BRATTLEBORO — After nearly two years of research, surveys, meetings, and fundraising, the Brattleboro Development Credit Corp. (BDCC) is launching a new workforce development program in collaboration with regional employers and education partners.
The Fast Tracks to Success program is supported by an $18,000 grant from the Vermont Department of Labor. It will be implemented throughout all four Windham Region high schools, and is designed to increase youth engagement in and knowledge of the local job market.
William Anton, incoming Superintendent of Windham Central Supervisory Union, commended BDCC on focusing on bringing more opportunity to Windham Region schools, saying “it's so important to give students the opportunity to see the connection between workforce-necessary skills and what they are doing everyday in schools.”
In 2013, the creation of a federally recognized Comprehensive Economic Development Strategy, or CEDS, in Windham County identified the need to cultivate, retain, and attract a high quality workforce.
The regional workforce partnership, created in response to this need, is a network of committees that meet regularly to share best practices, identify needs, and proffer region-wide solutions. Two research surveys have been conducted through these networks, a 5-year hiring inventory and a career menu survey.
The hiring inventory was developed using an in-depth survey of 35 of the Windham Region's largest employers, as well as a confidence survey in smaller businesses. The survey asked employers to catalog by job type their projected workforce need over the next five years when accounting for retirement, normal turnover, and growth needs.
The results of this 2014 survey indicate there will be more than 3,000 job openings in the fields of advanced manufacturing, healthcare, social and human services, green building and related services, and tourism/hospitality over the next five years because of retirement, growth, and regularly occurring changes in employment.
The career menu survey was a research tool used to see how regional high schools do in providing Career Development programming to students. All four Windham Region high schools, as well as regional career and tech centers, participated in the survey, and helped identify current gaps or weaknesses in how they serve students.
Above all else, career and guidance counselors agreed that students lack awareness about careers and employment opportunities in the region.
The Fast Tracks to Success Program will provide supplemental curricula and logistical support to Leland & Gray High School, Bellows Falls Union High School, Twin Valley Middle-High School, and Brattleboro Union High School, including arranging and facilitating field trips to local employers.