Training, childcare top workforce needs list
Mayor leads local group at Good Jobs, Great Cities Academy
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The City of Kokomo recently got to be the small fish in a really important big pond. Local leaders recently were invited to attend a week-long Good Jobs, Great Cities Academy, put on by the National League of Cities and the U.S. Department of Labor.
The academy was designed to provide technical assistance and peer network opportunities to cities of all sizes, with the goal of designing, developing, and launching workforce initiatives. Mayor Tyler Moore was joined by a small team of local leaders to attend the academy in Washington D.C. during the week of July 10.
Moore explained that Kokomo was selected from a pool of more than 250 applicants for the academy. The academy chose 16 cities for its first class, and Kokomo was a second-smallest community to be chosen.
“There were really big cities and us,” said Moore.
The meetings and workshops were held at the Department of Labor, where Moore and his fellow Kokomo representatives discussed topics such as workforce development and support, women’s employment initiatives, affordable childcare, and other issues centered around job market needs.
“It allowed us the opportunity to hear what those respective bureaus did, but the entire focus was on workforce development,” said Moore. “There were communities struggling to get their workforce employed, or those like us and Lansing, Mich., that now have battery plants going up and have an influx of work coming in, but the training may not be there, or may not be available yet.”
Moore believes the Department of Labor was impressed by Kokomo on at least one front. The Kokomo contingent included Ivy Tech Community College Chancellor Ethan Heicher and Indiana University Kokomo Chancellor Mark Canada, along with representatives from regional workforce partnerships of which Kokomo is a part.
“The team that we sent was not city government heavy, so to speak,” said Moore. “There were a lot of others that brought their controller or human resource director. The impetus for our choices was, knowing that we are going to need a workforce, we already recognize that we're going to have to tap into the region.
“How fortunate we are to have both IU Kokomo and Ivy Tech. Our campuses will be instrumental in not only training, but upskilling and upscaling the local workforce.”
Moore felt the largest benefit the local community will derive from the city’s participation is the connection made to the federal government.
“We'll go back and talk to our greater team and decide where we want to focus,” said Moore. “Now, we know who to ask, ‘How can you help us?’ ‘What resources can we gain from the federal government?’ They kept boasting about how there's going to be an influx of cash and funds into the workforce development effort.
“The Department of Labor, themselves specifically, wouldn't provide funding, but they could give support and direction to the funding sources within federal government. There are resources we can utilize from the Department of Labor, but direct funding would come from other government agencies like the Department of Education or the Department of Energy.”
Moore said he currently is awaiting notes from the meetings which were taken by the Department of Labor. Once those are in hand, he intends to meet with a larger group of local leaders, including the Greater Kokomo Economic Development Alliance, high school superintendents, larger employers, union leadership, and small business owners.
From those meetings, the mayor hopes to have a firm grasp on the local challenges and opportunities that present themselves when it comes to preparing the workforce for the next generation of jobs.
“We’ll work from that employer and educator forum, probably in September or October, to see how IU Kokomo and Ivy Tech can be that bridge between employers’ needs and schools’ initiatives,” said Moore. “We’ll see if more can be done at the high school level in partnership with the universities, such as with IU Kokomo’s microcredentials and Ivy Tech with their Industry 4.0 initiative.”
There were other topics discussed during the week that feed into the larger workforce development issue. In particular, affordable housing and affordable childcare were at the forefront of discussions. Just like the larger cities in attendance, Kokomo struggles on these fronts as well.
“Yeah, housing is at the forefront for us, as is childcare,” said Moore. “It was the same other places. One of the participants said it isn’t just childcare, but also childcare for children with special needs. Certainly, that presents an additional challenge or an additional need in those facilities for some type of specialization.
“We have the ability to address special needs childcare, but what do we have for that care after school? And part of it becomes the logistics of getting the kids from their schools to the after-school programming.”
Moore said that facilities and programs that address special needs childcare will be included at the table when that educator and employer forum takes place.
While there were no quick and easy answers handed out during the trip, and no baskets of money waiting to be spent, what Kokomo got from the academy is a roadmap and a conversation starter toward workforce solutions.
“I think it met and even exceeded our expectations,” said Moore. “The initial workshops with the bureaus were great, but then just the team of us, sharing ideas and thoughts and coming up with what we thought we could do. I'm anxious to get the band back together and seeing how we can march forward.”