Includes:
- Developing career exploration and job search workshops
- Designing and conducting training-for-trainers workshops
- Evaluation and inventory of certificate and degree training programs
- Developing certificate and degree training programs
- Planning and coordinating industry sector initiatives
- Planning and coordinating layoff aversion programs
- Developing annual reports and marketing/promotional material
Examples of career exploration and job search workshops that we have developed and facilitated, including training-for-trainers workshops. We also frequently conduct regional community meetings and events as a tool for promoting and disseminating information from our industry and occupational research.
Our work in the evaluation and inventory of certificate and degree training programs can best be appreciated by visiting one of our Career & Training Network online applications. For example, the Napa County Workforce Investment Board's website (our design) includes a menu choice for the Career & Training Network. Once there, select Training Directory to explore the system and its information on postsecondary certificate and degree training programs. Note that we also developed the first comprehensive regional training directory in California so that students and job seekers alike could see and compare their postsecondary education and training options. This system would later become a model for a statewide directory.
Industry sector initiatives are regional, industry-focused solutions to workforce and economic development challenges. Our most recent work in planning and coordinating industry sector initiatives and developing certificate and degree training programs can be viewed on the Napa County Workforce Investment Board's website under the menu choice for Industry Sector Initiatives. Also, as research analysts, we are often able to identify or validate specific training needs in a region and work with employers and workforce development partners to forge effective strategies for meeting those workforce needs. One of many examples of training programs that we helped to develop is the School of Culinary Arts at the Charles A. Jones Career & Education Center in Sacramento, California.
One of the responsibilties of local workforce investment boards is to provide services to dislocated/laid-off workers (or those who have received lay-off notices), as well as to businesses who are in lay-off mode. But these services, while valuable, are playing catch-up, as the downward economic trajectory for these businesses is largely irreversible. However, a certain percentage of the time, having advanced knowledge of businesses that are struggling, and providing better resource information to the business community, and providing free and confidential lay-off aversion assessments, can avert layoffs and business closures. We call this kind of proactive approach a Lay-off Aversion Initiative.
Annual reports for workforce investment boards vary significantly. Some are obligated to prepare annual reports for their boardmembers each year. Some prepare annual reports on occasion, to help inform their board members or the public of their recent accomplishments and initiatives. An annual report can look like a brochure, magazine, or any other type of print or electronic media that effectively communicates the information to the desired audience. We have the content skills and experience needed, along with the graphic design expertise (Casey Design) to develop effective annual reports and other marketing/promotional material in any media format desired, including print, electronic media, or video. Please see this sample annual report developed by Jim Cassio & Associates.