Laborers’ Workforce Presentation Highlights New Statewide Focus on Career Readiness

Date Posted: September 6, 2019

Posted In: Discussion, Ideas, Workforce,

There is a new sense of purpose and focus regarding workforce development statewide, according to a speaker and panelists at an event held Wednesday (Sept. 4) at  Laborers Local 110 hall. The panel was organized by Sal Valadez for the the Eastern Missouri Laborers’ District Council Diversity, Inclusion, and Collaboration Committee.

There is a new commitment by the state of Missouri, from the Governor on down to workforce development, the program’s main speaker, Dr. Blaine Henningsen said. Henningsen is the assistant commissioner, college and career readiness, Department of Elementary and Secondary Education.

Henningsen said that new rules are being put into place that will move from the old evaluation of schools and districts from test scores and college placements to metrics that measure “career readiness”.

Henningsen noted that students will in all likelihood need to “reinvent” themselves several times over their careers. Educators and employers need to work together to establish the skills that will be needed in the future and develop training for those skills, he said.

DESE is in the process of developing a career and technical certificate that will certify to employers that a student has established a solid record in attendance, grades, and life skills, he said.

Panel moderator was Dr. John Gaal (Retired Director of Training & Workforce Development STL-KC Carpenters Regional Council) Panel members were:

• Dr. Julie Fickas (Campus President and Chief Academic Officer, St Louis Community College – Forest Park)
• Tom Finan (Executive Director, St Louis Construction Forum)
• Dr. Pablo Flinn (Principal, Normandy High School

St. Louis Community College’s Fickas said that the emphasis at SLCC has turned from an academic focus with job readiness thrown in at the end to circling around getting students ready for their futures. She cited SLCC’s new health sciences building as an example. Fickas also noted that SLCC helps students who are underprepared in basic language and math skills, or lacking a high school diploma to elevate their game so that they come out of their community college experience ready to work.

Normandy’s Flinn said that his school tries to meet students where they are holistically to address the students’ varied academic and personal needs and barriers in reaching career readiness.

This requires innovative thinking. Flinn said that one example is an urban farm that the school has developed on vacant land. The farm serves the dual purpose of addressing the food desert that surrounds Normandy students, while exposing them to agriculture — an area which they would be unlikely to encounter in daily life. Flinn said the school is looking at the possibility of establishing an ag science program, with a view of the jobs in that sector that are being created in the St. Louis region.

Construction Forum’s Finan said that four decades of studying and working around workforce issues have convinced him that the tools to help all students reach career readiness are available through a myriad of educational institutions, agencies, organizations, and employers. What is lacking, he said, is a concerted effort to connect collaborations among those entities.

In addition, he said, resources need to be shared collectively and metrics of what works and what doesn’t must be tracked.