Promoting Workforce Opportunities for Underutilized Groups

Date: February 16, 2017
Time: 2:30 p.m. - 4:00 p.m. ET
Price: $95 for IEDC members, $135 for Non-members
Registration Deadline: February 16 at 11:00 a.m. ET

Individuals that have been out of the workforce for extended periods of time often face challenges which make reentry difficult. Many whom are unemployed, underemployed, or hard-to-employ lack the support, resources and channels necessary for job obtainment. Consequently, their exclusion from gainful employment results in suboptimal workforce levels and rising poverty rates throughout their communities. With a mixture of training in technical and soft skills, these underutilized populations can help your community meet its workforce needs. This webinar will discuss strategies economic development organizations can use to ensure unemployed, underemployed, and hard-to-employ groups play an active role in their community's workforce to achieve maximal economic growth.

We'll explore the following:

- Limitations in economic growth that result from barriers to workforce reentry
- Strategies economic development organizations can use to increase employment opportunities for unemployed, underemployed, and hard-to-employ groups
- Case studies of programs that have successfully incorporated underutilized groups into their community's workforce

Speakers:

		Jen Worth Senior Vice President, Workforce and Economic Development American Association of Community Colleges Washington, DC Jen Worth serves as Senior Vice President for Workforce and Economic Development for the American Association of Community Colleges (AACC). In this role, Ms. Worth oversees projects that partner community colleges with workforce boards, economic development entities, labor market intermediaries, and other community organizations to drive workforce and economic opportunity. See full bio
		Ronald Painter CEO National Association of Workforce Boards Washington, DC Mr. Painter assumed his role at NAWB in July of 2009. In his capacity as CEO of NAWB, Painter has traveled the country meeting with State and Local workforce leaders in an effort to identify cutting-edge practices and programs and understand how best to spread innovative trends in human capital development throughout the nation-wide job training system. See full bio

Related topic:

Shifting Workforce Development into High Gear

A skilled workforce is one of the most important factors impacting a community's competitiveness. To address this issue, IEDC's in-house think tank, the Economic Development Research Partners (EDRP) focused their paper, Shifting Workforce Development into High Gear: How Economic Developers Lead Workforce System Alignment on new policies in workforce development, and how economic developers can take a lead role in creating talent pipelines. The paper provides an overview of the players in workforce development, a survey of economic developers' approach to the issue, six case studies of organizations making an impact, and recommendations for how to best influence workforce development on a regional, state, and local scale. The report is free for IEDC members to download, and is available for $60 for non-members in the IEDC Bookstore.

Bolster workforce development in your community by exploring inclusive programs for underutilized groups. Join IEDC Thursday, February 16 for this virtual learning opportunity.