Forum connects business, education
'Hot button' event aims to develop plan
MOSES LAKE — Educators and employers come gather next week for a forum designed to connect them together.
The High Demand Careers Education Forum, sponsored by Basin Tech Prep Consortium, takes place from 4 p.m. to 9 p.m. at Big Bend Community College's ATEC Building. The forum includes dinner.
The event's purpose, said Mary Shannon, director of career advising and outreach and Tech Prep for the college, is to inform educators about local economic growth and current and future job opportunities in the area.
"We're going to focus on high-wage, high-demand career paths to identify labor market gaps, available training and ways educators can prepare and advise students for training and future employment," Shannon said.
Employers get specific about job titles, skill levels, wages and career pathways so all involved can explore ways to collaborate for work force solutions, she added.
"Really, everybody I've talked to, it seems to hit a hot button," she said. "Employers are saying, 'We have immediate job needs and we're doing everything we can to fill them. At this time, we're having trouble finding those skilled workers.'"
Shannon believes the college can develop programs quickly to meet the needs, but wants to include school systems and explore ways they can also spread the word to parents and students.
"The statistics over and over and over again say 80 percent of jobs require some post-secondary training, and not necessarily a four-year degree," she said. "Employers are saying, with solid, basic skills and specific skilled training, people have great opportunities. These are not minimum-wage manufacturing jobs people think of. They're high-skilled jobs, and we're having trouble filling it."
Shannon said about 30 percent of youth drop out of high school, while few graduates truly go on to finish four-year degrees.
"Sixty percent of them don't have a clue what they're going to do when they get out of high school," she said. "I'm not trying to bash our school districts, I'm just saying we've got a disconnect here. What we're trying to do is fix that. We're trying to connect."
Grant County Economic Development Council Executive Director Terry Brewer welcomes attendees, while presenters include Lee Technologies, which is working on Microsoft; Genie Industries, REC Silicon and Donald Meseck with the Ellensburg-based Labor Market and Economic Analysis Branch of Washington State Employment Security.
Meseck plans to talk about employment, unemployment and wage trends over the last five years for both Grant and Adams counties as he provides an economic update.
"And then doing a little projection into the first couple quarters of this year, but primarily we're looking at what happened in (Grant County) over the last five years," Meseck said. "And doing some comparisons with other central Washington counties and with the state."
Grant County is doing quite well, Meseck said, with more than 1,000 new nonagricultural jobs generated in the last year.
"2007 looks bright," he added. "2005 was a reasonably good year for the county, 2006 was an excellent year. I don't have a crystal ball for 2007 but just looking at the developments in the area … there's a lot of good news, I think, coming up for the local economy."
Meseck said his presentation includes some Adams County information.
After presentations, Shannon says the rest of the forum is devoted to determining what can be done. She hopes to develop a single point of contact to pull the pieces together.
The forum is intended for educators and business leaders. Every school district in Grant and Adams counties was contacted, Shannon said, with most in attendance.
"I'm hoping we come away with some concrete activities and goals each partner can move forward with," she said. "I don't want it to be just a nice discussion and information night and then everybody goes back to doing the same thing. I want to see us actually come up with a plan."