by Justine Reisinger
11/18/09
The future of northeastern Illinois depends on regional decisions and actions, whether focused on the environment, transportation, land use, workforce development, or other quality-of-life factors. As CMAP executive director Randy Blankenhorn likes to say, “Decisions we made 20, 30 years ago are why the region is the way it is today.”
The GO TO 2040 comprehensive regional plan is moving toward completion in October 2010 (the draft for the preferred Regional Scenario is now online). CMAP is formulating strategic decisions and actions based on extensive research by the agency and its partners and on input by residents and stakeholder groups. The GO TO 2040 Strategy Papers focus on a wide range of topic areas, from climate change to arts and culture, to help understand current conditions in the region and possible strategies to solve existing and anticipated problems. This past summer’s Invent the Future public input was the most extensive phase of CMAP’s on-going efforts to engage residents in imagining how the region can meet the challenges of adding a projected 2.8 million new residents by 2040.
In this regard, the Workforce Development strategy paper is an important new GO TO 2040 publication. It has prompted regional leaders to begin the process of engaging a broader group of stakeholders to explore recommendations in the report. The Chicago Jobs Council (CJC), in partnership with the Chicago Community Trust (CCT) and CMAP, hosted a daylong meeting on November 9, 2009 to discuss the recommendations for workforce development generated by the CJC and an advisory council, which included 19 workforce development stakeholders. At the meeting, 85 stakeholders in education and workforce and economic development evaluated opportunities for regional collaboration across information systems (which will include CMAP’s Regional Indicators project), within targeted sectors, and in career training pathways. Discussions highlighted stimulus-funded opportunities to train workers and create jobs.
“It was a great opportunity to hear reactions to the recommendations developed earlier this year and explore how to make them happen as new economic and workforce development initiatives are emerging in the region,” said CJC associate director Carrie Thomas.
Attendees came from a range of northeastern Illinois organizations, including workforce boards, community colleges, and non-profit job training and placement organizations. The GO TO 2040 planning process, combined with the recent influx of federal stimulus funding, is a catalyst for renewed regional workforce development collaboration. This meeting envisioned collaboration that also included education leaders and economic developers, in addition to those in workforce development.
This meeting was part of a long-term process to implement regional workforce development strategies. The recommendations of the report (which was commissioned as input to the GO TO 2040 plan by the CCT) require collaboration and coordination between varieties of stakeholders to create:
- Coordinated workforce, education, and economic development planning and information systems across the region.
- An integrated and adaptive career and education pathway system driven by skill needs of employers and accessible to all workers in the region.
A recent update of the Skills2Compete – Illinois report “Illinois Forgotten Middle Skill Jobs” reveals that, despite the current unemployment situation, demand for skilled workers remains strong. In the conclusion of his presentation at the regional meeting, Chicago Federal Reserve Bank economist Rick Mattoon pointed out that structural unemployment – in which there’s a mismatch between the skilled workers looking for jobs and the available vacancies -- puts a premium on retraining and matching of skilled workers to jobs. This means that the role of the workforce development system is critical to helping the region’s workers and businesses emerge from the recession.
Additional opportunities for participation in this process are forthcoming, and engaging additional stakeholders is an important first priority for CMAP and its partners. See the CJC website for meeting materials, including presentations by Mattoon and Thomas. If you are interested in learning more or becoming involved in this process, please contact Annie Byrne at abyrne@cmap.illinois.gov.
permalink 
