evaluations, assessments, and asset mapping, this strategic partnership identified the education and skill levels in different regions of the state and pinpointed those regions requiring more immediate intervention.

Disabilities

Effectively Serving One-Stop Customers with Mental Health-Related Disabilities
This dynamic session will strengthen participants’ knowledge and skills related to serving youth and adults with mental health needs within One-Stop Career Centers. In order to effectively assist these customers, attendees will learn effective strategies for connecting them to employment possibilities, become more familiar with the range of available resources, and gain a greater understanding of mental health issues within the workplace.

Accessing Untapped Labor Pools through Service Integration
In an environment of increased efficiency, service integration becomes a key strategy in meeting regional labor market demands and in serving diverse populations with complex needs. This session will present strategies developed through funding provided by a variety of federal sources and implemented in Oregon's Region 2 Worksource Centers to serve individuals with disabilities, are homeless, or have other barriers to employment.

Getting WIRED: Integrating the
Access to skilled talent and the ability to leverage public and private resources are two important factors driving regional economic transformation. As regional leaders develop strategic plans, they should consider the significant available resources devoted to assessment, education, training and support for individuals with disabilities. Learn how the Metro Denver and Southwestern Connecticut WIRED regions are meeting employer demand by tapping into the labor pool of individuals with disabilities and leveraging a wealth of disability-related resources.

(Pre-Conference) That's the Ticket: A Win-Win Partnership to Promote the Workforce Investment System's Participation in the Ticket to Work Program
The Ticket to Work Program (TTW) expands employment opportunities for Social Security beneficiaries. The Social Security Administration recently issued revised TTW regulations, eliminating several barriers to becoming Employment Networks (ENs). As a result, One-Stop Career Centers and State/Local Workforce Investment Boards are now qualified as ENs. Becoming an EN provides the potential to add funding to the workforce investment system to serve customers with disabilities. Two EN workforce investment system models will be highlighted.

Economic Development of Regions

Heroes at Home: Serving Military Spouses

Meeting the Needs of Montana's Workers and Employers
Explore Montana's approach to transforming the public workforce system to align with the WIRED framework of regional talent development. Hear how the state is applying a regional focus to its workforce services, meeting the workforce challenges of small businesses, and training incumbent workers for career advancement.

Facebook, MySpace, WIRED: A Social Network Analysis of WIRED Regions
New social networks formed by many Generation I WIRED regions are unprecedented, spanning geographical barriers, professional boundaries, and organizational differences. Social network analysis helps us understand such concepts as: communication lines and patterns across the network; the evolution of social networks; and how networking help transform local Workforce Investment Boards.

Planning for Sustainability: Lessons from Generation I WIRED Regions
A community can build on-going regional transformation into its plans and designs early on, and address sustainability throughout implementation. This session will highlight examples of how Generation I WIRED regions have developed sustainability plans for continued collaboration and transformation.

Minnesota's Regional Economic Competitiveness Initiative
Advancing statewide economic vitality requires regional leadership and collaboration. In 2007, eight regional Minnesota Competes forums brought business and community leaders together to identify market driven strategies for linking economic development with education, talent and skill development. Leaders' recommendations resulted in the design of the Framework for Integrated Regional Strategies (FIRST) Grants. Learn how FIRST grants of $50,000 is enabling eight regional teams to design or implement competitiveness strategies.

Using Metrics to Drive Regional Talent Development
In order to be effective, regional workforce and economic development efforts must be focused on measurable results and be informed and guided by real data and information. The Bio-1 WIRED region in central New Jersey has developed a state-of-the-art metrics system that uses a balanced-scorecard approach to guide program design and implementation. Learn about the region’s metrics system and engage in a discussion on how metrics systems can be used to inform talent strategies.

Telling the Workforce Story: New Tools for High Impact Engagement
Communication and engagement are more important to successful transformation initiatives than ever. However, turning the fire hose of information into a meaningful and engaging narrative about your community’s workforce can be a daunting challenge. Learn about hidden secrets in your community and on online that will enable you to take your story to the streets, build new alliances, and tap hard-to reach stakeholder groups in the process.

Accelerate Employment Circles: Align and Accelerate the Work of Multiple Regional Workforce Development Entities
Accelerate Employment Circles align private sector board member leadership, a nation-wide non-profit's capacity, and workforce board direction and action. They utilize a unique process with a facilitated discussion guide to engage all impacted sectors, including people served, in productive dialogue around employment. Because Circles don’t require consensus and all ideas are captured, the focus moves from the struggle for one “right” answer to allow new connections and ideas to move forward regionally. Try one out now!

Data-Driven Competitive Analysis for Creating a Regional Community of Innovation
Regional innovative capacity is a key measure of the potential global economic competitiveness for a local economy. Estimating a region’s capacity to innovate, including the existing talent and assets for specific areas of innovation, can be accomplished by using a combination of geographic mapping, quantitative data, and analytical tools. This session will present useful tools and frameworks for developing a regional innovation strategy, and show how they can be applied to create a community of innovation.

Simply the Best: Sharing WIRED Concepts and Expertise
All of the best and brightest thoughts and concepts stemming from our WIRED work — angel networks, asset mapping, regional communication strategies, and even an aerotropolis — will be shared in this interactive session. Experts from WIRED Academies and Institutes will share ideas and discuss how you can make them your own. Participants will walk away with mind-blowing ideas for implementing key talent development strategies within regional economies.

Tales from a Petri Dish: Strategies for Cultivating Bioscience Talent in your Region
This session will focus on building regional talent in the bioscience sector through the continuum of education from K-12, Post-Secondary, and Higher Education. Strategies presented will focus on the development of regional expertise in bioscience through tailored education and training, and the connection of academics to employer needs.

Beyond Transportation: TDL is Driving Transformation
This session will focus on building regional talent in the Transportation, Distribution, and Logistics (TDL) industry. This session will feature an overview of career paths within TDL as well as case studies from WIRED regions that have engaged industry, government, and education partnerships to support the growth of TDL regionally and globally.

Anticipating Economic Shocks: Using Traditional Tool in New Ways
Regional partnerships must anticipate business growth and contraction cycles, and react quickly enough to take advantage of opportunities a changing economy will present. Learn how to use traditional workforce intelligence in new ways, such as using unemployment insurance administrative data to get ahead of the curve. Also hear about the Cobb Talent Inventory, a business engagement model that obtains business expansion and contraction, worker benefits, and worker skill needs to inform talent development.

Regional Strategies to Address Talent Pipeline Needs of the Energy Industry
Regional partnerships have been formed in Maryland, Pennsylvania, and Virginia to meet the demand for a skilled workforce in the energy industry, including traditional and clean energy sectors. The session will highlight initiatives undertaken to identify skills gaps in the energy industry to increase the awareness of employment and career ladder opportunities, and to leverage resources to create training programs that meet industry needs.

(Pre-Conference) What's Your Future: A Regional Planning Simulation
How will planning decisions impact the environment, population, growth, and over-all community health? During this highly interactive learning simulation, teams will compete to drive regional strategies in order to achieve the best 25-year outcome for a region in the rugged Australian outback. This simulation integrates decision making across the community, economic, and environmental dimensions, while incorporating global, national, and local issues.

Economic Shock

Getting Ahead of the Curve: Regional Innovation Grants
In the 21st century, regions are the center of economic action. Growing and managing regional economies is a challenging task. Regional Innovation Grants (RIGs) assist regional economies with developing strategic and transformative plans to counteract the effects of economic shock and better manage workforce transition. This workshop provides an overview of RIGs and engages participants in a discussion on how to leverage this opportunity to increase their success in the global market.

The Integrated RIG Planning Process: Lessons From the First Regional Innovation Grant
Newton, Iowa and the Central Iowa region are a microcosm of the changes in the manufacturing industry. Learn how the region used workforce information intelligence and tools, along with carefully facilitated local intelligence, to form the region and lead a data-driven planning process focused on creating a different kind of economy. Understand the key aspect of "selling" regionalization in an environment that is intensely political and local in its perspective.

Beyond the Usual Suspects: Maximizing Community Assets to Address Critical Workforce Issues
The petroleum industry has been the economic driver in Louisiana’s Acadiana region for decades. Unprecedented rebuilding of oil rigs and drilling platforms in the aftermath of hurricanes Katrina and Rita has exacerbated daunting workforce shortages that already existed due to retirement and lack of pipeline development. In this session, presenters from the Lafayette Economic Development Authority and Lafayette Workforce Investment Board 41 will discuss the innovative partnership they assembled to address the critical welding shortage.

(Pre-Conference) Emergency Preparedness and Continuity of Operations Partners Needed
This pre-conference workshop will highlight efforts to prepare for national emergencies such as an influenza pandemic, major natural disaster, terrorist attack, or other incident. Drawing upon lessons learned from the September 11th terrorist attacks and Hurricanes of 2005, ETA’s Offices of Financial and Administrative Management, Workforce Investment, Workforce Security, and National Response will discuss federal/state collaborations to prepare for and execute essential and mission critical functions during future emergencies.

The Aftershock: One Region's Response to Talent Development in the Wake of a Natural Disaster
One of the results of Hurricane Katrina and Rita was an upside down economy, when business’ needs no longer match the workforce skills across the state. The “out migration” of business and workers affected not only the immediate region but caused an “in migration” to other regions of the state. This workshop will discuss Louisiana’s response to the disaster.

Entrepreneurship

Entrepreneurship: Communities and One-Stop Career Centers Supporting Job Creation, Innovation, and a Flourishing Economy
Almost 2/3 of new jobs are created by small business entrepreneurs. An innovative economy recognizes the value of entrepreneurship, trains future leaders, enhances workers’ entrepreneurial skills and abilities, and strengthens the environment for them. Given the importance of developing entrepreneurial talent, this workshop will highlight approaches for partnering with economic development and education partners to position local One-Stops as drivers in an innovation economy.

(Research Showcase) Entrepreneurship Opportunities for Workforce System Clients
Can One-Stop Career Centers provide entrepreneurship opportunities for workforce system customers? Yes! This research showcase will discuss the key strategies that were implemented in the three-site (Maine, Pennsylvania, and Minnesota) random assignment demonstration to provide micro-enterprise and small business development services to workforce system clients. Best practices, lessons learned, and net-impact analysis findings from the demonstration will be highlighted.

Rural is the New Urban: The Role of Entrepreneurship in Rural Economic Development
For rural regions across the country, entrepreneurship is a critical component to a robust economic development strategy. By developing entrepreneurial spirit and talent across the education continuum, public workforce system, and business community, rural communities can retain talent in the region to help grow their existing businesses and create new enterprises.

Owning Your Own Business is a NFTE Idea: Youth Entrepreneurship
The National Foundation for Teaching Entrepreneurship (NFTE) share its secrets for developing our next generation of entrepreneurs. View some of their hands-on teaching exercises and expand your knowledge of business development. Learn how to engage businesses to support youth entrepreneurship in your community. Hear the testimony of successful youth business owner and share their journey to financial freedom.

Ex-Offenders

Prisoner Reentry Training: What Resources Are Available for My Staff?
We continually look for various types of trainings that lead to employment for ex-offenders. Yet, do we know what training is available for our own staff so that they can more effectively and efficiently assist these clients? Come learn about the free reentry workforce development training for staff developed by the Federal Bureau of Prisons, National Institute of Corrections, and the Office of Pretrial & Probation Services, members of the U.S. Federal Partnership.

The Best of the Prisoner Re-entry Initiative
The Prisoner Reentry Initiative, a two year initiative, provides employment, training, and supportive services to ex-offenders returning to the community. Presenters will share lessons learned from faith-based and community-based organizations (FBCBOs) that are on the front-lines of developing and implementing PRI programs. Learn how to utilize these valuable lessons to build connections between the local Department of Corrections, the public workforce system, FBCBOs, and other strategic partners to successfully reintegrate ex-offenders.

Barrier Busters: The Role of Community and Faith-Based Nonprofit Organizations in Outreach, Placement, and Retention
Many workforce development officials still have questions about partnering with faith-based and community-based nonprofit organizations (FBCBO). Learn how local workforce investment boards utilize FBCBOs to assist struggling and hard to serve workers and jobseekers. Panelists will use practical analysis and discussion to demonstrate the role of these organizations.

How to Train and Place Ex-Offenders while Meeting your Performance Goals
This workshop explores ways to align your public workforce system and develop strategic partnerships to address the needs of ex-offenders while also meeting and exceeding your performance goals. Strategies that will be discussed include engaging faith-based and community-based organizations (FBCBO) in service delivery, as well as approaches to job placement and retention for ex-offenders.

Faith-Based Community-Organizations

Transformational Leadership: A Workforce Development Board Case Study
View the transformation of a Texas Workforce Board from an internally focused programmatic, institution to a customer-focused, empowered organization. In 2005, Workforce Solutions redesigned operations to align and respond to the demands of the business market. Today, Workforce Solutions contracts with a private for-profit and a faith-based non-profit for workforce system delivery. We are an organization-wide system of necessary partners, functions and services to "Lead Change, Connect People to Opportunities, and Improve Potential."

Federal Partners

Aligning NSF Advanced Technology Center Programs with the Workforce System
The National Science Foundation funds more than 35 Advanced Technology Education Centers throughout the U.S. to support advanced technology industries with technical education programs and train current and future workforces. This session will provide worksystem representatives with a working knowledge of the Centers and highlight examples of how they can link their efforts to those Centers.

Developing Low-Skilled Workers: Promising Practices from the Urban Partnerships Initiative Toolkit
This lab highlights the HHS/ACF Urban Partnerships Initiative Online Toolkit, which disseminates information on effective practices to human services and workforce systems. Designed as a dynamic resource, the toolkit features over 60 promising programs from around the country. Because the toolkit is a collection of templates, case examples, and intake/assessment and other instruments, the information provided will help the workforce investment system in its efforts to serve emerging, displaced, dislocated, or other at-risk workers.

(Super Session) Two Partners – One Goal: WIA and TANF Working Together to Help the Hard-to-Serve Succeed in the Global Economy
The collaboration of WIA-funded and TANF programs is necessary to support welfare recipients, ex-offenders, and other hard-to-serve populations in developing the skills needed to succeed in the workforce. Leaders from the Employment and Training Administration and the Administration for Children and Families will discuss how serving hard-to-serve individuals and welfare recipients can be done within the context of WIRED principles. Hear the federal policy foundation for such collaboration and examples of how this collaboration works.

Foundations

The New Age of Recruitment: Attracting and Retaining Baby Boomers through Recruitment Strategy and Internet Tools
Learn why skills training is not lost on the older worker and how to find those Boomers interested in changing their career track through continued education and re-entry into the labor market. Support your employer customers by using special tools to attract this age demographic. By making it a part of their core business strategy, you are directly influencing their bottom line profit margin -- and your success.

Shifting Gears: Reorganizing Adult Education to Create Career Pathways for Today’s Workforce
Nearly two-thirds of all new jobs projected to be created in the next decade will require high levels of technical and problem-solving skills. Too many workers lack the skills and credentials to fill those jobs. This workshop will highlight state policy solutions to address this mismatch. The Workforce Strategy Center will present national models; the Joyce Foundation will describe their Shifting Gears Initiative; and the Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development will share the Wisconsin model.

Jobs to Careers: Work-Based Learning and Career Advancement in the Health Care Industry
The key to meeting the escalating demand for healthcare workers is to grow the skills and abilities of frontline employees already working in healthcare organizations. Learn how Jobs to Careers, funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation with additional support from The Hitachi Foundation and the U.S. Department of Labor, is developing models across the country — including tribal communities — to effectively produce positive outcomes for healthcare workers and employers, and communities.

Community Foundations: Investors and Collaborators in Talent Development
There are over 700 community foundations in the United States. In 2006, they invested approximately $3.6 billion to improving the quality of life in regions across the nation. The dedication of community foundations to the socioeconomic well-being of their community makes them natural partners for regional talent development. Learn how you can engage community foundations in educating and preparing your region’s workforce.

Drop Outs Dropping In
Out-of-school youth and those at risk of dropping out are an important part of the new workforce “supply pipeline.” Learn innovative strategies to re-engage drop-outs and retain those at risk of dropping out. Presenters will discuss strategies for improving data collection and analysis; increasing educational options, building community partnerships and support, assessing policy barriers to collaboration, and accessing community partner resources. Learn how to use these “blueprints” to re-connect youth to educational pathways.

Homelessness

Tapping Unemployed Street Dwellers to Become Valued Wage Earners
Workforce Investment Boards (WIB) can serve homeless job seekers. In Houston, Texas, the WIB recognized that the street homeless population was not only a community concern for downtown businesses, but that homeless people represent a potential labor asset to regional employers. Their solution was a strategy to leverage workforce development and homeless assistance services to meet employer needs.

Immigrants and Limited English Proficiency

Talent that Came Looking For You: Tapping Into Immigrant and Refugee Skills
From green-card lottery winners to refugees, immigrants arrive in the U.S. under many different types of work authorizations. Learn how your region can tap into the legal immigrant workforce in your backyard by helping immigrant professionals get certified in the U.S., teaching entry-level workers the unwritten codes of the American workplace, and finding the crucial first jobs that help newcomers build U.S. experience. Plus, use data to help employers see the concrete benefits to their businesses.

Speed Up Success with Contextualized Learning
Do your workforce clients need to learn English and gain occupational skills to maintain a competitive advantage? Don't have time for traditional ESL programs? Then join this interactive session featuring strategies for implementing contextual learning methodologies that accomplish two goals at the same time — simultaneous English Language and occupational skills acquisition.

Taking Steps to Success: Promoting Economic Mobility for Latino Youth
The National Council of La Raza (NCLR), with the funding and support from the PepsiCo Foundation and PepsiCo, Inc., developed the NCLR Escalera Program: Taking Steps to Success. The NCLR Escalera Program is a national after-school model that promotes economic mobility for Latino youth by increasing educational attainment, career planning, and access to information about well-paying careers.

Tap into the Refugee Labor Pool
Did you know that in 2006 over 80,000 refugees were resettled in the U.S.? Did you know that refugees are eligible to work in the U.S., making them a consistently growing part of the U.S. workforce? Learn how to connect to this talent pipeline. In this session you will learn about the demographics of this population and about replicable models of collaboration between the public workforce system and the U.S. Refugee Resettlement Program.

Indian/Native Americans

Leveraging Inclusive Business Partnerships to Upgrade the Skills of Native Americans
Outlining the success of Canada’s Aboriginal Skills & Employment Partnership (ASEP) program, this session will highlight how one funded project in Vancouver has developed a set of tools and services to help American Indians obtain the skills they need to secure high-skilled, high-demand jobs in the construction industry. Learn how a coordinated approach between government, business, education and Indian and Native American communities is creating long term high skilled employment pathways.

Job Corps

Job Corps: Integrating a Standards-Based Approach into Career Technical Education for America’s At-Promise Youth
Learn about the steps taken to implement a standards-based education and training system as part of Job Corps’ New Vision, including: the practical application of applied-academic standards that supports career pathways into high-growth, high-demand industries and key academic concepts that lead to industry-recognized certifications and career success. Presenters will also highlight evidence-based instructional strategies that best support the Job Corps student.

K-12 Education

Ford Motor Company Fund's Next Generation Learning Communities
Ford Motor Company Fund's Next Generation Learning Communities (NGLCs) align education and workforce and economic development to prepare students and young adults for the needs of emerging economies. NGLC focuses on the development of successful and sustainable career academies, one of the most thriving high school redesign models. The Ford Fund has identified 12 best practices that guide regional collaboration between education, workforce and economic development, employers, and key community leaders and institutions.

Regional Collaboration in Support of Foster Youth: It Works!
In the late 1990s, a group of foster youth made a plea to the County of San Diego: "Give us stability!" Today, San Pasqual Academy, a residential high school, and many other independent living skills programs developed in partnership with the San Diego Workforce Partnership, prove that forming critical government, community, and business alliances can bring dramatic, measurable improvements to the lives of this most vulnerable client population. This session explores the power of partnership.

Labor Market Information

Regional Intelligence and Expertise: Knowing, Communicating, and Leveraging Your Workforce System to Improve Outcomes
Are we aligned? Two dozen workforce partners undertake a data-driven mission to understand, communicate, and leverage resources that support job seekers and employers. Talent Pipeline: A data driven analysis of the education and training pipeline and how education and training institutions responded. Workforce 101: Are job seekers really getting the information they need and are resources being leveraged and maximized? Employer Deluge: An inventory of employer outreach efforts, what this revealed, and how employers responded.

Power Tools: OnTheMap - Impact Analysis Using Local Employment Dynamics
Workforce and labor market intelligence is critical to regional planning. Advanced features of the Census Bureau’s Local Employment Dynamic (LED) OnTheMap tool include: paired-area analysis, concentric circle and buffer views, and creating custom geographies. Participate in this "hands on" experience of the OnTheMap tool and discussion of analytical techniques. Also, learn how to compile LED microdata for highly specialized custom impact analysis and applications of the Quarterly Workforce Indicators.

WIN/WIN: Workforce Information Innovator's Network
The Workforce Information Innovator’s Network is advancing the application and integration of data, analysis, and research into regional economic development decision-making by establishing and supporting a national data producers and consumers network. Hear an update on the WIN-WIN network’s progress and discuss ways stakeholders in the public workforce system, labor market information, economic development, education, and private sector human resource organization can contribute to and benefit from the network’s efforts.

Literacy/Adult Basic Education

Heroes at Home: Serving Military Spouses
The Department of Labor and Department of Defense (DoD) have developed several initiatives to increase military spouses’ access to training, and broaden their ability to enter and advance in portable careers. This session will highlight the Military Spouse Career Advancement Account demonstration, the milspouse.org web portal, and DoD initiatives that link military spouses with training and employment.

Older Workers

(Research Showcase) Stop the Age Tsunami: Retaining Mature Healthcare Workers
How can we retain mature healthcare workers longer, thereby benefiting from their experience and addressing the healthcare worker shortage? Hear the valuable results of 20 focus groups, including structured conversations and exercises, conducted with retired and soon-to-retire healthcare workers (e.g., nurses and allied healthcare workers), across the country. This study was done through a collaboration with The Johns Hopkins Hospital, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, and HCA; it was funded by the U.S. Department of Labor.

(Pre-Conference) Creating Partnerships: Making the Case for Serving Mature Workers
One-Stop Career Centers should be a natural resource for people 55 years and older choosing and needing to work. However, many of them are unable to effectively reach this population and connect them to suitable employment. In addition, most agencies that serve mature workers are not familiar with existing training and employment services available for this population. Learn how innovative partnerships between One-Stop Career Centers and the Senior Community Service Employment are serving mature workers.

Life after Retirement: Strategies for Retaining and Retraining an Aging Workforce
The North Central Indiana region has developed a cross-sector collaborative partnership to bridge the gap between older individuals reentering the workforce and employer needs. Highlighted strategies include Maturity Matters, a North Central Indiana WIRED initiative, that provides educational and workforce resources to mature adults by connecting regional employers. Join the Tecumseh Area Partnership, Inc. in a lively discussion and case study exercises.

Rural Workforce Issues

Cultivating More than Just Land: Maximizing the Talent Pool of Youth in Rural America
The Shared Youth Vision Team of Minnesota will highlight their efforts to provide youth in rural areas with career development strategies and comprehensive services. Learn how Project C3: Connecting Youth to Communities and Careers and a regional career information Web site has successfully assisted youth in rural areas to connect with training, employment, and multiple education pathways.

STEM

(Super Session) Real People, Real Skills: Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) is the Foundation for Tomorrow’s Skilled Workforce
Who are STEM professionals and what industries do they work in? Dr. Eric Jolly — a highly engaging, internationally recognized expert on STEM education — understands the very real impact that STEM education has on the development of a skilled workforce. Dr. Jolly will share the findings of his latest research on student engagement and success and make the connection to real people and real jobs.

The New Stem Formula: STEM + Jobs = Success
In an increasingly global environment is the adequate supply of science, the key to U.S. economic growth is technology, engineering, and math (STEM) workers capable of translating knowledge and skills into new processes, products, and services. This session will highlight how two states are addressing the growing need for a STEM workforce through statewide initiatives that include instituting professional development for STEM educators and defining performance indicators to achieve a statewide STEM agenda.

TANF

Technology-Based Learning

Using the Virtual Portal to Build Sustainable Educational Workforce Partnerships
This presentation demonstrates the innovative Virtual Portal, a unique browser application built to exploit both 2D and 3D facets of the web to provide online education. Currently supporting a remote sensing curriculum, it is fully customizable, provides instruction either synchronously or asynchronously, and is supported by a creative team of computer scientists, educators and graphic designers. Courses can be built on demand, restructured to meet unique workforce needs, or built from scratch according to workforce requirements.

Increasing Access to Training: The Collaborative Online Workforce Education and Training Portal
Under the Technology-Based Learning (TBL) Initiative, the Employment and Training Administration launched a collaborative effort with The Pennsylvania State University, the Sloan Foundation, and four state workforce agencies to expand access to online training opportunities through the development of a web portal. The portal aligns online courses with the high-growth/high-demand industries and occupations targeted in each state. Come see how this innovative tool is on the cutting edge of making training available to workforce system clients.

(Pre-Conference) Technology-Based Learning Initiative Forum
The purpose of this half-day, pre-conference session is to increase awareness of the Technology-Based Learning (TBL) Initiative and to explore the use, benefits, and challenges for workforce training. Workforce professionals will learn how TBL has been used to develop talent in regional economies.

Veterans Re-Entry Education and Training: Leveraging Collaborations and Strategic Partnerships
Minnesota is a model for helping returning veterans readjust to civilian communities and workplaces. In 2007, 2,600 National Guard members returned to Minnesota from overseas deployment. The best-estimate was that 10% of them were likely unemployed and 15% were underemployed. This presentation will focus on the impact of strategic partnerships, re-integration programs, federal and state education and training programs, and web-based solutions that assist returning service members and their families in the reintegration process.

UI Claimants

It's Popular, It's Powerful, It's Getting Unemployed Workers Back to Work Quickly - It's Reemployment and Eligibility Assessment
The Reemployment and Eligibility Assessment (REA) initiative brings unemployment insurance (UI) beneficiaries, many of them dislocated workers, into One-Stop Career Centers to assess their need for re-employment services and confirm their eligibility for UI benefits. New software, used by states to assign accurate occupational codes, helps One-Stops ensure that workers get the right services right away, including job referrals.

Tools for Targeting Services to Dislocated Workers
The Worker Profiling and Reemployment Services (WPRS) program helps One-Stop Career Centers target their dislocated worker services most effectively. Updated statistical models ensure that UI beneficiaries who need services the most are referred to One-Stops soon after lay-off for effective intervention.

Union

A Shared Workforce Agenda: Labor-Management Partnerships Making a Difference
Through its partnership with DOL, the Working for America Institute will build an understanding in the workforce community regarding how labor-management partnerships can provide solutions to local or regional workforce challenges, as well as to provide those partnerships with an increased understanding of how the public workforce system can increase the effectiveness and reach of their work. This session will explore union and employer partnerships across advanced manufacturing and energy industries.

Veterans and Military Spouses

Heroes in the Civilian Workforce
Top employers such as GE, BNSF, Home Depot, Starbucks, and Cisco work together with regional partners to address acute skills needs by tapping into the talent of our returning military personnel. Their considerations include transition counseling, work/family issues, pay differentials, career counseling in targeted industries, assessments. Programs such as Operation Home Front and Yellow Ribbon will also be highlighted.

Leveraging Common Goals to Get Things Done for Veterans
You may find partnership opportunities at your finger tips with organizations who share your same goals and who can help you get more things done. We’ve found that we can get more things done for veterans, faster and better, by proactively partnering with key stakeholders who share our most important missions. Learn how we are partnering across systems to meet the employment needs of veterans.

Youth

In the Mix: What it Takes to Develop the Next Generation of American Workers
Strengthen your strategies for developing the youth pipeline by learning the results of the " Developing Youth Talent-Business Led Solutions Forum." The business community and two national organizations that have successfully engaged business and industry will share key insights to developing successful programs help youth gain employability skills, garner experience in high growth high demand jobs, as well as making connections within the business community.

(Educational Tour) Cafe Reconcile
Enjoy New Orleans cuisine and celebrate the success of local youth at Café Reconcile, the setting for the St. Regis Hospitality Program. This program employs local residents and trains at-risk youth from the Greater New Orleans area. Take advantage of this unique opportunity to learn about an inspirational program while enjoying the restaurant's wonderful Creole fare. Wednesday, July 16, 12:15 p.m. - 2:00 p.m.

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