Flagship Three: Creating and Retaining Skilled Workers
This Flagship will strive to meet the needs of our region’s manufacturers and others for skilled workers. Although an emphasis will be placed on qualified entry level and technically trained workers, the need for all levels of employees will be addressed. One objective is to build better bridges between regional industry and educational institutions. To enhance education-industry communication on skill needs, the cluster will provide information on curriculum requirements, and offer equipment and industry professionals to provide expert instruction. The initiative will expand industry-student work-study opportunities by providing better information and coordination on job opportunities, and by providing mentors and job shadowing, apprenticeships and coop programs, tuition reimbursement and scholarships. Finally, the initiative will focus on strengthening screening and recruitment of skilled workers for the region’s manufacturers through new databases, use of professional recruiting services, and on-site advice and outreach at schools, colleges and the new Technology Center.
Not only have cluster groups found common problems which span across many different industries, many clusters have identified challenges particular to their industry, which are described below:
