[Music]
Well, I think in general,
there's a shortage of
skilled workers—skilled trade
workers—in the construction
industry, and in particular,
of course, highway construction.
It's just a huge challenge
right now. With such a low
unemployment rate in the
country right now, it's very
tight labor market.
A lot of industries
are having a
difficult time finding
a skilled workforce.
So the highway construction
pilot project was an attempt
—is an attempt—
to find the best practices
to try to build partnerships
to address that pipeline
of skilled trade workers
so that we can get these
highway construction projects
up and running and completed
so that we don't all have
to sit in traffic all day.
[Music]
At the federal government level,
the Department
of Transportation came to
the Department of Labor,
said, "We have this real need.
You guys work in workforce
development. How can
we bring this together?"
So, the Department of Labor,
through the Employment
and Training Administration,
we have oversight over
this infrastructure around
workforce development.
And there are about 500
workforce boards throughout
the country. They have access
to job training programs,
but also about 14 other
federally funded partner
programs who are receiving
some type of government
service. And those individuals
need job opportunities
and career opportunities.
And so, the workforce boards,
they're envisioned to be
these conveners in the
regions that they
—where they reside.
They're supposed to be
the conveners, bringing
together partners to
address economic development
issues. So education partners,
economic development partners,
business and industry,
bring them together and
direct all these federal
resources, these state resources,
foundation resources.
All these partners that are
trying to get individuals to
work and into careers.
And the workforce board's
charge is to align all those
resources and point them
to in-demand occupations.
So, where there's job growth
and where we see projections
of jobs and careers that are
going to grow over the next
10 or 15 years, let's get these
individuals trained and skilled
to meet that demand.
And so, that's what the
workforce boards are
charged with doing.
And so, they're a perfect
partner whenever an industry
has a need to develop a
talent pipeline. The workforce
boards are a go-to partner
for any industry to start
addressing that need.
And they can do it in a number
of different ways. And that's
why in the Workforce Innovation
and Opportunity Act,
the workforce boards are charged
with developing sector
strategies and career pathways.
And you can't do that without
business and industry.
So, they're a great partner
to have at the table to
address workforce needs.
[Music]
Well, I think the big thing
is it's building partnerships,
and that's hard. And a lot of
people go into—when
they're trying to build a
partnership and they are
expecting to see some
immediate results. And the
truth of the matter is,
it takes some time.
And so, I think some of the
partnerships that I was
involved working with
in my region—I think they
got off to a little bit
of a rocky start. That's to
be expected. People are
trying to find out,
what do you bring to the table,
what are your needs,
and what can I do?
The thing that we saw
with most of them, though,
is that the partnerships,
they continued to work at it.
And then we started seeing
some really good practices
that end up making their
way into the roadmap.
You see folks building
new apprenticeship programs,
which we didn't have registered
apprenticeship programs in
certain skilled trades that
were developed, so the
standards were the general
contractors working with
the workforce board and
working with registered
apprenticeship folks actually
built some new standards
for some new occupations
that didn't exist before.
And so, then you can get
registered apprenticeship
participants into those
occupations and start filling
that pipeline. So, we saw
some really good things
happening there. We saw a
We saw a lot of different
resources being brought
to bear and aligned in
a different way that
hadn’t been aligned that
way before. So, I think
the best thing that came
out of this is that folks,
they realized that it takes
a little bit of work,
but they worked hard at it,
and they did start
getting some results.
And now we have a playbook
that others can pick up
and know that there
are going to be some
bumps along the way,
but as long as they stick
to it and they get the right
people involved, they have
a chance to be successful.
[Music]
And so, using this playbook
and seeing what others learned,
what was successful,
what wasn’t successful,
it hopefully can accelerate
their partnership so that they
don’t have to go through the
bumps and bruises that the
pilot sites went through.
One of the key things that
we heard today was making
sure that you have the
leadership involved very early
on and get the commitment
from top leaders in
all the partners. And I think
that’s a really important point
for folks to know because I
think quite a few of those
pilot partnerships, they
started with the staff level.
And if you don’t have that
buy-in from leadership,
it’s tough to get something
of significance to really
move quickly. So those little
lessons learned, folks need
to figure out, well, this will
work in my area or this won’t
work in my area? You don’t have
to replicate it exactly, but
you can take those lessons
learned and figure out what
works in your community.
And then hopefully, it will
accelerate the partnership
so that you don’t have to
go through those tough times.
[Music]
So, the department’s very
interested in work-based
learning, registered
apprenticeship. These types of
partnerships will accelerate
that and close that skills gap
a lot faster. But there’s also
a whole host of other reasons
why this is good. Student debt.
Four-year institutions.
I've been to graduations for
registered apprenticeship
programs, and I’ve seen guys
that are graduating from a
lineman college. They’re
driving brand new
Ford F-250 pickup trucks.
They have no student debt,
and they can write their
ticket wherever they
want to go. And they’re
going to have a tremendous
career working in that
occupation. So, there’s a lot
of things that appeal about
this of addressing the skilled
worker shortage, and I think
we’re going to see a lot more
programs like the pilots
around the country.
[Music]
And so, I think this is a
really good example of at
the federal level, partners
getting together and saying,
“Let's break down some
barriers and let’s see if we
can make an impact on this.”
But it’s industry led. And I
think that’s the most
important part of it.
And we’ve spent a lot of
time at the Department of
Labor with employment and
training programs of trying
to make them more
demand-driven. In other words,
you cannot serve an individual
who’s coming in looking for
a job if you don’t know
what the jobs are.
You cannot serve someone
looking for a career if you
don’t know what the careers are.
And that’s why our workforce
boards are charged with sector
strategies and career pathways.
And this is a perfect example
of industry saying, “We have
a need, we’re willing to hire,
we’re willing to put some
dollars to it, we’re willing
to work with registered
apprenticeship programs,
other training institutions.
We’ve got to address this
critical workforce
shortage and need.”
And I think this is just
a good example of
government partners coming
together and saying,
“Let’s bring our resources
together and let’s get them
aligned in a good direction.”
And that’s what I think is good
about this. We’re really good
at staying in our box most of
the time, but I think this is a
really good example of the
Department of Transportation
and the Department of Labor
working together to break
some of those silos down.
And with a tight labor market,
to build these types of
structures, these partnerships,
that can really deliver
workforce solutions for
business and industry. So,
I think it’s a great example,
and it’s been fun
to be a part of.
[Music]