Dear Tom (and f/w friends)
Hurrah for your work.
One weekly resource for your ced work might be the UK magazine 'Newstart' -
launched last year - www.newstartmag.co.uk
I've no direct involvement with it, but you might pick up some new UK-base
angles.
Another though is to suggest that you encourage new business starts to set
up as co-operatives - new worker co-ops seem to have a better survival rate
than conventional ones.
I'm on two co-op listservs co-operative-bus and co-opnet both have a lot of
grassroutes / grassroots material.
HTH
e-hugs
j
----------
>From: Tom Christoffel <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>Subject: WorkForce Investment Act - A Report from the Field
>Date: Sun, Feb 13, 2000, 5:14 am
>
>Hello To the List:
>
>I don't remember exactly how I began receiving this list, but I've never
>posted to it. I'm offering a post I made to the Learning Org list hosted by
>Rick Karash <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Public Dialog on Learning Organizations --
><http://www.learning-org.com>. It includes some introductory material and a
>viewpoint on how the region I serve is using the regional resources to
>improve workforce quality and become sustainable.
>
>Dear LO list readers:
>
>I'm director of a regional Planning District Commission in Virginia. In
>other parts of the county they are Councils of Government, Development
>Districts, etc. You can get some orientation though the website in my
>signature block. The Northern Shenandoah Valley had been primarily
>agricultural - though marginal - since reconstruction. Being 60+ miles west
>of Washington, D.C., the Interstates and wealth of the 1960's spawned second
>homes and growth. We have become an increasing piece of the Washington,
>D.C./Northern Virginia housing market, though still fringe. People commute
>60 to 90 miles one way for jobs. Our employment base is manufacturing and
>distribution, now growing because of the excellent mid-atlantic location.
>The metro area growth has driven up the cost of land and housing, but the
>local job base does not pay enough for new workers to get into the housing
>market, so they buy further west - West Virginia - or already live there. As
>a region, we import labor from the west and export to the east. Like most
>southern states, particularly rural areas, investment in education was low
>and remains so, relative to suburban areas.
>
>The local governments, in seeking to broaden their economic base, have
>learned from the existing industry and businesses of all sizes that they
>need a better workforce. To upgrade the skills of those already in the
>workforce, many with low literacy as a result of historical educational
>investment, and the job readiness of new high school graduates. Though the
>Regional Partnership program, the region's strategic plan set workforce
>development as its primary strategy. The Lord Fairfax Community College -
>which had been working with employers for years, found interest in the Work
>Keys program. Through Partnership Funds, they've been able to invest in the
>staffing for it and are working to leverage with corporate training budgets
>of the companies with plants in our region.
>
>We interviewed candidates the other day for the position and have, I think,
>a promising person who is currently a Quality Technician. He's completing
>his MBA and wants to get off the floor. In the interview he said he was the
>beneficiary of his employer's great training program. He said, "80% of the
>training in the U.S. is done by 20% of the companies."
>
>It seems that most of the readers of this list are in that market. These are
>the markets for learning organizations and knowledge based companies. The
>gap in a region like ours - or any area really, is that small, single site
>firms - 500 to 300 to 100 to way under 50 have no corporate training.
>
>My vision has been that the region become the corporate training department
>through the cordination of Community College, job skill training programs,
>private providers, corporate training departments, public schools - etc. The
>Workforce Investment Act which provides Federal funds for Job Training is
>intended to focus the now more limited Private Indusry Council programs on a
>local basis, though for training resources, a region is more reasonable.
>
>Virginia is using WIA as a base and focus for all training resources. It is
>encouraging a regional approach through out the state. The region for which
>I work is seeking to have a common board for the Workforce Investment Act
>and the Regional Parnership - which is also co-terminus with the Planning
>District. The alignment of resources has the makings of our becoming a
>"learning region." As long as the workforce quality in our region is on an
>upward curve, its people will be able to handle shifts in the industrial
>base and, ideally, create their own. This is the vision and the strategy. It
>will only take about 20 years.
>
>So - the Northern Shenandoah Valley is bootstrapping to grow its 90+% of
>median Adjusted Gross Income when our Northern Virginia neighbors are 150%
>of the State median and there are new IPO millionaires every day. The
>difference between the regions? Higher rates of long term public investment
>in education and infrastructure by people who were themselves the product of
>such investment in other areas of the U.S.
>
>Sincerely
>
>Tom Christoffel
>Tom Christoffel, AICP * e-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
>Futurist, Facilitator & Regional Planner - My mission: "Value Regions
>because Regions Work!" Why?
>The economy is global; production is local; all markets in-between are
>regional. Check my region's website: http://www.lfpdc7.state.va.us
>Regional alignment of public data sets enables creativity and supports
>sustainabilty.
>*TJCdesigns * Box 1444 * Front Royal, Virginia (VA) 22630-1444 * Ph:
>540-635-8582*
>
>
