How It All Started

“Our Crazy Idea”

Shawnee Economic Development Foundation

Points of Pain…• Not enough qualified or skilled applicants• Greater competition for the available labor• Aging workforce• Short AND Long Term workforce concerns• Difficult to access and maneuver workforce delivery

systems• Harder to undertake workforce recruitment and attraction• Pressure to improve production or level of services • Corporate decision on where to invest capital, based upon

labor

What’s feeding the workforce pipeline?

Skilled or Not So Skilled Workforce

Veterans, High

School, Career Tech and College Graduates

Underemployed,

Unemployed, Attraction and Recruitment

Supportive Services

So many options… No roadmap

• OESC/Workforce Ctr.• K-12• Career Tech• Universities• Vet’s Rep• JobMatch.com• ECOWIB• On the Job Training• Gov’s Council on WF &

ED• ODOC – Hot Jobs• OK Alliance / MEA• TIP Funds

• FFA• Head Hunter –

OESC/Private• Skills Training – Prisons• Funds to Retrain Vets• T.A.N.F.• D.H.S.• Adult Rehab Services• Tribal Programs• Temporary Agencies• COHRA• Formerly Incarcerated • Personal Networks

• Media options• Faith-based

Connections• Alternative Schools• Social Services• Work Keys/Key Train• Ecosystems

Development• ?????

Insanity is doing the same thing and…

• Competing or Develop a collaborative process?• Stand alone efforts or A systematic focused

approach?• Figure out the maze of services or Build a

repository of resources?• Keep doing the same things or Utilize every option

available?• Wait for the systems to fix the shortage or Take

action?

Identifying the Gaps…

• Develop a database of who your employers are…• Ask the companies what skills they need…• Listen to them…no really…LISTEN to them….• Separate soft skills from hard skills…• Know who your audience is…• Communicate to the targeted audiences…• Change the way you reach them…• Don’t take credit for anything…• Be innovative in your approach…• Silence doesn’t necessarily mean no one is listening…

Baby steps• We didn’t get this way overnight.• What works for some might not work

for you.• Grassroots is good.• Don’t wait for permission or others to

do this.• Building greed mentality.

But wait there is more…• Skills poster relevancy aid to all area schools.• QR Guide to all area guidance counselors.• WF Landing page with all things in the right file

folders.• Determining who is willing to give business tours.• Getting businesses in the class rooms & assembly

halls.• Continue to build partnerships and supportive efforts.• Forget who won last Friday night’s football game.• More non traditional methods of WF attraction &

development. • Quit waiting on others to fix the shortages.

WF Landing Page

Saving the Planet…Shawnee Economic Development Foundation

www.sedf.comtburg@sedf.biz405-273-7490

“Those communities that consistently develop a skilled workforce will be prosperous for decades to

come.”