Regional WIRED project is now wired.

News brief category:
High Performance

Representatives of the Northwest Oregon and Southwest Washington region have launched a Web site to highlight their progress in implementing a $5 million federal workforce grant to drive economic growth through workforce development.

The new site, www.wirednw.org, will be the primary source of public information about the Workforce Innovation in Regional Economic Development (WIRED) project. This three-year partnership will integrate regional economic and workforce development. Because manufacturing is a significant employment sector, this WIRED project will help ensure the continued success and visibility of the Pacific Northwest’s manufacturing industry.

At the core of the initiative is the principle that talent development and management is the foundation for economic growth. Strategies for the initiative are grouped around four main goals: (1) supporting leadership for regional economic growth, (2) growing the talent pipeline, (3) Aligning curriculum and (4) increasing training opportunities.

The WIRED partnership's vision for transforming the economy relies on a regional approach to talent development based on high-performing systems for school-business connections, labor exchange and training. Systems must be coherent across the region and easily navigable for businesses and job seekers, without regard for political boundaries. The initiative is guided by a regional workforce council composed of business, workforce, economic development and education leaders, and is strengthened by the close collaboration of the directors of five workforce investment boards. Current work groups are focused on:

  • Developing and aligning curriculum to meet the skill demands of advanced manufacturing
  • Implementing a consistent system for expanding and tracking school-business connections that supports new graduation requirements
  • Developing a work readiness assessment system that complements the planning and objectives of the Department of Community Colleges and Workforce Development and the Oregon Employment Department
  • Convening industry-led skill panels to develop training plans for new and incumbent workers.

The partnership will consider strategies for staff development at WorkSource centers, and it will set priorities for WIRED training funds. WIRED efforts will be informed by a series of analyses led by expert consultants and funded by grant and leveraged funds:

  • Value stream mapping, now underway at five WorkSource centers, will help staff create plans for moving from a current state to a desired future state using high performance tools that have been proven effective in public- and private-sector applications.

    • Resource mapping will identify all of the organizations that invest in workforce development, as well as their funding sources and objectives, to help the region implement a more coordinated and strategic approach to talent development.
    • A workforce audit will quantify workforce supply and demand, and training capacity and gaps, with the goal of better alignment of workforce, training, and industry demand.
    • A global competitiveness assessment will help the region understand and market its competitive advantages.

    The participating counties in the Northern Willamette Valley and Southwest Washington as part of this WIRED project include Multnomah, Washington, Clackamas, Columbia, Marion, Yamhill and Polk counties in Oregon, and Clark, Cowlitz and Wahkiakum counties in Washington.

    The WIRED initiative was covered earlier at OregonManufacturing.org. (See document.) For more information regarding the WIRED initiative visit www.wirednw.org.