Meeting Businesses "Just in Time" Needs

DOES WORKFORCE INVESTMENT WORK?

ASK SOUTHERN OREGON REGIONAL ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT, INC. ...

"If you're a business today, the market place will not accommodate long periods of readiness within an organization. If I'm going to bring someone into my employment, they need to be ready pretty much on day one. I think the Employer Workforce Training Fund had that kind of immediacy capability to it. I don't think other programs have that." Ron Fox, Executive Director, SOREDI, Medford, OR

Ron Fox, Executive Director, Southern Oregon Regional Economic Development, Inc. (SOREDI) believes that Employer workforce Training Fund (EWTF) is the "just-in-time" training that an employer needs. "It may be to retrain employees currently in their employ to respond to market opportunities. It could to bring additional new employees on and give them the training they need to be effective and productive from day one," he states.

Fox should know. He is a member of the Rogue Valley Workforce Development Council, the Local Workforce Investment Board, and his organization shares office space with The Job Council, the local workforce training provider in Medford.

Listed as one of the Top 20 nationwide economic development groups by Site Selection Magazine (May 2003), SOREDI is a non-profit organization dedicated to increasing the long-term prosperity of Jackson and Josephine Counties. Having a skilled and flexible workforce is critical to that goal.

From SOREDI's perspective, the Employer Workforce Training Fund is an ideal fit. As Fox put it, EWTF was a "very, very locally responsive, very locally crafted solution to companies. We didn't get a blue print from Washington, DC that said, 'OK. Go fit this plan into every company in the Rogue Valley'."

SOREDI has partnered with the workforce system to convene a Heavy Lift Helicopter Consortium and to convene local e-commerce companies to better identify and meet their needs for a high tech workforce. Fox notes that even in this economy there is a gap between the needs of businesses and those who are skilled and ready.

Does Workforce Investment Work? Ask Southern Oregon Regional Economic Development, Inc.

Category:

News & Politics

Tags:

• SOREDI
• The Job Council
• Power Up Academy
• industry consortia
• worker training
• jobs
• business competitiveness
• economic development
• southern Oregon
• Jackson county OR
• Josephine county OK