The Working for America Institute advocates that workforce development take place through sector-based workforce initiatives. This tool kit deals with how partners should approach these initiatives in the advanced manufacturing sector, but we thought it would be helpful to review some basic definitions of sector initiatives and the elements that are common to these approaches across sectors.
Sector initiative is a term that refers to a variety of initiatives that focus on improving the competitiveness of a particular economic sector, i.e., healthcare, manufacturing, finance, etc. For the purpose of this tool kit, the term sector initiative refers to industry-specific, dual customer workforce development programs involving multiple employers, in a particular regional labor market. Thus, these initiatives focus attention on the needs of multiple employers in a specific industry in a specific community or economic region.
Cluster Initiatives: Sector initiatives and "cluster initiatives" are related but slightly different. Cluster approaches focus on the vertical and horizontal relationships among firms in a particular regional economy. Cluster initiatives employ a targeted strategy to maintain or enhance the regional advantage of particular economic activity. A biosciences cluster approach, for example, may focus on pharmaceutical and medicine manufacturing; research and development in the physical, engineering, and life sciences; and medical and diagnostic laboratories.
Dual Customers: The best sector-based initiatives operate on both the supply and demand side of the economy. Employing a "dual customer" approach, they are designed to deliver new solutions to employers in the target industry, while providing for interventions that will improve the skills of incumbent workers, jobseekers or both. A sector-based initiative should improve both the economic status of the workforce and the competitiveness of the area’s employers. In the words of the National Network of Sector Partners (NNSP), the dual customer approach “result[s] in companies that are more competitive, while employees obtain improved income, benefits, and employment security.”
Multiple Solutions: Through the engagement in a sector initiative, the partners and public workforce system will build a shared knowledge of the workforce challenges facing the target industry and will likely integrate multiple solutions to the skills and competitiveness challenges facing the industry. The partners in a sector or initiative will likely utilize an array of resources to meet these challenges over the course of the initiative.
Community Change: Successful sector initiatives can affect much more than employers’ recruitment and training practices. The National Association of Workforce Boards (NAWB) promotes sector-based initiatives that achieve win-win solutions for employers and workers in the industry through actions such as: shifts in industry practice; reform of local education and training systems; improvement in recruiting and support systems for entry-level employees; the institution of career ladders; and/or productivity enhancements throughout the industry. This is the type of community change that the Working for America Institute has tried to articulate in our vision of a “high road economy” – an economy that competes in today’s global marketplace on the basis of innovation, quality and skill rather than on low wages and benefits.
Use of Intermediaries: The U.S. Department of Labor (USDOL) emphasizes that sectoral interventions require an in-depth knowledge of, and extensive work with, a particular industry, as well as a substantial knowledge of, and commitment to, assisting targeted populations needing improved employment opportunities. Rarely can individual employers or even industry groups manage the knowledge of the worker/job-seeker customer; and rarely can training providers manage the specific industry knowledge necessary to meet the employers’ real needs. That is why intermediary organizations, such as the Institute, are often partners in these initiatives. Unions or union-sponsored organizations can also serve as intermediaries, as they cross employers and have a broad knowledge of the target industry and its workforce.
Economies of Scale: Cross employer efforts should produce economies of scale, saving employers from each making individual investments in similar training. This can be accomplished by using a training provider outside the firms, such as an area community college or Manufacturing Extension Partnership. This approach also benefits workers by providing industry-recognized credentials.
