Priming the Talent Pipeline: Oregon

1
Priming the Talent Pipeline Oregons Future
Workforce Needs AnalysisPreliminary Findings
Board of Education BriefingJanuary, 2008
2
Research Questions and Focus

• Key Questions to be Addressed
• What might be the drivers of Oregons future
  economy?
• What workers with what skills will be needed?
• What capacity does Oregon have now?
• Where are the major gaps in the workforce system?
• What should we do?
• Research Focus
• Oregon traded-sectors Industry sectors that do
  business out of state and bring new wealth into
  the economy

3
Unique Approach

• To consider the likely future drivers of Oregons
  economic growth and workforce demand, this study
  breaks new ground in integrating two perspectives

• Industry Technology Competency Analysis to learn
  where Oregon has the know-how to grow
• Technology core competencies represent a
  critical mass of know-how.
• They identify the states comparative advantage
  from a technology perspective
• It is from existing industry technology
  competencies that gaining a position in emerging
  technologies can best be realized.

• Traded Sector Analysis
• using industry employment data that reflect
  an understanding of where the Oregons economy
  has been and is currently
• Focus on traded sectors that bring new wealth to
  the states economy
• Consider interrelationships between among traded
  sectors

Intersection of Industry Employment Strengths and
Industry Technology Competencies Leads to
Identifying Technology Market Platforms
4
Overview of Project Methodology

• General Approach
• Inform understanding Oregons future traded
  sector workforce needs by building upon Oregons
  cluster-based initiatives driven by industry
  employment analysis and augment with an
  understanding of technology competencies found
  within and across Oregons industry base

Alignment with Educ Trng Resources
Assessment of Oregon Industry Core Competencies
Analysis of Gaps
Identify Workforce Needs
Map to state occup forecast industry trade
association reports
Addressing Gaps
Guidance from Oregon Cluster Organizations
5
Assessing Drivers of Oregons Future Economy from
Perspective of Traded Industry Sectors

• Economic Competitiveness What is the employment
  growth rate in Oregon for a traded industry
  cluster compared to the country as a whole?
• Results

• Economic Specialization Does Oregon have a
  larger or smaller employment concentration in its
  traded industry sectors compared with the overall
  U.S. economy at a specific point in time?
• Results High degree of employment specialization
  found in
• Wood Other Forest Products
• Electronics Adv. Materials
• Agricultural Products
• Processed Food Beverage Products

Oregon Growing Faster than the U.S. Business Services Medical Products
Oregon Growing, While U.S. Declining Agricultural Products Apparel Sporting Goods Logistics Distribution Processed Food Beverage Products Transportation Equip. Parts
Oregon Declining, But Less than U.S. Communications Equip. Electronics Adv. Materials Information Technology Metals Wood Other Forest Products
6
Robust Performance of Oregons 12 Traded Industry
Sectors (2001-06)
Source OECDD and Battelle analysis of BLS, QCEW
employment data.
7
Assessing Drivers of Oregons Future Economy from
Perspective of Core Technology Competencies

• Assess two complementary perspectives
• Technology Development
• Analysis of Patent Clusters (intellectual
  property generated by companies) - suggests a
  robust set of innovation drivers
• CorpTech Directory (specialized database of
  technology companies) - identifies Oregon
  strength in specialized product areas
• Technology Deployment
• Analysis of productivity levels and growth
• Interviews with leaders in key traded sector
  clusters
• Integration of findings from OBC Cluster Network
  focus groups

8
Line of Sight to Identifying Technology and
Market Platforms

• Original Listing -- Traded Industry Sectors
  Emerging Industries/Signature Research Centers
• Agriculture Products
• Processed Food Beverage
• Apparel Sporting Goods
• Business Services
• Electronics Advanced Materials
• Communications Equipment
• Information Technology
• Logistics and Distribution
• Medical Products
• Metals
• Transportation Equipment Parts
• Wood Forest Products
• Bioscience/Translational Research Drug
  Discovery
• Bio-Fuels
• Wave Energy
• Open Source Technology
• Network and Homeland Security

Proposed Technology and Market Platforms

• Agriculture and Food Processing

• Wood Forest Products

• Metals and Transportation Equipment

• Electronic Components and Devices

• Software, Computing and Internet Services

• Biomedical Technology

• Clean Tech

Platforms reflect the technology and
market interrelationships between and among
traded sectors and emerging industries/signature
research centers.
9
Building on the Technology and Market Platforms
Framework

• Conducted on-line research and personal
  interviews to identify future market trends
• Developed in-depth profiles for each Platform
  integrating critical data, factors driving
  change, leading markets, specialized occupations
  and future workforce implications
• Identified cross-cutting workforce issues
• Identified common high-demand and specialized
  occupations
• Developed a simple framework for considering
  occupations
• Production - Engineering
• Technician - Computer-related

10
Key Themes across Technology and Market Platforms

• Future Workforce Implications for Technology
  Market Platforms
• Rapid process and product innovations places
  strong need for continued skill enhancements
  (life-long learning)
• Cross-cutting skills that emerged across all
  technology and market platforms provide clear
  target for public investments (agility)
• Need for more versatile and multi-skilled
  technician and production workforce
• Aging workforce being felt across all
  occupational areas
• Offshore outsourcing raising skill requirements
  for innovation, new product design and project
  management
• High growth and newly emerging industries of
  biomedical and clean technology require broad
  range of occupations.

• Oregon Workforce Issues
• Interest and awareness by eligible workforce of
  needs for production workers lagging far behind
  demand
• Problems with potential production and technician
  workers being employable drug-free,
  dependability
• Out-of-state recruitment very typical in Oregon
  for high skilled workforce able to attract due
  to states lifestyle and quality of life
• Skill mismatches engineering, technician, and
  installers need to meet requirements of clean
  tech computer-related graduates must meet
  software, computing and Internet services job
  requirements
• Need for creating more talent pipelines to
  address workforce shortfalls STEM issues in
  K-12 production to technician workforce
  emerging industry needs

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Changing Foundation Skill Requirements

• Indispensable foundation high level of
  preparation in reading, writing, speaking ,
  mathematics and science
• Applied skills trump basic knowledge and skills
• Core Workplace Skills Personal Management
  Skills
• Creativity/Innovation - Ability to learn
  quickly
• Critical Thinking/Problem Solving - Agility
• Communications (Oral and Written) -
  Comfortable with ideas
• Information Technology Application -
  Self-direction/organization
• Leadership - Life long learning
• Teamwork/Collaboration - Entrepreneurship
• High Performance/Lean - Ethics/Social
  Responsibility
• Synthesis of national surveys by the Conference
  Board, Corporate Voices for Working Families,
  Partnership for 21st Century Skills, and the
  Society for Human Resource Management

12
Job Demand Reflects Need for Replacement Workers
Much Larger than New Job Growth Across
Occupational Groups

• Across major occupational groups, the Oregon
  Employment Department projects that future job
  openings will largely be due to needs for
  replacement workers highlights the demographic
  challenges facing production workers in
  particular
• Though not expected to grow the fastest,
  production occupations will require the most
  workers annually with the vast majority as
  replacements

Projected Annual Job Openings for Oregon by Major Occupational Groups, 2006-2016 Forecast Projected Annual Job Openings for Oregon by Major Occupational Groups, 2006-2016 Forecast Projected Annual Job Openings for Oregon by Major Occupational Groups, 2006-2016 Forecast Projected Annual Job Openings for Oregon by Major Occupational Groups, 2006-2016 Forecast
Major Occupational Group Projected Annual Growth Openings Projected Annual Replacement Openings Total Annual Openings
Production 780 3,293 4,073
Computer-related 587 479 1,066
Engineers 141 395 537
Eng. Technicians 50 233 282
Source Oregon Employment Department,
Occupational Projections 2006-16.
13
Preparedness of Oregons Talent Pipeline Remains
a Challenge

• Oregon Progress Boards 2007 Benchmark Report
  continues to show that Oregon faces considerable
  workforce challenges
• Educational attainment of adults still lagging
• HS Completion Rate stands at only 90.4 in 2006
  below 1996s level of 91.1 and well below 2005
  target of 93
• Some College Completion stagnant since 1996
  59.6 level in 2006 well below 2005 target of 70
• Post-Secondary Credentials unmoved since 1998
  with just under 30 of the adult population
  completing even an associates degree or
  occupation-related credential
• Few Oregon workers receiving job training
• Labor Force Skill Training Only 33 of Oregons
  workers received 20 hours or more of training in
  2006 well below the 2005 target of 56.
• Some improvements seen in K-12 student
  performance, but not sufficient to meet
  benchmarks
• 8th grade math -- 66 of eighth graders achieved
  established skill levels in 2006 up from 49 in
  1997 2005 benchmark of 69 not reached
• 8th grade reading 66 of eight graders achieved
  established skill levels in 2006 up from 56 in
  1997 2005 benchmark of 71 not reached
• Oregon Progress Boards 2006 Report on Progress
  of Oregons Racially and Ethnically Diverse
  Population presents data revealing that the
  states changing demographics led by strong
  growth in the Hispanic population is likely to
  result in lower education attainment for major
  segments of Oregons workforce of the future.
  

14
Preliminary Implications

• Production Workforce
• With significant job openings and few focused
  programs, there is an urgent need to prime the
  talent pipeline of production workers to meet
  immediate growth and replacement needs.
• Education and training efforts should focus on
  the cross-cutting skill needs in production
  that are common across technology and market
  platforms.
• Growing clean tech jobs is a good fit for
  Oregons present occupational mix, but without a
  more focused effort to increase the supply of
  production workers emerging industries will
  likely compete for existing production workforce.
• Technician Level Workforce
• To make the transition as a global leader in high
  performance manufacturing, Oregon will need to
  address the blurring of production and technician
  occupations in light of more complex technical
  environments.
• This will result in a higher level technical
  skill mix, but also a strong emphasis science,
  math, technology applications, critical/analytical
  thinking, decision making and other critical
  applied academic and workplace skills.

15
Preliminary Implications

• Engineering Workforce
• Oregon has been largely successful in raising the
  level of engineering graduates in recent years,
  now it needs to be more focused on the skills and
  connections to employers in the state.
• On net now, Oregon appears to be an exporter of
  engineering talent this is a key resource
  potentially being lost.
• Computer-Related Workforce
• The sharp fall-off in students pursuing computer
  related fields in light of expected continued
  strong occupational growth must be addressed.
• The alignment of educational programs and
  current/future employer requirements must be
  improved.

16
Examples of Preliminary Recommendations Systems
Building

• Adopt and promote the concept/terminology of a
  Talent Pipeline or Knowledge Supply Chain
  (systems approach).
• Support cluster- and consortia-based entities
  that can aggregate employer need and function as
  intermediaries between business and
  education/training providers (move past the
  single-business partnership mentality).
• Launch a multi-faceted messaging campaign to
  advertise the availability of good middle-skill
  jobs and to promote the value of career technical
  education and post-secondary alternatives, such
  as apprenticeships (its OK to go to work, then
  pursue further education and training).
• Significantly improve supply-side databases
  (current pipeline data is virtually impossible to
  access).

17
Examples of Preliminary Recommendations K-12

• Focus on creating agile, life-long learners with
  the applied academic, core workplace and personal
  management skills ALL employers need to build
  competitive companies.
• Incentivize special emphasis on the Essential
  Skills component of the new High School Diploma
  requirement immediately ensure actual standards
  and content align with core business workplace
  requirements and are updated regularly.
• Expand Career Technical Education offerings
  linked to Technology/ Market Platforms and
  projected high demand/ specialty occupations
  through an infusion of state dollars.
• Exponentially advance the understanding of
  students, teachers and counselors about the
  changing nature of the workplace through
  increased work-based learning experiences such as
  job shadowing, internships, etc.

18
Examples of Preliminary Recommendations
Community Colleges

• Establish a standardized manufacturing
  certificate program based on critical
  cross-cutting skills and aggressively recruit new
  talent to take advantage of excellent career
  opportunities.
• Set specific, quantifiable targets for
  high-demand occupations that cut across
  Technology and Market Platforms and require a
  certificate/AA degree aggressively pursue
  additional funding to offer required training
  programs.
• Create an Oregon Retired Skilled Workers Corps
  in partnership with business to serve as
  Emeritus faculty at the community colleges in
  high-demand occupational areas.
• Adopt a career readiness certificate for use
  system-wide by the community colleges and public
  workforce system to credential applied academic
  and core workplace skills.