Final Report

Session I: The Challenge
On August 23, 2001, Congresswoman Anne Northup convened a forum in Louisville, Kentucky to deal with the complex issue of Workforce Development and the New Economy.  Addressing a richly diverse crowd of career educators, business professionals, and concerned citizens, Congresswoman Northup spoke of a new economy that was brimming with potential, yet fraught with peril.  While recent growth had been unprecedented, the future economy depends more than ever on the skills of its workers and much work remains to be done if Kentucky, and the nation, wishes to bridge the digital divide.

Louisville Mayor David Armstrong added a new perspective to the introduction, drawing his welcoming remarks from his experience as an employer.  Workers, he said, will follow jobs, but it requires effort and commitment to give those workers the training they need.  Praising efforts in the Louisville area, Mayor Armstrong highlighted the partnership between UPS and Metropolitan College that had brought nearly 6,000 new jobs to the city.

Executive Director of the largest workforce development broker in Louisville, Kentuckiana Works, Robert Huffman expanded on the comments of Mayor Armstrong with a comprehensive overview of the region’s labor force.  While job opportunities remained prevalent in Louisville, Mr. Huffman pointed out a number of disturbing trends in the region’s economic infrastructure, including comparatively lower internet use, a poor employer assessment of the workforce’s math and verbal skills, comparatively lower pay for mature workers, and extreme job shortages in the skilled trade and health care sectors.  An acceptance of the diversity of the new workforce, broader geographic initiatives, and continuing education programs are necessary to take advantage of the promise of the future economy.

Echoing the international theme, Rebecca Shields, Director of Recruitment for Norton Healthcare, described her conscription efforts in the Philippines, where cooperation with government officials and local hospitals had already led to the hiring of over 60 new nurses.  In a labor force well short of medical personal, Ms. Shields presented a unique program that addresses the domestic shortages by enlisting foreign workers while providing much needed service and teaching to the international medical community in return.

John Kinney, Workforce Development Manager for the United Parcel Service, followed Ms. Shields by expanding on the aforementioned partnership between UPS and Metropolitan College.  The success, Kinney claimed, has been extraordinary.  Drawing in students with deferred tuition and flexible, friendly schedules, Metropolitan College has not only provided a pool of part-time workers for UPS, but also given many students the skills they need for post-degree employment.

Concluding the panel of best practices, Jenny Doolitte, Employment Marketing Manager for Tricon, the fast food giant that runs KFC, Pizza Hut, and Taco Bell, gave another example of the success of business-education partnerships.  With one-third of all Americans having spent some time working in a fast food restaurant, Ms. Doolitte emphasized the importance of instilling in youth employees the qualities of punctuality and teamwork, and providing them with a sense of family so they will have a positive work experience.

The second panel of the session seized on many of the ideas expressed in the previous presentations to discuss regional business-education partnerships.  Mark Cantrell, Program Director of Youth Services at Canaan Community Development Corporation, described his organization’s commitment to continuing education and job placement.  In tones similar to those used by Ms. Doolittle, Mr. Cantrell spoke of making a business like a family with more mentoring and in-house training to ensure higher retention rates, stronger loyalty, and better-trained workers.

The strength of a mentor in student life was reiterated by Dennis White, Executive Director of the Louisville Education and Employment Partnership, who, since 1988, has been working towards higher graduation and employment rates by placing career planners in high schools to provide guidance to students.  Describing the mission of his organization, Mr. White asked the audience to think that, “every student is a success story in progress.”

Bruce Traughber, Executive Director of the Louisville Development Authority, concluded the second session by reemphasizing earlier warnings about the need for more appropriately trained workers and, then, highlighting a number of programs, including Metropolitan College, Guess Jeans, and E-Main, that exemplified the business-government-education model that must exist to guarantee workers are not only highly trained, but also trained for the jobs available.

Session III: Solutions for Individual Industries 
Having explored both the problems and solutions of workforce development, the attention of the forum now shifted to a more detailed exploration of specific labor issues in prominent economic sectors.  The audience divided into clusters to join in facilitated debates on the challenges within certain individual industries.  Each group was charged with delivering three solutions or goals, which were then voted on by the reconvened general assembly.  Though the groups ranged size, the sessions brought a burst of innovation and energy to the conference by getting more people involved.  Solutions and voting records follow:
 

Health Care: 
Facilitated by Vickie Yates Brown, Greenebaum, Doll, & McDonald

Skilled Trades:
Facilitated by Chuck Kavanaugh, Executive Vice President, Home Builders Association of Louisville

Engineering:
Facilitated by Thomas Hanley, Dean of Engineering, Speed Scientific School

Information Technology:
Facilitated by Dr. Brian Daly, Director of New Business Development, McConnell Technology & Training Center

Solutions	Most Effective	Most Feasible
Provide computer and internet access for all	44%	23%
Passionate work skills focused education in graduation requirements	28%	25%
Partnerships with businesses to accomplish access and education	29%	52%

Open Session:
Facilitated by Martin Bell, Deputy to the Superintendent, Jefferson County Public Schools

Solutions	Most Effective	Most Feasible
Make education and training more widely available	72%	69%
Relax child labor laws (currently too prohibitive)	4%	3%
More tax credits	24%	28%

Keynote Address & Closing
Stephanie Powers, Business-Education Partnership Consultant and National School-to-Work Director, took up a new theme in focusing her speech on the issue of school accountability.  While agreeing that there needs to exist accountability in the school system, Ms. Powers questioned society’s ability to determine both standards for teaching and measures of success.  Ms. Powers spoke at length about the overuse of tests and their frequent inability to get results, citing numerous educational blunders including a number of occasions where teachers were given incorrect material to teach their students.

Instead of tests based only rewards and punishments, Ms. Powers called for significant educational changes, including better, more professional teaching and higher expectations, with the goal of continuous improvement in education.

Still, Ms. Powers cautioned, there are many obstacles that stand in the way of educational reform.  There remains a severe shortage of new teachers and an inability to retain existing ones.  Shrinking state budgets also threaten the future of testing and accountability as states become less able to afford additional support programs for failing students.  These problems are not unsolvable, but much work remains in reforming the current education system towards a more progressive future workforce.

Congresswoman Northup closed the forum by reminding the audience of her interest not only as an employer, but also as a mother.  Reaffirming the words of Mr. White to see every student as a success in progress, Congresswoman Northup spoke poignantly about her experience watching her six children grow from “dependency to independence” and hoped that the relationships and ideas forged at the forum would help produce a better future for all children.