Regional Business Plan

Education/Workforce Initiative

Globalization requires much tighter linkage between education and business than ever before. While this is more obvious in traditional high technology positions, it is equally true across many other sectors of the economy. Our current education system is not structured or funded to meet this challenge.

In this region we have an economy that is growing again and yet we still have persistently high unemployment. While some of this unemployment is due to in-migration, the reality is that a lack of the basic skills required in the workplace keeps far too many of our region's citizens unemployed or underemployed. Even as lower skilled jobs have moved out of the country, there are still thousands of jobs that exist now (and thousands more to be created in the future) that pay well, offer benefits, and provide rewarding careers. Most of these jobs do not require a four-year degree. However, these jobs require skill sets and skill levels that are currently not a part of the average high school experience.

Success in the knowledge-based economy requires some key skills: math and reading, the ability to think critically, to communicate, to work in teams, and to utilize technology. The majority of our region's high school students do not graduate with the skills necessary to meet the workforce needs of the region's leading traded sector industries nor to attain post-secondary education and training of any kind - be it a certificate, license, proprietary employer program, two year associate degree, or traditional four-year degree. Indeed, even beyond the traded sectors, industries such as health care and construction have had continuous and growing labor shortages. Coupled with the pending retirements of baby boomers throughout the economy, this poses an enormous challenge for our K-20 education systems and real opportunities for quality jobs for the residents of this region.

Many high school students see their high school experience as practically irrelevant to their future - education is provided without sufficient connection to the realities of the economy. We must make high school a place where learning is an applied part of a continuum on the way to the workforce and lifelong learning. This is our only viable method of attaining a future whereby we compete effectively in the global marketplace and ensure upward mobility for our citizenry. Our education delivery can and must be more relevant, better connected to the economy, provide improved student options, be increasingly seamless, and be well aligned toward high standards.

In order to be truly successful we cannot simply have the most skilled labor force. We must also be a region that produces the newest and best ideas, innovations, products, and businesses. Our region has substantial and improving public higher education assets - Oregon Health Sciences University/Oregon Graduate Institute, Portland State University, and Washington State University - Vancouver. University-based research and development has not been a historic driver of economic growth in this region, a stark contrast with competing regions across the country. If we are to compete successfully, the role of our public higher education institutions as fundamental economic drivers must be treated as a top priority by both the private and public sectors.

Underlying each level of education, particularly on the Oregon side of the four-county region, is the issue of funding. Structural changes, improved relevance and alignment with the needs of the economy can only achieve limited success without stable and adequate funding. As we have seen in this region and across Oregon, there has not been agreement on the best way to achieve stable and adequate funding at all levels of public education, especially for K-12. There is currently a great deal of activity occurring at the state (Oregon), regional, and local levels in examining and testing options to better fund our K-12 education system. A duplicative or competing effort to determine a solution within the Regional Business Plan would be neither useful nor productive. Likewise, no specific, viable, consensus-funding proposal emerged in the time this task force conducted its work. This task force will monitor the efforts underway (and several members of the task force are in fact directly involved in these efforts) being led by local mayors, school districts, and the Chalkboard project to address this issue. Ultimately the region's businesses must play a lead role in education funding and delivery. Our economic future depends on it.

Focus the region's K-20 educational efforts on:

1) Preparing students to meet the workforce demands of the region's leading traded sector industry clusters
2) Increasing the traded-sector research and commercialization capacity at the region's public institutions of higher education

Key Initiatives

Develop a "clearinghouse" to more efficiently and productively link businesses to schools and improve communication, coordination and collaboration among business and education.
Support and promote major structural high-school reforms and innovations that create relevance, set high skill standards, provide options for students, and connect to the workforce needs of the region's employers, particularly those in the traded sectors. Examples include E3's Small Schools Project ( www.e3oregon.org ), the Center for Advanced Learning ( www.thecenterforadvancedlearning.org ), Sabin-Schellenberg Skills Center ( sabin.nclack.k12.or.us ).
Support and proactively assist districts in re-thinking and re-structuring the junior and senior years for better seamlessness and relevance between graduation, the workforce, and post-secondary education.
- Build industry led partnerships with high schools and community colleges to provide work experience, college credit, and applied learning in career paths.
- Develop career-focused specializations among high schools to provide choice and options for students, with internship opportunities with the region's businesses.
Provide 500 teacher, counselor, and administrator internships across the region in the next two years with particular focus on internships in traded sector industry companies.
Encourage and support Entrepreneurial Education programs at community colleges, universities and community organizations. These are programs that teach entrepreneurs the skills required to start and grow thriving business enterprises that create jobs for the region.
Pursue co-location strategies between local school districts and community colleges; better use existing facilities among schools, districts, and community colleges.
Support the work of the Chalkboard Project in building consensus solutions to improve schools and address statewide issues that impact local districts, including stable and adequate funding.
Increase the traded-sector research and commercialization capacity at the region's public institutions of higher education - OHSU/OGI, PSU, and WSU-Vancouver. This requires expansion of graduate programs, close interaction between industry and academia on innovative ideas and products, and support from industry in attracting the leading students and faculty to our institutions.
Promote and support Portland Community College's Center for Business and Industry and Clark Community College's Corporate and Community Education facility.
Establish the Center for Manufacturing and Infrastructure Engineering as proposed by the Manufacturing 21 Coalition.
Work with the Partners for Diversity on programs and initiatives to increase opportunities for ethnic minorities and improve the overall diversity of the region's workforce to more closely reflect the population.