Page 19 - Stuff Made and Built in Delaware 2020

What’s more, Short sees a continuing need for new talent in the sector even if private- sector work doesn’t recover immediately. “There is still work,” he says. “The need for a skilled workforce in the construction industry is still very real.”
There is already evidence that the private- sector projects that were put on hold are starting to bounce back, says Ed Capodanno, president of ABC Delaware.
“Individuals have been brought back after being laid off,” he says. “The need for workers at this point may not be as great as before, but there is still a need, and there will be a need as we move forward.”
Health Care
Few sectors were as severely disrupted by the pandemic as health care. “Hospitals have lost
a lot of money because, for several months, they were not treating patients who didn’t
have critical procedures,” says Wayne Smith, president and CEO of the Delaware Healthcare Association. “This has caused some hospitals to lay off or furlough employees. However, hiring for the long term in health care is filled with opportunity.” Especially with Delaware’s reputation as a mecca for retirees, he says, “demand will grow for health care workers.”
Of course, there is a lot more to the health care sector than hospital staff. For example, the COVID-associated boom in virtual medicine will translate to greater staffing needs for companies supplying the underlying technology, says Quaranta.
“There’s all sorts of really great career opportunities in health care that are not drawing blood or doing direct care,” says Foreman. “These kinds of jobs are helpful and important both to Delaware’s future as well as enabling people to have a meaningful and lucrative career path.”
Financial Services
Financial services has always been a growth sector for Delaware, and experts see that trend continuing. In recent years, technology has become an ever more important component to banking, and COVID has further accelerated that trend, says Quaranta. “We just went through an experience where almost 100% of retail spending suddenly went online. That requires the transfer of money, and those channels were available for most retailers and, by extension, consumers, to do business with.”
That positive experience, he says, “could push even more businesses to increase their ecommerce footprint.”
Foreman agrees that IT job openings in the financial-services sector will continue to increase. “In Delaware, a lot of cool, entrepreneurial financial-services firms are using the demand for online services to deliver more innovative tools.”
Shaping the
Post-COVID
Future
State launches massive effort to train unemployed workers, fill open trade jobs
BY TINA IRGANG LEADERMAN
On August 3, Governor John Carney signed Executive Order 43, kicking off a statewide program that will retrain unemployed Delawareans for in-demand occupations in the trades.
The program, known as the Rapid Workforce Training and Redeployment Initiative, will be funded with $10 million in federal dollars from the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (“CARES”) Act.
Planning is still in the early stages, but is on a tight deadline because CARES Act funds have to be allocated by the end of the year and fully spent by the end of March, says William Potter, executive director of the Delaware Workforce Development Board. “There’s going to be a flood of qualified workers coming out in spring or early summer, and we’ve got to tell employers that they’re available and ready.”
Potter also wants employers to know that the state needs their feedback. “Tell us what you need and what we’re not doing right,” he says. “Email me if you have a good idea.”
For now, Potter and other leaders of the initiative are working with credentialed training providers, such as the Delaware Technical Community College’s Office of Work-based Learning, to determine how to serve the greatest possible number of interested applicants.
“We’re going to train as many people as we can,” says Potter.
Even as the initiative is still soliciting feedback from employers, a review of state data on in-demand occupations has suggested some areas of focus.
“The industries we’re looking at are primarily health care, IT, the construction trades, hospitality, and logistics and transportation,” Potter says.
If you’d like to know more about the Rapid Workforce Training and Redeployment Initiative or provide feedback, email william.potter@ delaware.gov.
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