Page 61 - Careers & Stuff 2021

the Fall 2020 cohort of Tech Impact’s ITWorks training program, which graduated 12 students last December. Eighty percent of graduates have secured jobs in IT since graduation.
“Through Forward Delaware funding, in partnership with the Delaware Department of Labor and regional
IT training providers, Tech Impact supported over 260 individuals through
Workforce Development the Delaware Way
When the governor signed the order creating Forward Delaware, the Delaware Workforce Development Board (DWDB) was ready to spring into action. Bill Potter, the board’s executive director, and his team held marathon calls with trainers and businesses to figure out a solution.
In normal times, the DWDB uses
upended normal business, as he put it. Much of Forward Delaware was shaped by reports and data trends
from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, as well as Delaware Labor reports on what industries were shedding jobs last year. But looking to the future, the DWDB may consider looking more closely at the state’s trade associations to understand what skills each sector needs.
MUBARAK ONANEYE
free IT training programs in software development, IT support, IT project management, network administration and other in-demand IT career pathways,” says Tech Impact Executive Director Patrick Callihan. “We continue to provide job preparation and job placement assistance to the graduates, and are seeing excellent employment outcomes to date. We look forward to highlighting our final outcomes and many success stories in the months to come.”
annual federal funding to either buy a cohort of seats for training or on a seat-by-seat basis from secondary education institutes like Delaware Technical Community College or private sector providers like the American Driver Training Academy.
But under Forward Delaware, those trainers with a solid reputation and who trained skills for in-demand sectors were able to add more room to classes.
“The Delaware Way works, because how else were we able to get something like this done so quickly?” Potter says. “We were able to call
up people leading these statewide organizations, get a sense of what they need and pull a rough plan together in 45 minutes.”
In the last nine months, Potter says he’s spoken with a woman who used to run a party boat in Sussex County, who finished training to be a medical assistant, and a retail clerk who now brings in more money as a truck driver. There’s hundreds more that are living “happy ever after” the pandemic
“We need to go beyond what the data is telling us and start taking qualitative examples. What I’m starting to realize is that some of the Labor reports we’re localizing are years behind, and [the labor market] hates disruptions like what we saw last year,” Potter says. “If we start having these conversations now, we can be ahead of the curve.”
As of June, it’s not clear whether Forward Delaware will continue into 2022, as the program is contingent
on one-shot funding from the federal government. The state may use its own funding to keep the project going, but no decisions have been made yet.
But at DWDB, Potter is confident that the lessons from Forward Delaware will continue well into the future and shape the state’s job market.
“There’s something about leveraging these relationships — board members, trainers, people in education
and business — that I think will substantially change the way we do business in the future,” he says.
BUSINESSES LOOKING TO HIRE FROM THE FORWARD DELAWARE COHORT OR APPLICANTS LOOKING TO ENROLL SHOULD VISIT FORWARDDELAWARE.COM. IF YOU’RE INTERESTED IN GETTING INVOLVED WITH THE PROJECT AND WORKING WITH THE DELAWARE WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT BOARD TO SHAPE THE SKILLSET FOR THE NEXT GENERATION, CONTACT WILLIAM.POTTER@DELAWARE.GOV.
DelawareBusinessTimes.com | CAREERS & STUFF 59