| © December, 2000 Carole Keeton Rylander Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts Report of the e-Texas Commission |
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| | Chapter 8 | ...in 2010 | Endnotes |
Workforce Development in 2010
Since today is Thursday, Sylvia’s telecommuting day, she is busy reviewing her latest competency-based job contract in the comfort of her home. As she calculates the value her work has added to the company, she starts to think through the next set of skills she will need to improve her marketability. She recently received a message from her career planner program on the web notifying her of advances in technologies she works with and reminding her that she has not refreshed her hard skills in over 12 months. She has decided to renegotiate her flex-time schedule to take advantage of the fact that most of her work is with a British company—a full six hours ahead of Texas’ Central Standard Time. Sylvia decides to add her training plan to her job contract. She visits her company’s Web site, which not only lists the corporate university’s offerings, but provides a link to “Texas at Work”—a well-respected portal maintained by the Texas Consortium for Lifelong Learning. The consortium is a strategic partnership of all the publicly funded programs that train and educate adults in Texas, along with carefully selected private companies. It includes a highly respected research, development, and marketing staff whose job is to assure quality control and continuous improvement in all the consortium’s programs. The portal provides a tremendous amount of occupational and training information. Sylvia’s technical training, acquired at a community college, has served her well the last few years, but recent developments in her field make it critical that she find some additional training soon. She’s delighted to see that the corporate university has partnered with the local community college to offer a web-based course that should teach her how to use the new technologies that interest her. The course is certified and has the highest rating of any course of its type in the region. The company site lists the cost, but since Sylvia has enough tenure with the firm, the course will be free. According to Texas at Work, the demand for the course and its resulting skills have been climbing over the past three years and can be applied in at least five other industries. The Web-based class can be combined with her new flex-time schedule, so she won’t have to take any time off. And her value to the company will increase, positioning her to negotiate a new salary. Jimmy has finished high school but is having trouble finding the right job. His career training in school taught him the basics of being a good employee, such as the importance of showing up on time, dealing maturely with conflict, and working well in teams to get the job done. It also provided him with strong problem-solving skills. But he still is not quite sure what he is looking for. He logs in to Texas at Work at an Internet café for advice. He remembers using the site in school to research different types of occupations. The site first asks him some questions about his basic interests and abilities, then it guides him to a secure employability assessment that can be used to credential his skills, which he completes. In a few moments, he’s presented with a personal profile paired with a list of potential occupations. Each occupation is linked to a list of employers in the region. The employer listings show wages, benefits, locations, and company size, among other things. Jimmy can see that if he plans to become truly independent, he will need to find an occupation that pays more than what his current qualifications merit. He studies the list of occupations paired with his profile and finds ones that are first steps on career ladders leading to better-paying jobs. He finds one dealing with electronics and clicks the link for more information. He finds that with an associate’s degree, he could make twice what he could now—with even better opportunities over time. He lives in a rural community, but finds that two employers in his area would subsidize part of his training and offer a transportation allowance. He then searches for a list of training providers and finds a highly rated degree course offered by a partnership of community colleges and major employers in area, with an 84 percent job placement rate. The courses are taught via satellite and the local library hosts a satellite classroom. With the help of Texas at Work, he writes a résumé and applies for jobs in his area as well as for the degree course. When he checks his e-mail the next day, he finds a response from two companies as well as the college. He also has a response from Texas at Work giving him the name of a contact person to assist him if he needs more information. It looks like he might have a real future after all. Widgets Technology, Inc, has been growing rapidly during the last three years. To continue meeting market demand, they must expand their plant and service division and need to hire 150 employees. However, those employees need some specific skills to be productive. Mario Reyes, the vice president for human resources, is in charge of meeting the human capital needs of the company. Mario is familiar with the Texas at Work Web site, so he logs on in search of training experts. By entering the skills and occupations that are the company’s priority needs, he quickly finds out that the local community college already has some experience in providing similar training. The college can provide instructors who will come on site to do the training on a schedule that will not disrupt Widgets’ operations. Since the site provides a contact person for customized job training at that college, Mario gets on the phone and connects with the college. From the Web site, he also has learned that Widget Technology, in partnership with the community college, is eligible for a Skills Development Fund contract, which can cover the cost of most of the training. Mario fills out the on-line application and outlines his needs, then sends it on to the college. The community college adds their information and sends the application the next day to the administrator of the Skills Development Fund. Within a week, the college and Mario are notified of the grant award. In the meantime, Mario has posted his plans to train and hire 150 employees on the Texas at Work Web site. The posting triggers a notice to the local career center, which then contacts Mario to see if he needs any assistance with the screening and interviewing. At the same time Widgets is staffing up, Marcus is searching for work. Marcus dropped out of high school five years ago and has had difficulty finding work that pays enough to support himself and his young family. Marcus saw a television ad about the career center and the Texas at Work Web site. Since he works days at a local restaurant, Marcus decides to visit the career center Tuesday evening. He is greeted by an experienced career counselor who, just that morning, received notice of Widgets’ plans. The counselor shows Marcus the different ways the career center can help him out, either through self-guided assessments and job searches, or with assistance from staff. She helps Marcus establish a web-based career planner that he can access from any computer connected to the Internet at any time. His career planner will include scores from the assessments, career goals, a resume builder, skills to occupation match list, and a strategic plan for reaching his career goals. Before leaving the center that evening, Marcus has found out that his lack of a high school diploma is a major obstacle to better jobs, but that the career center can provide vouchers to GED classes in the area. He has a list of the classes which have slots available within the week along with maps showing their locations. He chooses one and notifies his career counselor, who draws up the voucher information ready to e-mail to the class of Marcus’ choice. If Marcus can quickly develop the necessary reading and math skills, he could be eligible to participate in the training at Widgets that will be ongoing for the next six months. The GED class will test Marcus after each week of instruction so once he reaches the required proficiency, Marcus can apply for the Widgets training. |
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e-Texas is an initiative of Carole Keeton Rylander, Texas Comptroller of Public Accounts
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