Hand’s on Work Requires Hands on Education

We’ve been hearing a lot lately about the labor shortage, the high demand for skilled laborers. Plans have been introduced, legislation has been passed, and education is changing to fit the needs of all students, not just those that are college-bound. We understand that economic development will never reach its fullest potential in the great state of Washington until this issue is addressed. We’ve had many discussions at SWCA about what our role is in the labor shortage crisis, and how we can help today, not ten years from now. We’ve come up with three conclusions: 

1. Invest in our students
The SWCA Foundation’s main goal is to enhance the community by awarding scholarships to local students going into trades schools and colleges with an emphasis in a construction-related field. In 2017, the SWCA Foundation awarded $20,000 to 16 local students, provided funds to the Northwest College of Construction to offset some of the costs of training, and provided one scholarship for the Leadership Clark County program. 

2. Advocate for Career Connected Learning 
Our members are busy building our community, so it’s up to the SWCA to be at the table on their behalf. We believe advocating for Career Connected Learning is important. Creating an awareness of career options as early as Kindergarten, while allowing students to explore and prepare for the workforce in middle and high school is important. By joining the CTE Consortium, we are committed to enhancing our partnerships with school districts to discover how we can support their efforts. We will continue to attend the CTE Consortium meetings and contribute to other relevant committees or organizations on our members’ behalf. Of course, we will also send out information as to how our members can connect with their future workers. 

3. Connect our members to opportunities 
It’s our duty to connect our members to opportunities in the community. One example includes the launching of a job recruitment and training program hosted by Clark College and WorkSource Vancouver. The two entities developed a recruitment and training program for three SWCA members: Tapani, Nutter, and Rotschy. Fourteen candidates were interviewed and pre-hired with these companies, underwent 100-hours of training, and began working for these companies. 

There are plenty of opportunities for our members to develop the future workforce:

Informational interviews	Workplace tours	Job shadowing
Career fairs	Guest speaker	Worksite learning
Internships	Industry certifications	Project-based learning

 

We’re taking a practical approach to developing the future workforce. We understand our members are busy building the foundation of our community, but recognize there is a call for involvement. If you’d be interested in getting involved in one of the opportunities listed above, please reach out to us so we can connect you to the appropriate organization and/or person.