Getting Southern Maryland Back to Work
Have you heard about “Getting Southern Maryland Back to Work” and want to know more? Check out this first of several podcast episodes to find out more. : https://podcast.charlescountymd.gov/…/8133055-getting… Learn how businesses and individuals can benefit from this collaboration between the College of Southern Maryland and the Tri-County Council for Southern Maryland.
Town Hall and Roundtable Recordings
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Introduction
Getting Southern Maryland Back to Work is a collaborative effort among regional community partners to prepare for economic recovery as the COVID-19 pandemic eases. The roles of providers of workforce development and training services are important in any economy, but now more than ever as we prepare citizens and businesses for the new normal.
Understanding that this preparation must not wait until the economy fully re-opens, key leaders of workforce development and training, the Tri-County Council’s Workforce Development Division and the College of Southern Maryland’s Continuing Education & Workforce Development Division initiated discussions that led to the realization that our community needs us now, not to just do what we do best, but to do what we do best together – thus the creation of this collaborative project, Getting Southern Maryland Back to Work.
Getting Southern Maryland Back to Work aligns the Federal, State and Local investments designed to provide access to industry recognized trainings and certifications leading to high demand and high wage occupations. The alignment of these resources will provide targeted responses to critical needs, maximizing our regional impact and preparing us for a future in which the workforce is being redefined.
Established in 1958, The College of Southern Maryland is known as a progressive, innovative, and technologically-advanced institution. As a regionally-accredited institution that prides itself on delivering high quality educational services, it also serves as a catalyst for business, industry, and government to identify the resources needed to grow and maintain a healthy economy and community. CSM’s mission is to enhance lives and strengthen the economic vitality of a diverse and changing region by providing affordable post-secondary education, workforce development, and cultural and personal enrichment opportunities.
For more than 55 years, the Tri-County Council for Southern Maryland has elevated the opportunities vital to our region’s prosperity. From economic development to agriculture, workforce training to transportation, the Council provides Southern Maryland’s citizens and businesses with resources for long-term growth. Priorities and programs of the Council are driven by real-time needs of the region; thus, the Council’s critical role in this effort.
Purpose & Goals
The key objectives of this project are threefold:
1. Investing in emerging skills needs
Getting Southern Maryland Back to Work is a call to action that involves the actions and innovations of all members of our community. The immediate and long-term impact of the Covid-19 pandemic will affect the knowledge and skills of workers across industries. As safety, sanitation and remediation become common workplace practices staff at all levels, particularly those in public facing roles will require additional skills training. Existing industry training at the College of Southern Maryland has been enhanced to include learning modules on Covid-19 awareness, safe worker and safe workplace protocols. These competencies are also delivered as standalone courses for existing workers and skilled professionals that need to enhance their knowledge of these safe worker, safe workplace protocols.
In addition to the need for enhanced skills of existing workers, new and emerging occupations will require new skills and certifications. New certificate programs are being developed for Infectious control and barrier protection, Community Health Liaison, Contract Tracing Proficiency, Medical Assisting, Communication and Customer Service skills and others in response to these needs.
As face to face training options are restricted during the COVID recovery period, training offered at CSM is available online via web-based, hybrid and real-time technology formats. Hybrid offers a combination of web and in-person instruction. Some on-campus instruction required. Courses designated as Web-based are taught completely in the virtual environment, with no fixed or required meeting time. Classes have a determined start and end date. Students work at self-pace. Real Time Technology (RTT) courses are taught through technology in a virtual environment at scheduled times and dates. Students interact with their instructor and each other in this online classroom environment.
We have a responsibility in ensuring equity in the development of our post-COVID response. It is important though to keep in mind that the COVID-19 pandemic will at some point end, and we will have to strengthen our resolve to ensure that access to our region’s workforce development programs is inclusive. We are also aware that when our economy starts to awaken, employers may be cautious in their re-hiring and this is where we can play a critical role in protecting the equity of our workforce development response. We need to work closer than ever with local community-based organization (CBO) partners. We have to partner with employers who are shifting their employment needs, and we must continue to stay aligned with federal, state and local initiatives that can support key industry sectors in both their contingency and long-term recovery plans. In addition, a workforce development response would not be complete without a focus on the basic education of individuals who seek to enter the job market at an entry level and build up from there.
The TCCSMD is investing in SkillUP, an online platform designed to help the Southern Maryland Region build a workforce ecosystem that supports positive economic development. The platform will be available to all Southern Maryland citizens to explore career pathways, assess career interests and aptitudes, and develop basic skills. SkillUP is a bridge program that helps prepare individuals for employment or secondary education, and is the on-ramp to our workforce development response.
For eligible job seekers, the Federal Workforce Innovation & Opportunity Act will be leveraged. The Act funds employment and training activities that ensure the region produces a skilled workforce that meets the needs of businesses and strengthens the local economy.
Pre-COVID community stakeholders including economic development, K-12, chambers of commerce, the workforce system and CSM convened to discuss the regional economic benefits of the delivery of the ACT WorkKeys National Career Readiness Certification program and subsequent designation as a Work Ready Community. WorkKeys NCRC assesses both hard and soft skills in core employability areas such as critical thinking, applied math and graphic literacy. The use of this assessment in certified Work Ready Communities throughout the nation has proven to increase employer satisfaction with employee recruitment and retention. In the Post-COVID world this certification can provide critical evidence of employability skills and aid employers in hiring assessments. We are committed to the continuous pursuit of this designation for our community.
We have an opportunity, but more importantly we have a responsibility. We can build a lifeline for individuals looking beyond stop-gap measures to long-term solutions, who are seeking to gain a foothold on the path to a family-sustaining career. With the right partnerships and support in place, workforce development is positioned to make that happen.
2. Responding to business needs
The business services team of TCCSMD & CSM consist of six individuals with over 100 years of combined experience in supporting business needs through consultative inquiry. This boots on the ground intelligence will guide the workforce training response efforts of this initiative. The region’s 25-member Workforce Development Board has 13 private sector members representing the retail, hospitality, construction, healthcare, and information technology industries. Additionally, guidance from our regional Chambers of Commerce, County Economic Development Departments and industry associations will aid in determining priorities and program development.
In each of our growth sectors there exists an alliance of industry, workforce, education and many other community partners, as well as State and Federal representatives of our legislatures. This approach to workforce development allows for support of business by bringing everyone to the table to really listen to business. The exchange of ideas, solutions, and plans can be offered only when the resource partners have a clear understanding of the pain points (or issues.)The work these alliances are doing has established a strong partnership between all who have a stake in the well-being and economic viability of our region. Through these alliances, needed trainings have been created and implemented, not only for jobseekers and career changers, but also in support of companies who need to upskill their current employees.
3. Reshaping workforce development for the future
These unprecedented times present opportunities for a reimagined workforce system, one that can provide adaptive and agile solutions, one that is nimble and able to respond to emerging needs quickly. We recognize that the level of resiliency and innovation required of industry must be met with an equal response. In this framework, Getting Southern Maryland Back to Work engages key partners and stakeholders to inform coordinated next steps towards providing critical incumbent and new worker training, and the reshaping of curriculum both in its core content and in its delivery modes.
We will leverage our collective experience in previous economic recovery activities, implementing best practices in cohort training, virtual and hybrid course delivery, customized curriculum development, and accelerated learning. Throughout this process we will capture best practices and seek to identify new innovations to ensure the available pipeline of workers needed during and post COVID-19.
The regional workforce system is a set of organizations and activities that prepares people for employment, helps workers advance in their careers, and seeks to build a skilled workforce to support employers and the local economy. Local workforce system organizations often perform multiple functions to serve adults and youth who need help preparing for and succeeding in the workforce. Local workforce systems include public, nonprofit, and private agencies and organizations, including employers and industry groups, and are supported by multiple federal, state, local, and private funding sources. These programs and activities are coordinated through state and local structures created by the federal Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA). Under WIOA, local workforce development boards (WDBs) administer the core workforce programs offered, with guidance and oversight from state workforce agencies. Workforce development boards also coordinate with a range of other publicly funded programs (e.g., child care subsidies, housing, and career and technical education) to ensure workforce customers can access the supportive services and assistance they need to be successful in their career search. In addition, WDBs address such issues as skills shortages by engaging employers and industry in preparing workers for available jobs. Strategically, we are poised to deliver this response.
The framework of this coordinated response will be centered around analysis (the need), engagement (the people), and alignment (the process). The analysis is informed by primary and secondary research including economic forecasts, labor market information, unemployment insurance data and most importantly the needs of industry. Engagement will include the Workforce Development Board, CSM, Economic Development, Chambers of Commerce and Industry. A series of town hall meetings with leading industries will be held to inform training decisions. Alignment refers to a systematic approach to provision of training that encompasses a broad range of skill upgrade needs, from provision of basic career readiness and entry level skills to technical skills.
Outcomes/Impact
Getting Southern Maryland Back to Work will benefit local business and industry which in turn benefits our community and the local economy. This project will create clear pathways for individuals who are unemployed or underemployed, and create new opportunities at a time when career change is a likely avenue for workers affected by this crisis.
We understand that those cities, states and towns across the county that can find systemic and sustainable ways towards the re-employment of its citizens will be those that recover the quickest. Those that lag behind risk the loss of talent as people relocate to seek work, and the loss of industry as it struggles to rebound. Getting Southern Maryland Back to Work is the responsibility of all in our community who have a vested interest in its vitality and recovery.
The United States has seen unprecedented unemployment in the wake of this pandemic and Southern Maryland is not immune from its impacts. Unemployment has risen to 8.5% (April 2020 data) regionally,[1] with the greatest impact seen in the retail, healthcare and construction industries. Underemployment is an ongoing challenge in our region. While median household income sits at $96,888, per capita income is only $40,818 suggesting that individual wage earners hold multiple jobs and/or households must have multiple wage earners in order to maintain a standard of living in our region.[2] This puts single wage earner households at poverty wage levels.
In prior extended emergency recovery periods like 9-11, we’ve seen a great number of career changers, both by those who served on the front lines and desired to retire and those who had other occupations and felt a draw towards those fields they felt were able to make more of an impact on lives during difficult times. We anticipate similar workforce recovery activity post COVID-19 and are prepared to provide stackable training options, from certificate, to industry certification to degree programs so that all education counts and can be a part of an individual’s professional growth plan while they are still working if they need to.
We believe that engaging the entire community and designing services to meet the diverse needs of learners and industry will aid the rebound in our economy. Businesses and the community at large benefit greatly from the skills and talents of a highly educated workforce, especially if that workforce can find employment in the communities where they live. Living where you work provides more time for volunteerism, community engagement and family. As many employers reimagine work and where work can be done, remote working and telework present opportunities for further engaging our citizens.
[1] https://www.dllr.state.md.us/lmi/areas/smdwia.shtml
[2] https://www.census.gov/quickfacts/fact/table/calvertcountymaryland,stmaryscountymaryland,charlescountymaryland,MD/PST045219
So, who benefits? We all do. Economies are either thriving or dying, there is no real in-between. We all know of a place that people say, “this used to be a great place to work/live before industry (pick one) left.” This can happen anywhere at any time. The difference to be made is the one that communities make when they come together and deliver real solutions to keeping their neighbors working and keeping their businesses open. This is the challenge we face, this is our why.
For more information about the College of Southern Maryland visit www.csmd.edu
For more information about the Tri-County Council for Southern Maryland’s Workforce Division visit www.tccsmd.org
For information about how to obtain employment and training assistance visit https://somdworkforceboard.org/job-seekers/