The 2015 Heartland Workforce Summit marked the official launch of the SectorReady™ Toolkit 1.0. Powered by the WIB and the Joplin Regional Partnership, the toolkit reflects the region’s framework development and research in 2014-2015 for a robust array of career pathway and sector partnership resources.
Along with the presenters and attendees, the Workforce Summit was a success thanks to summit sponsors: Joplin Regional Partnership, Empire District Electric, and the Joplin Regional Business Journal. Freeman Occumed sponsored the summit’s Exhibitor Room and Downstream Casino Resort helped underwrite the technical presentation resources.
Dr. Mark Johnson from PSU provided a strong kickoff for the summit with his presentation Train Smarter, Not Harder. The talk covered the importance of eliminating the latency gap between training and practice by thoroughly integrating key functions of the revised Blooms Taxonomy.
The Employer Innovation Panel, always a favorite of summit attendees, featured Mark Haynes of Innovative Objects, Jeff Merrithew of Owens-Corning, and Zach Ward of Grasslands Group, LLC. Each panelist gave an overview of leading-edge practices in critical HR functions such as recruitment, retention, training, and career progression. This portion of the summit typically generates the most audience feedback, as shown in the dynamic Q&A of this year’s panel.
Setting the stage for the SectorReady™ launch, Jasen Jones presentation covered job growth trends in the region’s current targeted industry sectors along with characteristics of current employment demand and work readiness credentialing. The trends aligned with components of the framework introduction in Jasen’s presentation.
Jim Maher, author of the new book Leaders, Losers, and Lessons, provided the luncheon keynote titled, Dynamics of Job Growth and Training. This highly-interactive program spotlighted leadership characteristics in highest demand by employers.
Strategies and Techniques for Employers, Educators, and Community Leaders for Sector-Driven Growth capped off summit with a collection of promising practices that motivated summit attendees to take the next steps for the SectorReady™ launch. Scott Sheely is the new sector/pathways expert with the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture along with his previous post a the Lancaster, PA Workforce Investment Board. Scott’s story on Lancaster’s Ready2Work initiative showed summit participants how training, testing, placement, and pathway innovations can revolutionize the region’s workforce.
Portions of the summit are captured on video for those unable to attend or those wanting to share their summit experience with colleagues. Summit organizers at the WIB are finalizing the video production for release over the coming days. For more information on the Summit or the SectorReady™ framework, contact Jasen Jones or Frank Neely at the WIB, or Mark Turnbull with the Joplin Regional Partnership. Follow the latest developments on SectorReady™ by checking out these related articles online.
