Presentation is loading. Please wait.

Presentation is loading. Please wait.

Scott Sheely Lancaster County Workforce Investment Board Lancaster, PA

Similar presentations


Presentation on theme: "Scott Sheely Lancaster County Workforce Investment Board Lancaster, PA"— Presentation transcript:

1 Regional Industry-Driven Centers of Excellence as a Vehicle for Investment in Innovation
Scott Sheely Lancaster County Workforce Investment Board Lancaster, PA “A Demand-Driven Incubator Site”

2 Industry Cluster Analysis
Foundational for understanding what industries are important within the local industrial mix; Which industries are growing and which are failing? Which industries are growing good jobs? In what career ladders should we invest?

3

4 Moving to Action Shared understanding and vision;
Action by policymakers to institutionalize the vision; Give clear direction to the existing system that change is expected; Begin changing the things that you control; Start trying to influence what you don’t control.

5 Concentrate on What You Can Do
Spend more time developing better intelligence about businesses; Occupational information; Career ladder mapping; Skill mapping; Really address employer relations with the right people; Strategic; Operational;

6 Concentrate on What You Can Do
Focus on priority industries; In contracting; In the way one-stops are structured; In bringing funding streams together; Educate your staff; Develop relationships; Economic development; Educators.

7 Drilling Down Industry cluster analysis is historical;
Problem facing most of America is how do companies stay competitive in the world marketplace…forward-looking; Cost and process control will get us so far; Innovation is the key; New products; New technologies; New companies.

8 Deep and Wide Every cluster has a local competitive advantage;
Challenge is to identify what that is; Need to build an innovation system that supports the competitive advantage; Wide…all of the partners Deep…concentrating on the right thing;

9 Regional Industry-Driven Centers of Excellence
Centers of Excellence are normally attached to universities, hospitals, or government entities (NASA, NIH); Our Centers focus on enhancing local competitive advantage; Pulling together many actors to accomplish the task.

10 Functions of a Center Research and Development; Technology Transfer;
Entrepreneurial Development; Incumbent Worker Training; Connection to K-12 and Higher Education for Career Ladder Development.

11 In Lancaster County Industry Clusters Health Care Biotechnology
Ag and Food Communications Construction Metals and Metal Fabrication Automotive Centers Long-Term Care Practice Packaging Ops Production Agriculture Construction Tech Wood Finishing Automotive Tech

12 Structure of Centers Part of Lancaster Prospers, a coalition of economic development partners in Lancaster County; One of seven strategies; Run by the WIB which functions as the administrative entity providing fiscal, staffing, and promotional support;

13 Structure of Centers Each has a host organization which may or may not be an educational institution; Each has a Steering Committee which is entirely private sector and a Support Committee of everyone else; Website is the public face of the organization.

14 Wood Finishing Competitive advantage of a large concentration (4,000+ employees) of high-end custom kitchen cabinet manufacturers (75+ employers); Shortage of skilled finishers; No established skills curriculum in companies or at schools; R & D rests mostly with vendors.

15 Wood Finishing Steering Committee operational;
Contracted with company to develop curriculum in conjunction with a standard-setting organization…American Wood Finishing Institute; Found R & D partners in ETAC, an EPA-oriented organization, and Penn State School of Forest Resources; Networking with Hardwood Development Council; Incumbent worker training consortium with ten companies.

16 Packaging Operations Packaging is at the heart of the biotechnology and ag and food clusters in the area; No packaging technology programs in the region; Higher-end process control skill training not available at any institution; R & D…big guys have it internally…little guys are at the mercy of vendors.

17 Packaging Operations Support Committee operational;
Hired two engineers to do assessment of capacity of schools to upgrade and of the state-of-the-art in packaging technology among companies; Cooperating with NSF recipient in MN on curriculum development; Hershey Foods driving force in training area technical school teachers; Three WIBs, ten county area; 32-company Food Training Consortium already in place.

18 What We’ve Learned Think deep and wide…deep understanding of the industry…wide in terms of linkages with other entities; Think beyond workforce to innovation; Think beyond WIA in funding.

19 For More Information Scott Sheely Executive Director
Lancaster County Workforce Investment Board 313 W. Liberty St. Suite 114 Lancaster, PA 17603


Download ppt "Scott Sheely Lancaster County Workforce Investment Board Lancaster, PA"

Similar presentations


Ads by Google