Birmingham area strives to create 125,000 new high-skilled employees by 2025

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The Birmingham area needs to provide 125,000 new high-skilled employees by 2025 in order to meet goals set by Gov. Kay Ivey, a workforce development leader told the Hoover Area Chamber of Commerce today.

Statewide, the goal is 500,000 new high-skilled employees, said Antiqua Cleggett, executive director of the Central Six Development Council, which serves Jefferson, Shelby, Blount, Chilton, St. Clair and Walker counties.

The Birmingham area is expected to produce 25 percent of those employees because of its high population concentration, Cleggett told the Hoover chamber at its monthly luncheon at the Hoover Country Club.

About 170,000 of those high-skilled workers will be needed to fill jobs being vacated by retirees, while the other 330,000 will be needed to fill new jobs being created, Cleggett said.

GROWTH AREAS

Some of the growth areas that have been identified to drive economic development include information technology, advanced manufacturing and bioscience or life science jobs, she said.

In the information technology industry, just last month DC Blox opened the first phase of a data center in Birmingham, but the company plans to invest $785 million over the next decade for expansion there. Last year, Shipt announced plans to add 881 new jobs at its headquarters in Birmingham, and Birmingham economic developers expect to land automotive suppliers in the Birmingham region for the Mazda Toyota plant being built in Huntsville, Cleggett said.

There already are more than 200 bioscience and life science companies in the Birmingham-Hoover region, and workforce planners are trying to figure out how to build the workforce needed to sustain those companies and help them grow, she said.

Birmingham has been resilient in recovering from the 2008 recession, but not growing as quickly as some of its sister cities, Cleggett said. The challenge is a lack of skilled and relevant talent, she said.

There is a huge misalignment when it comes to industry needs and the types of skills being acquired and developed by workers, Cleggett said. For example, Birmingham, as a health care town, has a need for nurses, but too many people are being trained as registered nurses, she said. There is also a need for licensed practical nurses, she said.

A lot of people are graduating as nurse practitioners, but there are not enough career opportunities for them in this region, so they are moving to places such as Atlanta, Nashville and Charlotte, she said. “We’re losing talent.”

Workforce and economic development leaders are trying to help better align career training programs to meet the job needs that are here so this region can grow more, she said.

Numerous groups are working together, including the Central Six Development Council, University of Alabama at Birmingham, Alabama Possible, United Way, Birmingham Business Alliance, Alabama Power and Innovate Birmingham, she said.

One effort under way is figuring out what kind of work credential programs need to be developed to move the economy forward, Cleggett said.

INDUSTRY PARTNERSHIPS

The Central Six Development Council has established industry-led partnerships in several sectors of the economy, including manufacturing, health care, public safety, construction and information technology.

Employers in each industry come together to dissect employment challenges faced by their particular industry, and the workforce development council works with them to create solutions, Cleggett said. Within the next year, the group hopes to establish similar partnerships in the finance, insurance and professional services industries, she said.

The Central Six Development Council also has established apprenticeship programs that help workers learn skills as they are on the job, Cleggett said. The workers are paid benefits like other employees and have time off to go to school, she said.

On Wednesday, five apprentices officially signed up for jobs with Protective Life and Sigao Studios, and this afternoon, 13 apprentices officially signed up for welding, machinery and industrial maintenance jobs in a ceremony held at the Hoover Public Safety Center.

Lawson State and Jefferson State community colleges are partners in the apprenticeship program, she said.

“We’ve really poured a lot of blood, sweat and tears into this,” she said. “It’s really beginning to take off.”

UAB, St. Vincent’s and Brookwood Baptist Health have expressed interest in creating an apprenticeship program for the health care industry, and Central Six will be working on that in the coming year, Cleggett said.

Central Six also works to inform employers about other opportunities for workforce development, such as the Alabama Workforce Training Center, on-the-job training dollars from the federal government, and internship programs.

OUTREACH TO EDUCATORS, STUDENTS

The workforce development group also reaches out to K-12 school systems to connect school superintendents, career coaches and other educators with industry. The group arranges for educators to visit and tour worksites, sets up job fairs and holds targeted events to educate students and parents about job and career opportunities.

For the past four years, Central Six has held a Power Up event for girls and their mothers, using hands-on activities to expose girls to jobs in the construction industry.

Each year, Central Six also puts on a Worlds of Work event for more than 5,000 students in grades 8 and 12, again exposing students to various career fields with hands-on activities. The next one is scheduled for April 13-15 at the Birmingham-Jefferson Convention Complex.

Cleggett said the goals set by the governor are very ambitious, and Central Six can’t reach them alone. “Workforce development is everybody’s business,” she said. “It requires all of us.”

April Stone, executive director for the Hoover Area Chamber of Commerce, said Cleggett’s talk was important because economic development and workforce development go hand in hand.