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With no quick fix for jobless, area groups work to develop workforce

Advanced education will be critical for post-recession jobs, director says.

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By Chelsey Levingston, Staff Writer 8:37 PM Saturday, July 24, 2010

HAMILTON — Employees like Robert Wilkes at Tipco Punch use computers, math skills and critical thinking to manufacture tooling components and high precision machine parts. One employee actually uses trigonometry.

In fact, there is very little manufacturing left that doesn’t require advanced skills to operate multiple computer-based machines like the ones used at Tipco Punch, a local Canada-based tool manufacturer, said Scott Ellsworth, vice president of U.S. operations of Tipco. That is why Wilkes took a manufacturing course at Butler Tech last year to gain experience, move up and increase product quality.

“It helped me with the measuring a little bit better because I’d never done that and showed me a little bit more about the safety measures,” Wilkes said.

Tipco paid $3,500 each to send Wilkes and two other employees to Butler Tech, and has hired a few other employees out of its manufacturing program.

This is an example of efforts under way by local business executives, interest groups and government agencies to combat a shortage of qualified workers in three sectors identified for growth in southwest Ohio: health care, construction and advanced manufacturing. Tipco is part of the Southwest Ohio Manufacturers’ Consortium that formed Manufacturing Skill Standards Council certificate training program with Butler Tech about two years ago.

There is a significant shortage of workers with skills employees need, said Ross Meyer, executive director of Greater Cincinnati Workforce Network. The workforce network has partnered with Butler Tech, Workforce One Investment Board of Southwest Ohio, Tipco Punch and others such as Amylin Pharmaceuticals to address the issue, Meyer said.

At this point, one in three local business in greater Cincinnati can’t find enough qualified workers for in-demand jobs, according to data provided by Meyer from an unreleased survey by the network. In addition, half of all these businesses project a “significant” shortage of skilled workers in the next few years as the economy begins to recover, according to the data.

The network is a three-year, $16 million initiative formed in 2008 to address what Meyer said is a national problem.

“What we’ve been seeing as we come out of this recession is most of the jobs that are going to be growing and the jobs growing the fastest are all going to require some sort of post-secondary education,” Meyer said.

Currently the Workforce One Investment Board — which consists of Butler, Warren and Clermont counties — is conducting a study into the current skills, certifications and education required and the projected needs of businesses in health care, advanced manufacturing and information technology industries, said Don Kell, manager of Workforce One of Butler County. The Investment Board will hold sessions on its study of these industry sectors in September.

So far, what Workforce One has seen is the lack of qualified workers comes down not just to lack of post-secondary education of the local labor force, but employers increasing the level of skills required for work, Kell said. And at the same time, wages are going down, said Barb Carmella, career counselor of the job center.

Carmella said, “What’s happening is there are openings, but the openings are requiring more skills.”

For example, licensed practical nurses no longer need just training, but more experience. Truck drivers must have cleaner records. But it’s not just higher skill requirements yielding the lack of qualified workers, they said.

The skills required are changing faster than people can be trained, Carmella said.

So even though several new post-secondary education outlets have entered the market. These include Dayton-based Sinclair Community College’s Courseview Campus Center in Mason, dual-degree associate and bachelor’s programs at Miami University regional campuses in Hamilton and Middletown and the proposed Greentree Health Science Academy in Middletown near Atrium Medical Center.

These are all long-term, two- to four-year programs. Ninety-percent of the more than 2,000 people who came to Workforce One last year were interested in the mostly one-year training Workforce provides, Kell said.

Workforce One had more than 2,000 new people come to orientations in the 2009-2010 budget year and more than 3,000 the year before, Kell said.

Meanwhile, the Workforce Network is trying a regional approach to help people develop career paths through continuous education, said Ellsworth, who is also chair of the network’s advanced manufacturing career pathway partnership team.

Despite unemployment of about 10 percent, Ellsworth and nine or so other manufacturing executives in the Southwest Ohio Manufacturers Consortium have always had a problem finding qualified workers. He also said his company and the other manufacturers need people who have the ability to learn, work in teams and have math and basic computer skills.

Good, solid, qualified employees are also key to attracting businesses to the area.

“What makes it a big concern today going forward is the number of baby boomers about to retire,” Ellsworth said. “We are facing a bigger shortage of employees in the future than we are today.”

Funds available for career training

Who: Butler County businesses can submit proposals to Ohio Department of Development for the Energizing Careers Program to train workers in manufacturing of wind, solar and biomass industries. Businesses must be original equipment manufacturers of wind, solar and biomass products or tier 1 suppliers.

What: Energizing Careers Program is a reimbursement-based program to help businesses and workers enter green manufacturing. A maximum of $6,000 per trainee will be reimbursed.

When: A request for proposal is out and proposals are due July 30.

How: Find the proposal and directions at www.ohioworkforceboard.org

Why: To train employees and meet the changing needs of Ohio’s labor market in Butler County and throughout the state.

Source: Dan Reynolds, Ohio Department of Development director of workforce and talent division

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Company Owner, while you are at the fair, try to ignore all of the hard working individuals who raised the animals and stay with them around the clock. I realize that they are not the crowd that you typically seek out at the fair, but they are there.

Maybe if you stopped looking at the bottom of the barrel for the cheapest workers, you would find that the cream (as any dairy farmer can tell you) is at the top. You might have to pay a little more, but the return will exceed the cost.

Shortsightedness never helps.
11:55 AM, 7/26/2010

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Company Owner and Bill are both right in my opinion. There is definitely a wealth of sleaze balls out there who just want to work the system and ring it for all it is worth. However, there are still some people out there (like Bill) who have the skills and abilities to do a job while presenting themselves in a courteous and professional manner. I know how you feel Bill because I’ve been there; it is a sickening and isolating feeling. I wish Bill and Company Owner all the best.

Dan
10:03 PM, 7/25/2010

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@company owner
You obviously consider your "facts" to be assumptions based on what you see when people are on their own time and not at work.

"Go to the fair this week, you'll see what I am talking about."

There are many workers in the area that meet your expectations..."educated, trained, and motivated workers that can present themselves in a professional manner."

Your attitude shows you want experienced workers @ minimum wage. You get the quality of worker that you will pay for.

Bill
5:56 PM, 7/25/2010

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This area, Hamilton and Middletown, has a severe shortage of educated, trained, and motivated workers that can present themselves in a professional manner. What the area has in abundance is slovenly, unpresentable, unprepared people that would rather go on welfare or work the SSI disability scam than go to work everyday and earn the wage they deserve based on their skills.

Just that facts.

Go to the fair this week, you'll see what I am talking about.

Company Owner
11:59 AM, 7/25/2010

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Employers want cheap ready made labor. I was recently laid off after 20yrs at the same company, the reason given was that profits are down and it is better on the bottom line to shed the higher paid workers. Now I can't find a job because I do not have formal training to do the job I've been doing for 20+yrs. The answer you get everywhere is no paper no job. It doesn't matter that I am 3-4 times as productive as someone new to the industry, just that they can pay them 30% to 50% less.

Bill
9:23 AM, 7/25/2010

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