Final Report

Introduction
On August 10, 2001, a diverse collection of business executives, professional educators, and interested citizens of Albuquerque, New Mexico gathered under the assemblage of Congresswoman Heather Wilson to explore the challenges and issues of Workforce Development & The New Economy.  Congresswoman Wilson opened the forum emphasizing that the nation’s inability to respond to the vast changes in labor demand has lead to an inadequately trained and distributed work force.   A 15% high school graduation was acceptable in 1900 when the primary industry remained agriculture but, in 2000, she commented, an 85% percent high school graduation rate is insufficient to guarantee enough skilled workers to fuel the new economy. To support her assertions, Wilson cited a survey that claimed that between 1993 and 1997, the number of CEO’s claiming a shortage of skilled workers as the chief barrier to expansion nearly doubled from 34% to 64%.  While mentioning the recent influx of the high tech industries that have brought positive new opportunities to the district, Congresswoman Wilson called for significant steps across the board to encourage educational reform and workforce preparation.

Opening Address
Daniel Hull, President and CEO of CORD, a nonprofit organization dedicated to improving domestic workforce development, set the stage for the forum in an opening address that illuminated many of the key issues of the debate.  Expanding on Congresswoman Wilson’s claims, Mr. Hull posited that 60-70% of the workforce was ill served by the current educational system, and that reforms were needed to produce workers with a broader range of basic, thinking and personal skills.

Mr. Hull proceeded to outline his vision of a new educational system that calls for a stronger foundation in math and science and a heavier emphasis on contextual learning.  The reforms in teaching style would be combined with a more streamlined curriculum that prioritize technical literacy, critical thinking, and teamwork skills in the early stages of high school and move towards career cluster and work based learning by the ending stages of education.  The goal of this new system, Mr. Hull said, is not only to provide all students with the necessary skills for entry-level jobs, but also to give them the options to pursue a wide range of a career choices, leaving them with the requisite foundations for life long learning so that they might continue to expand their skills in response to the rapidly transforming needs of the labor force.

Session I:  The Challenges
A working panel of employers followed the opening address to discuss the difficulties they faced hiring in the new economy.  Dr. David Scrase, President of the Presbyterian Health Plan, talked at great length about the major shortages of nurses and technicians in the health care industry.  Although the sector employs only about one-sixth of the work force, deficiencies in medical professionals, combined with an aging population, will affect almost everyone.  Dr. Scrase concluded by saying that a more proactive campaign to recruit, prepare, and retain nurses is necessary to avoid a gloomy future of health care consumed by longer delays and higher costs.
Mr. Paul Shirley, a member of the Board of Directors for the Next Generation Economic Initiative and Vice President of the organization’s Workforce Development Committee, expanded on the role of career clusters in creating a “common language” between the business and educational sectors.  Greater linkage between the two would prove mutually beneficial by giving students the chance for life long learning and career development and by allowing businesses to cultivate those educational sectors where skilled workers are needed.  Shirley outlined an extensive list of organizations and businesses involved in the program, and expressed hope that growth of the program would lead to “real-time” streamlining of the workforce.

Moving away from work-based educational issues, Ms. Terri Cole, President of the Greater Albuquerque Chamber of Commerce, spoke of the basic problems in a school system that fails to provide basic education to minority students and leaves 46% percent of its students nearly unqualified for any type of work.  Calling on the state legislature to take action on improving New Mexico’s dismal education record (46th in the nation), Ms. Cole discussed policy suggestions of the Chamber of Commerce to increase teacher accountability by bringing the school system under a more organized hierarchy while continuing to emphasize flexible spending at the local level.

Session II: Solutions at Work
The second session opened up with a passionate address from Representative Kenneth Corn, the 24-year old State Legislator from Oklahoma, who told how college internships in the State Legislature and in the People’s Republic of China had ultimately lead him into his career in public service.  Highlighting the obvious success of his own experience, Representative Corn called for an expansion in work-based learning and internships for students.  With the enthusiasm of his words still reverberating in the hall, Congresswoman Wilson asked each employer present to write on his or her business card the number of interns they had this year and how many interns they planned to have next year- a tally that later promised an increase of 150 new internships in the Albuquerque area.

Solutions to the problems of workforce development, which had been touched upon only in the abstract sense, were then discussed in the context of current action as the second panel introduced a diverse group of legislators and educators. 

Ms. Nancy Renner, Executive Director of the Workforce Training Center (WTC) of the Albuquerque TVI, portrayed the problem as the far-reaching effects of a global economy whose requirements for technical expertise extend even into the small-town level.  To respond to this need, Ms. Renner explained the WTC’s commitment and flexibility in providing life long education for all four types of labor participants: students, transitional workers, entrepreneurs, and incumbent workers.

In one of the more grounded presentations of the afternoon, Mr. Sherman McCorkle, Chairman of the New Mexico State Workforce Development Board, followed Ms. Renner’s optimism with a more realistic public assessment of the challenges facing labor and educational reform.  Despite the benefits provided by the Workforce Development Act, Mr. McCorkle stressed that public money would never be sufficient to cover all educational reform and that the confusing maze of unions and regulations insured that only targeted groups would profit.  A greater infusion of private funds, he said, is necessary to ensure continuing strides in workforce development.

Mr. Greg Betheil, Vice President of the Academy Program’s Team at the National Academy Foundation, following Mr. McCorkle, left a more positive example of a widespread, working development program.  He explained the role of NAF as a facilitator between industry and schools that had set a nation-wide model for technical and job training within school curriculums.   However, Mr. Betheil cautioned that the NAF was a long-term solution, not a quick fix, and, in a commentary on the diversity of the audience, warned people not to view workforce development as missionary work, inviting, instead, a broader and more diverse debate on public education.

The final panelist, Ms. Stephanie Powers, Director of the National School-to-Work Opportunities Office, described her organization much along the lines of Mr. Betheil’s.  Instantiated in 1994 by the School-to-Work Act, the School-to-Work program has used public funding to increase cooperation with private businesses at the educational level and to improve teacher knowledge of the demands of the labor market.  Although the program, like NAF, focuses on long-term solutions, Ms. Powers cited a recently released report as preliminary indicators that School-to-Work graduates had higher GPA’s, higher graduation rates, higher employment rates, and better attendance than their counterparts outside the program.