Nevada has become a leader in workforce development and earned national recognition for collaboration efforts that offer benefits to the employer and employee. From no cost services to creating unique programs that allow for upward mobility and life-changing career opportunities, Nevada’s workforce industry is changing the Silver State for the better. Yet, despite the headway, the industry still faces many challenges including preparing workers for jobs that do not yet exist due to advancements in technology.
Recently a group of experts in workforce development met at a roundtable sponsored by Nevada State Bank to discuss these challenges and the solutions they bring to the table. Connie Brennan, publisher and CEO of Nevada Business Magazine, served as moderator for the event. These monthly roundtables bring together different industries to discuss issues and solutions.
Is This Industry More Competitive or Collaborative?
Jaime Cruz: In the last 8-10 years, Nevada has become a national model in collaboration. The proof of that is the National Association of Workforce Boards that convenes all 575 boards across the nation, like Workforce Connections and Nevada Works. For the first time, we will convene their national meeting, not in Washington, DC, but here in Las Vegas, to showcase that collaboration. Is there room for improvement? Absolutely. There is always [room for improvement] in this work. There is overlap and opportunities to get better.
Milt Stewart: We have made leaps and bounds within the last five years, and particularly with the current DETR (Department of Training and Rehabilitation) administration. They are going to find a way to “yes” if it is at all possible. That hits the ear as common sense, but it is not. We can look at many organizations and many local boards throughout the United States that are pass-through entities. They get the dollars and they do not do the actual work. I can’t stress enough that what is happening here in Nevada does not happen everywhere else.
Chris Sewell: The partnerships are key. And the branding of EmployNV as the state workforce brand has made significant strides, not only for businesses, but for individuals looking for a job. We are actually far ahead of many other states, counties, and cities.
Rick Neal, Jr.: There is a lot of collaboration that goes on at the tactical level. But one of the opportunities that is still available to us is a more structured and deliberate approach because the landscape is relatively large. For example, a lot of people do not even know that Goodwill is in workforce development.
Stewart: From a forward-facing perspective, we are a lot more aligned than in the past. When we talk about nonprofits being part of that, it is about continuing to develop and strengthen that no-wrong-door approach. It does not matter if you go to a community college or to Goodwill or you go to an EmployeeNV Hub, that menu of services and those pathways and opportunities exist.
Terri Sheridan: If we can connect the employer to the employee, then there will be great success for everyone. There are a lot of programs and a lot of folks here that can help make those connections. We are here to support and promote people to the best of our ability so we can keep our employers happy and our residents and future employees happy.
Neal: We should not be in competition in workforce development. The key for Nevada is to make sure that there are entry points at all levels. Everybody represented at this table, and probably some that are not at this table, have a different level of entry. Goodwill is never the full on-ramp for anybody. But we may be the first two-feet, the middle two-feet, or the last two-feet. And if you are riding down the I-15 at 65 miles an hour and the first two-feet of the ramp is missing, you are going to have trouble with your car. Likewise, everyone else is at somewhere else on that ramp, so we have to be able to hand it off. We cannot just expect to do it all on our own.
What Are Some of the Biggest Challenges Facing Workforce Development In Nevada?
Shani Coleman: One of the biggest workforce challenges we have is industry and employee alignment and making sure that our workforce has the skills needed for the type of industries we are trying to recruit and bring in.
Stewart: In Northern Nevada and particularly in Western Nevada it is a challenge to find people even though we have a lot of opportunities available. For example, there is a major manufacturer there that needs thousands of people within the next few years and yet there is a disconnect between the skills that folks have and what the industry is looking for and getting people to fill those available jobs.
Marchele Sneed: There is a mismatch because we have this high unemployment rate and we have huge job growth. We do not have enough skilled workers to fill those jobs.
Stewart: The disconnection between the available labor pool and the jobs that are available is not a one-to-one relationship. Sometimes the issue is that a person does not want to go into that field. Our challenge is finding them a clearly articulated career pathway where they can see their future. They can start at any level and then continue on. That may include community college or potentially a four-year degree. It could include trade school or industry-recognized certificates.
Natalie Brown: We hear about employers saying that skills are so important and our response has been to point to a degree. We really need to start changing the way we frame what education looks like and use the language that is required and looked for in the business and industry space. We think we are saying the same thing, and we are not. That also relates to articulating the value of higher education because we have not had to really market ourselves. Now we are trying to be strategic about how we portray that value. Using the terminology that is being looked for will help as well as articulating what a successful pathway into some of these careers looks like. We have lots of capacity to increase numbers in advanced manufacturing for example, but we do not have the students in the pipeline.
Sneed: We need to start focusing more on K-12, because that is how we are going to start building those pipelines. It is essential to expose kids to these careers that they are already excited about and to our in-demand occupations. That is going to be key if we want to fill these pipelines in these occupations that are in demand.
Anthony Molloy: A good start is what is happening in the high schools with CTE (career and technical education) programs and there are conversations about implementing them into middle schools. We need to start the conversation early about how it is ok to not go to college. Because right now, if you are in Southern Nevada, you are in the minority if you have a college degree. Twenty-five percent have a bachelor’s degree and approximately only 8% have master’s degrees or higher. The majority do not have degrees and that should be acceptable because all of us rely on people that do not need a bachelor’s degree. I rely on a mechanic to fix my car because I cannot fix a car. We all rely on those people, and it is acceptable.
Sewell: When I was growing up, I was told that I had to go to college and I did not have a choice. That needs to change because by everyone going to college and getting degrees, they may not be able to find the job that they have a degree in. CTE and what the community colleges are doing is filling the gap to four-year degrees. I am not saying to get rid of four-year degrees. We need those. We need engineers and accountants and finance people, and everyone else. But we need to take a hard look at how we also need individuals that can rewire a house, fix an AC system or work on a car. We need moms and dads to tell their kids that they do not need to go to a four-year degree to make a very good living. I know HVAC, plumbers and electricians that are making six figures right out of high school.
Sheridan: Not everyone is going to go to college, but there are some great careers and pathways that young people today, if they get into the right businesses, have chances for advancement within the companies that they might work for.
Stewart: It is not a binary decision anymore. You can go to a four-year school, or you can go to a trade school, or you go to an apprenticeship or whatnot. As we continue to evolve and the community colleges are continuing to develop curriculum that works across the spectrum, it is the career pathways that have become clearly articulated.
Brown: There is this idea that going to college means a bachelor’s degree or higher. But we have programs that are only a few weeks in length and focus on skill acquisition. We need to think about college in a different way and understand that skill acquisition can be looked at from a few weeks all the way through a PhD and beyond.
Stewart: The challenge is how do we systemically reinforce the notion that there is dignity in work. All work has dignity. You can work as a miner or in advanced manufacturing and it does not make you less than. It does not mean that somebody who goes and gets a college degree is somehow better than. I think that there is a lot of that attitude out there.
What Are Some of the Ways That Nevada Is Meeting Its Workforce Needs?
Sewell: A lot of employers do not realize that they can come down to a business hub of ours and tell us that they need to find an employee for X, Y, and Z and we will help them. We will have a hiring fair, we will help them go through resumes, and all of that. We will help them do all of that and it will not cost them anything. People also are not aware that if a business comes into one of our hubs and explains that they have a great employee that needs more classes or incumbent worker training, we can help pay for that as well. Then once that individual gets promoted, we will help backfill and fill the position that they were at.
Stewart: One of the things that we are doing through the EmployeeNV Hubs is multi-generational. One project is a business and career hub located downstairs while upstairs is a youth hub. They are connected so that multiple generations can come in and receive services at the same time. That can become part of the conversations that parents and kids are having. It is not the silver bullet, but there are multiple opportunities like that that we can take advantage of collectively.
Coleman: One of the things that Clark County has recently tapped into is this idea of pathways and looking at workforce, not just for people coming in, but things that are critical to the operations of our community. We started the EMT Academy, not because we were trying to identify a company to bring in, but because we saw that our ambulance companies were struggling to provide services to our constituents in a timely manner. We put together this EMT Academy and we saw that there was a career pathway there. You can become a basic EMT and then the next step is advanced, and then the next step is becoming a paramedic. And once you become a paramedic, you have the opportunity to become a firefighter. We are using it as an opportunity to fill a community need all the way through the spectrum.
Sneed: Because there is a shortage of healthcare workers across all occupations within the health care sector we have created internship opportunities for high school students across the state. We are also working in tandem with Renown up in the north and an initiative here in the South, hopefully with UMC. We are also in partnership with the UNLV College of Nursing and have expanded their nurse camp from 30 students to 130 students this year. These students will spend a week at UNLV learning about nursing and will have an opportunity to talk to students that are in nursing, so they can know what it is like to attend nursing school. They will talk to nurses, spend a day at UMC, get their Stop the Bleed certification and their CPR certification. They are immersed for a full week in that field.
How Is This Industry Addressing AI?
Brown: One of the things that we have been talking about, in particular related to emerging technologies such as AI, is not looking at it as a niche focus area, but looking to integrate it into the everyday skills that students will need, regardless of what field they go into. We are training them to navigate these different emerging technologies in any field that they are looking to go into and making it a common component rather than a degree plan. [The goal] is to train them to be digitally literate across the spectrum of emerging technologies.
Neal: We purposely did not create an AI program. What we have done is infused it into the training programs that we have. For example, with resume creation and review, we now have our clients come in and evaluate their own resumes using AI, so that they are not unfamiliar with it.
Dr. Jesse Welsh: We have been working in our space to really embed AI. We are already piloting with a number of our schools to make sure that kids understand it because you know they are all using it anyway. We might as well get in front of it and help people to understand how to use those tools well. It is that durable skills component. It is having those lifelong skills no matter what their career may be.
Neal: AI is not a cheat code. It is a reality. If you do not use the tools, you are going to be left behind. We have to infuse it into our programing and then when the specifics come out of how it will be used, then we can actually target those and build infrastructure towards it. But right now, we just need to acknowledge that AI is here. It is not going anywhere.
Welsh: We do not know what the future will look like in terms of how AI gets used in specific jobs, but we know it is another tool that you need to have in your toolbox. When the internet came out everybody thought that since you could search everything you want at any time you wanted, that it was going to eliminate the need for knowledge. It has not. It is another tool in the toolbox. It is the same thing with AI. But we need to be proactive about working with our students to make sure they understand how to use those tools responsibly and effectively.
What Are Some of the Challenges With the Next Generation of Workers?
Cruz: We have 45,000 young people between the ages of 16 and 24 that are not in skill acquisition. They are not in secondary or post-secondary school, and they are also not meaningfully engaged in the workforce. The question is how do we solve that? How do we engage those folks and provide the employers that need them with that opportunity? It is not easy.
Neal: The youth see jobs differently. [Changing jobs and career paths] seems more natural to these generations than it did when I came up. Once I started on a career path, it took four people and an academic advisor to get me out of a major that I hated. Now, people do not plan on going to a brick-and-mortar building and working 25 or 30 years to get retirement. That is just not the way it is anymore and quite frankly, employers are changing how they provide jobs. It is like the Marine Corps. Not a whole lot of people get old in the Marine Corps. It is a young person’s game, and then they move you on. Very few go up.
Sewell: One of the things that we need to do when we are talking with the youth, is to explain to them that it is okay if they pick a career field, and after six months or a year, it was not what they wanted. Because that is where we can come in and reevaluate and help them get into another career. It is okay that you are not staying in the job for your entire life. It is okay to change jobs. It is okay to have an epiphany and realize that it was not what you wanted. Because that is one of the things that everyone at this table can help with. We can help with that and change that career path for you.
Neal: When I talk to younger people, whether I am employing them or they are related to me, there is more talk about how the job makes them feel than I ever experienced. I had a great deal of fulfillment from my first 25 years in the military, and it did make me feel that way, but that was more hindsight than it was entering. Entering, there was an objective, and I went after that objective. I think that is how many people at this table probably saw work going forward.
Sneed: It is a different generation. One of the things we have done is established a Youth Workforce Advisory Council. It is made up of individuals 24 and under, and we meet with them collectively to learn how to engage with them. We have so many training programs and so many opportunities for them. Our goal, is to learn how to market our programs to this age demographic. They are helping us. I always tell everyone that works in the workforce space, we have been here for 20 plus years, and it is a great career. But when we are talking to someone that is 18, 19, or 20, we have to learn how to speak their language.
Welsh: I think the other piece, when you think about healthcare, advanced manufacturing, and some of those career fields, it is important to also make sure that we are exposing the young kids to what some of those job opportunities look like. If you say advanced manufacturing, they do not know what that looks like. But if you give them opportunities with internships and opportunities for shadowing, then they have an opportunity to see if that is something they would be interested in doing. It starts well before high school. It starts in middle school, and frankly, even elementary school, because their parents are only talking about careers that their parents know about. But the world is changing so fast that even the careers that all of us may have lived and experienced have changed since we have gone through that system as well.
