| I. Background
The competitiveness and economic vitality of our nation is now, more than ever before, dependent on the quality of the American workforce. The complexity and fast-paced change in the labor market puts new demands on employees and employers at all levels. Well-prepared and qualified professionals are needed to facilitate the processes by which our workforce identifies, prepares for, obtains and maintains employment and self-sufficiency and our employers achieve and maintain a competitive advantage in global markets.
II. What Do Workforce Development Professionals Do?
Workforce Development Professionals help prepare the workforce of the 21st century so that our community can compete and succeed in the global economy. In addition, Workforce Development Professionals help businesses solve their workforce workforce-related business problems and helps residents with career transition. Some of their duties and responsibilities follow:
- Research and analyze labor markets and economic information
- Facilitate and lead community, regional, and statewide partnerships and collaborations to align resources in support of key strategies
- Build partnerships with industries, industry groups and key industry clusters or sectors to build or increase competitive advantage and understand the skills needed by future workers
- Provide information and analysis to economic development organizations, site locations specialists, and business attraction or retention prospects
- Refer applicants for new or expanding businesses
- Broker relationships and training between business and educational training providers
- Train and develop skills for both “hard” (occupational specific) and “soft” (job survival skills)
- Build and maintain partnerships and coalitions that strengthen the local workforce
- Provide individual career planning advice and direction for a wide range of job seekers, from displaced professional and technical employees to new entrants to the labor market
- Provide information and access to financial aid for training
- Exchange best practices and professional development
- Develop Youth services on a multi-dimensional basis (e.g. remedial education, work readiness, life skills training, skill development, etc.)
- Facilitate job search and network groups
- Support and provide resources for workers laid off through no fault of their own
- Help individuals with limited English proficiency acquire skills needed to be successful in the workplace
- Conduct job matching and job referral for applicants and employers
- Analyze job tasks for employers
- Assess the skill development needs of incumbent work forces and identifying competitiveness gaps and training services to bridge those gaps
- Provide fiscal and administrative management of often complex and contractual funding sources to assure accountability, transparency and audit integrity
- Implement strategic and operational plans to meet Local, State, Regional and needs
- Public policy issue management for local and regional communities
That gives you some idea of what our nation’s Workforce Development Professionals do every day. To learn more about the Workforce Development Professionals at the Pikes Peak Workforce Center, please click on the links below:
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