Mark Your Calendars
Industry Consortia Issue Their Quarterly Public Meeting Schedules for the New Year
The Industry Consortia have confirmed their quarterly public meeting dates for 2024. In the coming months, the Consortia are wrapping up their short-term objective: advising on future rounds of Workforce Ready Grant funding. Throughout 2024, they will advance their medium-term objectives. This work includes the following:
- assessing sector-specific workforce needs, skills standards, and career pathways
- identifying education and training assets
- developing a strategic policy and funding framework to address priority workforce and talent gaps and opportunities
We invite you to attend the quarterly meetings listed below. Check out our Industry Consortia webpage to learn more!
Healthcare Industry Consortium:
- Thursday, January 25, 9:00 a.m. - 12:30 p.m., Portland Community College Performing Arts Center, Sylvania Campus, 12000 Southeast, SW 49th, Portland, OR 97219
- Tuesday, April 2, 12:00 - 3:30 p.m., Location TBD
- Wednesday June 26, 1:00 - 4:30 p.m., Location TBD
- Tuesday September 24, 9:00 a.m. - 12:30 p.m., Location TBD
Manufacturing Industry Consortium:
- Wednesday, January 31, 9:00 a.m. - 12:30 p.m., Location: Oregon Institute of Technology, 27500 SW Parkway Ave., Wilsonville, OR 97070
- Wednesday March 20, 12:00 - 3:30 p.m., Location, TBD
- Tuesday, June 18, 1:00 - 4:30 p.m., Location TBD
- Tuesday, October 1, 9:00 a.m. - 12:30 p.m., Location TBD
Technology Industry Consortium:
- Thursday, February 29 – Time and Location TBD
- Tuesday, May 21 – Time and Location TBD
- Wednesday, July 31 – Time and Location TBD
- Wednesday, October 30 – Time and Location TBD
How to Attend and Where to Find More Information
Each Consortium’s quarterly meetings are open to the public and held in person with an option to attend online. The HECC welcomes your comments; to sign up to provide public comment at these meetings, email the public meeting administrator, and be sure to view additional public comment guidelines here.
Prior to each meeting, we will share the location, registration link for online attendance, agenda, and any supplemental documents on the Industry Consortia webpage. Following each meeting, you can find a link to the meeting recording on the HECC YouTube channel.
To be kept updated as public meeting details are announced, please subscribe to our Industry Consortia public meeting notices.
Pictured: New WorkSource Oregon Mobile Unit.
Work Support on Wheels
Central Oregon Intergovernmental Council to Launch Mobile WorkSource Unit With Prosperity 10,000 Support From East Cascades Works
Beginning this spring, job seekers, students, and workers throughout Central Oregon can expect WorkSource Oregon services to come to them, thanks to the Central Oregon Intergovernmental Council’s new mobile unit. This one-of-a-kind workforce center is made possible through support from Future Ready Oregon. Specifically, a 2022 Workforce Ready Grant from the HECC funded the purchase of the van, and Prosperity 10,000 support from East Cascades Works—the region’s local workforce board—is funding the planning, implementation, and hiring of a mobile employment counselor.
Why Go Mobile?
The Central Oregon Intergovernmental Council (COIC) serves Crook, Deschutes, and Jefferson Counties. That’s about 600 miles of open road. The region’s WorkSource Oregon centers in Bend and Redmond can be challenging for residents in the surrounding communities to visit. “In some cases it can be a 60-70 mile round-trip to get to these centers,” says COIC Adult Programs Manager Dana Dunlap. “For someone with a low income—or no income, or who is waiting for unemployment benefits—that is a significant expense.”
Services to be Offered
To make WorkSource services more accessible, COIC has equipped a Sprinter van with six workstations, computers, and internet access. “The purpose of this van,” Dunlap explains, “is to provide job seekers of any age who live in our rural and frontier communities with the same WorkSource resources that we provide in our comprehensive [brick and mortar] centers.”
To do that, COIC will hire a dedicated mobile employment counselor to help job seekers create resumes, complete job applications, apply for jobs online, and even connect with local employers. The counselor may also provide employment coaching and career assessments, and help job seekers explore training opportunities for a new career.
Pictured above: Dunlap presents the van's interior workstations.
Anticipated Times and Locations
Beginning this spring, the Mobile WorkSource Unit will first launch services in La Pine, adding additional communities, such as Madras, Prineville, and Warm Springs, through the summer months. The unit will also be used for special events, such as youth events, job fairs, and recruitment activities, as well as for rapid responses—by, for instance, providing support to laid-off workers.
Collaborations and Community Partnerships
Designing the mobile unit highlighted the importance of partnering with community members and engaging in collaborative brainstorming to ensure the van is efficient, reliable, and can be used to serve a maximum number of community members. This process began with Dunlap’s own team. She credits the COIC staff with proposing the idea for a mobile unit and coming up with important features—adding, for example, an awning and outdoor workstations to increase capacity and make the unit’s services more accessible.
Dunlap also invited WorkSource partners to give feedback on the van wrap, which reflects key regional industries—construction and healthcare—along with the COIC youth forestry program.
As COIC prepares for this first year of service, they will establish a community of practice so they can involve community partners in actively evaluating and enhancing their mobile services.
East Cascades Works continues to play a pivotal role in the van’s roll-out. In addition to encouraging COIC to pursue the project and providing feedback along the way, the local workforce board is supporting the hiring and training of the mobile employment counselor through Future Ready Oregon Prosperity 10,000 funds. “I am so grateful for COIC’s innovative approach to ensure all Central Oregonians have access to the robust workforce services available through WorkSource Oregon,” says Heather Ficht, East Cascades Works’ executive director. She further states, “This is a necessary expansion of services in our vast and rural region. It is a very promising approach that may become more common statewide.”
|
Credit for Prior Learning
Check Out What Students at Blue Mountain Community College and Western Oregon University Are Saying About This Program
In 2022, the HECC awarded $10 million in Future Ready Oregon funds to expand what is known as Oregon’s Credit for Prior Learning (CPL) Program. Nineteen Oregon community colleges and public universities applied, and all received funding, which they implemented between July 2022 and June 2023.
The $10 million Future Ready Oregon investment in CPL is one-time funding to increase opportunities for students from priority populations to receive academic credit for prior experience or skills gained outside of traditional higher education institutions. Such academic credits count toward a credential that provides a pathway to employment or career advancement. Most institutions focused on expanding CPL, creating transparent systems, increasing staff capacity to support CPL students, and creating and distributing marketing materials to engage priority populations. View the full list of recipients in the CPL grantee document.
Recently, Blue Mountain Community College (BMCC) and Western Oregon University (WOU) each released short videos about student experiences with CPL:
- Kylara Lewis, a veteran and recent graduate of BMCC, used CPL to prepare for a new culinary career. Hear from Kylara here.
- Paul Diaz, a firefighter paramedic, completed his EMT basic training through BMCC’s CPL Program. Watch Paul’s story here.
- Kyle Craig recently returned to WOU to obtain his degree after his diverse work experience, which includes working at sea and in law enforcement, and starting a non-profit. WOU’s CPL Program has helped him earn credit towards completing his degree. Listen to Kyle discuss the impact of CPL on his journey here.
To learn more about CPL and about the Future Ready Oregon funding for this program, see the HECC’s 2023 Report on Credit for Prior Learning.
|
