By David Kubota
NKy Tribune reporter
A sold-out Northern Kentucky Chamber of Commerce monthly Eggs N’ Issues panel discussion tackled GROW NKY and strategies to develop talent in the region.
left to right: Guest moderator Rhonda Whitaker, Dr. Jim Detwiler, Barbara Stewart, Janice Urbanik, discussed ways to grow the region’s workforce at the July NKy Chamber Eggs ‘N Issues discussion (photos by David Kubota).
A collaboration between businesses and educators, the group discussed how Northern Kentucky can better grow and attract talent to the region.
The panelists included Dr. Jim Detwiler, the Deputy Superintendent/Chief Academic Officer at Boone County Public Schools; Barbara Stewart, director of the Northern Kentucky Workforce Investment Board; and Janice Urbanik, senior director of the National Fund for Workforce Solutions.
The discussion took place at Receptions banquet and event center in Erlanger. It was moderated by Rhonda Whitaker, director of Government & Community Relations for Duke Energy Kentucky and Board Chair for the NKY Chamber.
Whitaker opened Eggs N’ Issues by discussing what GROW NKY hopes to accomplish.
“The goal of this effort is to get everyone to align activities and common goals for this community.” She said. “It’s really to get everyone to swim in the same direction.”
GROW stands for Growing Regional Outcomes through Workforce, which hopes to address issues in the high-demand business sectors in Northern Kentucky. Focusing on the talent pipeline, the initiative’s goal is to scale, leverage, and drive outcomes in the region.
“I like the word ecosystem because it’s all about pulling together partners,” Whitaker said. “Everyone that’s doing something with their own little niche.”
The group’s businesses, educators, work with the Chamber of Commerce to collaborative goals that they hope to reach by December 2019. A new Workforce Center for Northern Kentucky will open in August of this year, in the Chamber of Commerce offices.
In terms of education, the initiative hopes to reach kids early and begin to instill valuable workforce tools in students. GROW also hopes to attract new talent to Northern Kentucky and cultivate and train the talent that already exists in the region.
Speaking about his students, Dr. Detwiler emphasized the importance of internships and apprenticeships in education. Looking at education as scaffolding allows educators to approach learning in a new way.
“A lot of kindergarten classes work on empathy, but I bet you most kindergarten teachers aren’t thinking about what empathy looks like in the workforce,” he said.
Dr. Detwiler also spoke about how educators and businesses need to collaborate to tackle workforce issues.
Discussing the workforce, Stewart began by speaking about how her organization trains job seekers to find and maintain new employment.
“We help with essential skills that every employer is talking about.” She said. “People don’t know how to behave at work, show up on time, problem solve, and some people don’t know they’re supposed to come back after lunch sometimes.”
Stewart also described the initiative as something unique to the state and credited Northern Kentucky’s reputation for being innovative and creative.
Urbanik then addressed how employers need to broaden their workforce initiatives beyond high school and college students.
“Employers need to be thinking about how they can develop a value proposition for their current and future workforce to entice them to come work for them.” She said.
Giving the example of maternity leave policy, Urbanik said that companies who broaden their maternity leave classifications to include men benefit by creating a value proposition that is appealing to current and future employees.
New career-bridge initiatives focus on a partnership between entry-level fast food jobs and higher paying skill-based manufacturing jobs. By moving employees from entry level positions to manufacturing jobs, employees are trained and receive higher wages while employers benefit by having access to a new potential workforce.
Taking questions from the audience, the panelists addressed the lack of skill-based candidates within the job market. A lack of candidates in trade skills and disagreements between the baby-boomer and millennial generations creates fundamental issues in the job market.
“It’s a huge culture shift,” Stewart responded. “It needs to be embedded in every conversation that our career coaches are having with candidates.”
Urbanik responded with solutions of her own, especially those surrounding value propositions by companies.
“The key is having paid internships and apprenticeships and to have employers hire youth under 18 and right now many of them think they can’t…and they can,” she said.
The final question regarded the lack of women being targeted by the trade industries and other workforce opportunities.
“Literally going on right now, is Rosie’s Girls which is an experience for girls to be exposed to construction careers,” Urbanik said. “The Greater Cincinnati STEM collaborative is another great opportunity.”
The next Northern Kentucky Chamber of Commerce Eggs N’ Issues meeting occurs on August 21 and will address how the arts matter to the region. For more information on Eggs N’ issues click here.
David Kubota is a Scripps Howard Foundation intern at the NKyTribune this summer. He is a student at the University of Kentucky School of Journalism and Media. Contact the Northern Kentucky Tribune at news@nkytrib.com.
