Sign, Sign, Everywhere a Sign

Volume 37

Number 1

Winter 2006

By Janet Taber
Pioneer Technology Center

“Employment Opportunities Available—Inquire Within” is a sign that is becoming increasingly familiar in business windows across the nation. While these signs are attracting a lot of attention and responses from thousands of job applicants, it’s becoming more obvious, it’s not about a worker shortage, but a skills shortage.

This growing need for employees has become a special concern in the manufacturing sector, which is faced with several dilemmas, one being an aging workforce.

The “Baby Boomer” generation is soon retiring which leaves us facing a significant worker shortage,” states Steve Crank, area manager for the Oklahoma Employment Security Commission. “This generation produced significant numbers of extremely talented skilled trades people, and there's nobody coming in behind them.

There also exists within the North Central Oklahoma labor market a significant skills gap between those talents possessed by many job seekers and those skills needed by the employers offering jobs at a living wage. Couple these two factors together and we are facing an enormous worker shortage in the next few years.”

Image of Dennis Ruttman, left and Steve Crank.

Dennis Ruttman, left and Steve Crank.

It seems the shortage of skilled workers couldn’t have come at a worse time. With increasing technological changes and automated manufacturing plants, today’s manufacturers are needing employees who know how to use computers and equipment, have a strong work ethic, good math and communication skills, excellent problem solving skills, and can be a team player.

On a local level, efforts are being made and initiatives are being put in place to help with the challenges. The Ponca City Development Authority, the Workforce Oklahoma Local One-Stop Center, Pioneer Technology Center and area manufacturers are working together to raise awareness of the opportunities available in manufacturing and the skills needed for these careers.

Through a new system called WorkKeys and the KeyTrain curriculum, PTC can now help area businesses meet challenges by better preparing students using a system developed by the ACT, the nationally renowned organization that originated the ACT college-testing program. The WorkKeys employment system and KeyTrain curriculum system assist in this effort by providing a method for setting basic skill requirements for jobs, for assessing a student's skills relative to a job, and for improving a student's basic workplace skills to successfully qualify and retain a high-skilled, high-wage career.

Dennis Ruttman, PTC’s director of business and industry services, also believes that it is building strong partnerships with business and industry by targeting and identifying their needs. “WorkKeys is also an important tool in increasing the skills of our workforce by assessing the basic skills of employees and closing identified skills gaps through the KeyTrain curriculum. This in turn is allowing employees an opportunity to attain the skills they need and hopefully advance to a higher paying job. Additionally, it is helping to create a pipeline of future workers for area businesses.”

While advisory committees and other partnerships have been put in place including the Manufacturing Education Training System (METS) partnership which is intended to build a bridge between industry and education by allowing highly qualified students to continue their education in the workplace, the challenge remains for finding, educating and maintaining enough workers to allow our economy and workforce to grow.

“We must continue to educate our entire community about this,” states Tim Burg, assistant director for the Ponca City Development Authority (PCDA). We can start by helping our youth consider manufacturing as a viable career alternative. While we seem to tell our youth ‘go to college if you want to succeed’, we need to encourage and help them understand that they can be successful and make a comfortable living if they wish to follow a technical career path.

“It takes us all to make this society work and to fill the jobs and prosper,” Burg said. “It takes our best and brightest to finish college and fill the professional ranks. It also takes someone to make the parts in our factories, to build the homes and roads, to do the hard work that requires many diverse skills and disciplines. It takes skills and education at all levels, not one versus the other.”

As the “Employment Opportunities—Inquire Within” signs continue to hang in the windows, many challenges and obstacles lay before us. However, one thing is for sure, it will take a community working and partnering together and investing in a skilled workforce.

Perhaps Robert M. Williamson said it best in his article “Facing a Famine in the Workforce.” The time for action is now.

“What better time to re-tool the workforce than when the economy is strong and business viability depends on attracting, training, and keeping skilled people for today and well on into the future,” Burg said. “After all, people are the only company asset that is capable of learning and improving.”