WORKFORCE INITIATIVE
The Challenge
Silicon Valley faces well-known challenges in providing skilled workers for the region’s ever-growing list of innovative technology endeavors. Recent work, including the 2008 Index of Silicon Valley, calls attention to a shrinking percentage of middle wage jobs and to a fast approaching opportunity – that of replacing the tidal wave of baby boomers who will be retiring from very highly skilled jobs as well as thousands of middle skilled jobs that provide a foundation for our economy and quality of life.
We are therefore motivated by a concern for Silicon Valley’s diverse working population to be better prepared for the opportunities presented by the current economy. We hope to avert a fast approaching crisis, in which the demands of our innovation-driven, rapidly globalizing industries can no longer met by a homegrown workforce because we do not have an adequate training and employment/reemployment infrastructure in place. We also see an as yet under-appreciated opportunity represented by a sizeable wave of retirements—across a wide range of professions, many of which provide middle class jobs—and want to ensure that these jobs can in fact be filled by a cadre of qualified local applicants, who are in the workforce now or in the pipeline for tomorrow.
The Opportunity
Joint Venture has been selected by the North Valley Workforce Board, work2future, and the San Mateo County Workforce Investment Board to recommend a coherent regional workforce investment strategy and to identify the initial steps toward its implementation. Over the next 12 months this effort will be financed through a contract with the North Valley Workforce Board (NOVA), which in turn is being funded by a one-time grant from the United States Department of Labor.
Among the goals of the initial phase of the Joint Venture Workforce Initiative are to:
- Work to identify those industries and occupations (especially those in the mid-range pay scale and those generating the most opportunities for upward mobility) that will be experiencing the most growth and/or the highest number of retirements.
- Survey other regions and identify best practices that maximize the movement of local talent into the new jobs and the replacement jobs, in this country and abroad.
- Convene the leaders of Silicon Valley’s stakeholder groups, workforce investment boards, adult training programs, community colleges, and other relevant institutions and engage them in a rich dialogue that generates actionable ideas.
- Compile the best of these ideas into a strategic plan for the region that will have a transformative effect.
Leadership
Michael Curran, North Valley Workforce Investment Board
Russell Hancock, Joint Venture: Silicon Valley Network
Jeff Ruster, San Jose Work2Future
Fred Slone, San Mateo County Workforce Investment Board
Staff:
Josh Williams, Director, Joint Venture: Silicon Valley Networkwilliams@jointventure.org
(408) 278-2262