Valley Vision Named Regional Organizer of Workforce Initiatives
Funded by the California Workforce Development Board through Sacramento Employment and Training Agency (SETA), Valley Vision has been working in conjunction with four workforce boards covering nine county regions to align opportunities to advance economic prosperity for the Capital Region. Recently, Valley Vision was named the official Regional Organizer to continue this effort with expanded emphasis on converging and coordinating multiple regional workforce-related projects into a more comprehensive and inclusive workforce development initiative.
Key components of this strategy include:
Continuing to Drive Demand Driven Skills Attainment
Valley Vision has been convening industry sector partners including business, education and workforce development to ensure training programs are producing skills attainment in line with employers’ evolving needs. Valley Vision will continue this work on a regional level in the following growing sectors; Manufacturing, Healthcare, Food and Agriculture, Construction, Clean Energy, Information and Communications Technology and Hospitality.
Upward Mobility
Valley Vision will be assisting the four workforce boards on creating an inclusive workforce strategy providing opportunity for economic advancement for all. This will be accomplished by ensuring new and emerging programs and initiatives serve key populations including low income, historically disadvantaged, disconnected youth, justice involved, English language learners, individuals with disabilities, homeless and dislocated workers.
Alignment and Integration
Valley Vision will continue to work across regions, institutional and process silos to further align and integrate workforce development services to create system efficiency and maximum benefit job seekers and employers alike.
Renee John is a Valley Vision Project Leader managing projects within the 21st Century Workforce impact area.
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Newsom and First Partner to Support Farm to School Programs
Governor Newsom has proposed a $600 million dollar budget that includes funding support for initiatives that will enhance student nutrition and school meal programs.
First Partner Jennifer Siebel Newsom, who has been engaged in supporting Farm to School programs, will be championing these efforts. Most recently, Ms. Siebel Newsom, with coordination from CDFA, Valley Vision, Woodland Community College, and other partners, toured Farm to School Programs in Yolo County and Career programs hosted at Woodland Community College. The purpose of the visit to Woodland Community College was intended to show the connection between eating locally grown healthy foods at school and the potential for opportunities in food and ag career pathways
Late last year, Mrs. Siebel Newsom toured Yolo County and other areas to learn more about the thriving Farm to School programs led by the California Department of Food and Agriculture (CDFA) and Secretary Karen Ross, and food and ag career education programs. Nick Anicich, Farm to School Program Lead, CDFA Office of Farm to Fork, Valley Vision’s Managing Director Trish Kelly, and Carrie Peterson, Regional Director, Agriculture, Water, and Environmental Technology, coordinated the First Partner’s visit to Woodland Community College. This was an opportunity to showcase how food and ag career education programs are providing pathways for local students in this important regional industry, building on Farm to School programs in K-2. Faculty, Students, and College District Leaders hosted the First Partner as she toured the Greenhouse and other facilities, discussing programs and topics like Ag-tech, regenerative agriculture, and growing healthy foods. Valley Vision supports these career pathway efforts as part of the Community College’s Strong Workforce Programs.
Photo top: Jennifer Siebel Newsom tours Greenhouse at Woodland Community College (WCC)
Photo above: Yuba Community College District Chancellor and Board of Trustees, Woodland Community College President, and Faculty, Valley Vision, and California Department of Food and Agriculture, with First Partner.
Preventing Displacement in the Future of Work
The future of work will not arrive all at once, with a thud and a sudden robot takeover. Rather, incremental changes will gradually affect how work is organized and the mix of jobs in the economy. Of course, this is already happening. Technologies, like automation, artificial intelligence, the internet of things, and more are giving rise to new occupations and phasing out old ones. McKinsey Global Institute issued a new report, The Future of Work, in July 2019 describing a nuanced picture of how different geographies, occupations, and social demographics will be impacted by these changes to work as a result of technological disruption.
- They found that for different geographies, the size and economic engine of a community makes a huge difference in how significantly job displacement impacts that area. 25 mega-cities, or the nation’s largest cities with the most dynamic economies, like San Francisco, Chicago, or Atlanta, house 96 million people and have generated most job growth since the Great Recession. These same cities could capture 60% of US job growth through 2030. To contrast, 54 trailing or more mid-sized cities, such as Yuba City, El Paso, Texas, or Flint, Michigan and roughly 2,000 rural counties, which collectively house 78 million people, have shrinking workforces, lower educational attainment, and higher unemployment. These cities are positioned for modest job gains, but rural counties could see a decade of flat or even negative growth.
- Some occupations are at high risk for displacement while others will change and grow. Office support, food service, transportation and logistics, and customer service roles are at high risk of displacement in the next round of automation. At the same time, the economy will continue to create jobs, particularly roles in healthcare, STEM fields, and business services, as well as work requiring personal interaction. These changes will be uneven with new jobs appearing in some place and not others – there will be challenges in addressing these mismatches in different localities and workers will need help gaining new skills.
- Labor market outcomes already vary across demographic groups and automation could amplify these patterns. Individuals with a high school degree or less are four times more likely to hold highly automatable jobs than those with bachelor’s degrees. Hispanic and African-American workers may be hit the hardest, with up to 12 million displaced. Nearly 15 million jobs held by young people could be lost, requiring new actions around creating career pathways for today’s students and young workers. Workers over 50 hold an additional 11.5 million at-risk jobs. Finally, middle wage jobs may shrink as growth concentrates at the high and low ends of the wage scale.
Where is the Sacramento region in all of this? In the McKinsey research, metropolitan Sacramento is considered a stable city – in league with other comparable cities such as Kansas City, Fresno, Stockton, Birmingham, Alabama, Indianapolis, Indiana, and many others. These cities fall between the growth of mega-cities and the risk of trailing cities and rural areas. The Brookings Institution categorized us similarly when they did an economic assessment of our region last year and came to some similar findings about our region’s need to prepare workers for a digital future. Brookings noted that we are lagging in our attainment of digital skills. The need for digital skills is increasing significantly at all job levels, but our workers are behind in the attainment of digital skills and there are disparities across demographic groups in learning these skills, with Hispanic and African-Americans falling the furthest behind.
All signs point to the need to address these realities today. Valley Vision has been actively working to create dialogue, alignment, and action to prepare us for a digital and automated future for our regional employers, education systems, and communities. We are excited to announce a new effort to address regional Future of Work challenges. Valley Vision is working with the four Capital Region Workforce Development Boards, including the Sacramento Employment and Training Agency (SETA), Golden Sierra, Yolo County, and North Central Counties Consortium to develop our own regional analysis of high-risk occupational profiles. Much like the McKinsey report outlined, different occupations and demographic groups will be impacted differently by job displacement due to automation and other technologies. We will create a much deeper understanding of how Sacramento will be affected by these differences by defining and quantifying high-risk occupations in this region. We will be able to pinpoint the risk that our region faces when it comes to displacement and use this research to develop lay-off aversion, education, and job training strategies. This cutting-edge research will provide valuable insight and help us move past our worries about the future and move towards taking action to improve our opportunities and economy.
Valley Vision has already been active with Future of Work issues and our new project will get us to the next level. Some of the key actions we’ve taken so far:
- We have been working with the four Capital Region Workforce Development Boards on a Future of Work initiative to understand the shape and dimensions of these changes in the Capital region since 2017. Starting with forums in Yolo, El Dorado, Yuba, and Sacramento counties, Valley Vision reviewed the preeminent research from across the country exploring these changes in the nation and used the findings to create priorities with community partners from business, education, workforce, and others.
- In May this year, we worked in partnership with the regional Workforce Development Boards to create the Future Focus event – bringing a national futurist speaker to the region to address the coming challenges.
- We have initiated a Digital Skills Initiative to address the gap in digital skills and ready workers for the future. Through this work we are developing strategies to prepare the workforce for the future of work as part of the regional Prosperity Strategy in partnerhship with the Sacramento Area Council of Governments (SACOG), the Greater Sacramento Economic Council, and the Sacramento Metro Chamber.
- As part of our Digital Skill focus, we are part of the Sacramento Digital Inclusion Coalition to expanding digital equity in the region.
The Future of Work will change the dimensions of our economy and impact the opportunities throughout our nation and region. In the next few months, Valley Vision will be sharing a great deal of information about how we can best prepare for this disruption. To keep up with Valley Vision’s work, subscribe to our Vantage Point email newsletter!
Evan Schmidt is Valley Vision’s Senior Director working on the Public Opinion Surveying initiative and projects in the Healthy Communities and 21st Century Workforce strategy areas.
Future Focus Business Summit – How Will We Reinvent the Workforce?
A story: The Human Genome Project launched in 1990 and it took seven years to get one percent of the project finished. When Human Genome scientists were asked if they were concerned about the rate of completion (would it take 700 years to complete?), they responded that now that they were one percent finished, they were almost done and it should only take 6.5 years to complete.
Why was that the case? Because there was a rate of 100 percent growth per year, so, going from zero to one percent was the slowest and most difficult growth period. With this in mind, they were able to complete the project in less than seven years, doubling their output each year until the on-time completion in 2003. This is noteworthy because it demonstrates how technology growth is evolving at an exponential rate. Unfortunately, humans adapt much slower. As a result, business learning and development often lags the rate of technology growth and can fall behind quickly. It is predicted that 40% of current S&P businesses will no longer exist by 2026. Which businesses will lose their revenue stream in the next seven years and who will gain market to take advantage of those who are going under? This is a critical issue for business and for our regional economy.
These are examples and insights that Keynote Speaker, Patrick Schwerdtfeger, a futurist and expert in business trends, brought to the Future Focus Business Summit on May 15th in Roseville, hosted by the four regional Workforce Development Boards and produced by Valley Vision.
Patrick emphasized to the audience of 250 business and community leaders that current technology trends reveal where new technologies might be disruptive. For example, driverless cars are already being used in agriculture and mining – it is just a matter of time until these technologies gain enough traction to be used for commercial trucking and even city driving. Repetitive jobs, whether they are manual or cognitive, are already being replaced with automation or algorithms – this trend will only increase. Blockchain has architected trust across a supply chain by creating a chain of unhackable software. This is enabling the development of smart contracts and potentially eliminating the need for many management and tracking jobs across shipping and other related industries.
Tracking these trends can help business deploy effective strategies to harness innovation. Disruptive innovation, by definition, blows up existing business models rather than improves on existing models. This often happens in the periphery of a market. Systems are disrupted when business solves a problem in one market only to apply it to another, displacing other businesses. Patrick gave some key pieces of advice for business in this environment, including:
Look up, look down, look side to side: Look up to protect your core revenue stream in your primary market space. Look down to find the hard-to-please market segment that will require experiments and innovation to solve their problems. Look side-to-side to monitor adjacent markets – finding your own unexpected market space as well as avoiding unanticipated competitors.
Think bigger: “It’s not an experiment if you know it is going to work.” – Jeff Bezos.To innovate, you must be willing to fail. Additionally, there is more and more leverage in the system every year. The responsibility is on us – watch where innovations are happening, and run towards technology to optimize technology for the benefit of your business.
The Future Focus Summit brought Patrick to the region to help inspire and inform business to keep pace in an ever-changing environment. Patrick provided high level data and trends, but he wasn’t the only feature. There was a panel of regional business leaders who described how some of the major sectors in the region are adapting to technology changes. AJ Jacobs, Chief Information Security Officer at SMUD; Kristie Griffin, Head of Talent Management and Strategy at Stanford Healthcare; and Kevin McGrew, Director of Quality Management of Siemens noted that in regional manufacturing, energy, and health sectors, practitioners are significantly changing their business models to integrate cybersecurity, automate some of their processes, advance innovation in design practices and service delivery.
Aneesh Raman, Senior Advisor for Strategy and External Affairs, CA Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development, closed the Summit. As the child of an immigrant, Aneesh is driven by the American promise of social mobility. His interest, from his position at the Governor’s Office, is to provide support and guidance to address how technology can be a vehicle for social mobility and not contribute to existing inequities. Supporting a forward-looking, inclusive economy is a core priority of Governor Newsom and he is supporting it, in part, through a new Future of Work Commission and through a new economic development initiative, Regions Rise Together. This initiative will support regional economic development plans that reflect the unique needs and goals of each region in California. Assemblyman Kevin Kiley, also addressed the role of government in supporting workforce development – encouraging government agencies to stay out of the way of successful business enterprise.
The four region Workforce Development Board organized the Future Focus Business Summit to prepare business for an uncertain future. Valley Vision produced the event because we are committed to supporting a future-ready Capital region. Our speakers and panelist helped move us from fearing a dystopian future to understanding leverage points and considering concrete ways that individual businesses and agencies can prepare for the coming changes. Local systems, research, and actions can help manage the changes that are needed. Read more about Valley Vision’s work and check out some of the services that Workforce Development Boards provide at wearebettertogether.co.
To keep up with Valley Vision’s work to advance livability in the Sacramento region, subscribe to our Vantage Point email newsletter!
Evan Schmidt is Valley Vision’s Senior Director working on the Public Opinion Surveying initiative and projects in the Healthy Communities and 21st Century Workforce strategy areas.
Opportunity Zone Forum Recap: An Important Conversation
On Friday, February 1st, Sacramento Councilmember Eric Guerra (District 6) kicked off the Capital Region Opportunity Zone Forum, which Valley Vision created in partnership with the Councilmember’s office, the City of Sacramento, Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco, and Power Inn Alliance.
The 200+ participants were next greeted by Meaghan Stiles and Matthew Ceccato of Congressional Reps. Matsui’s and Bera’s offices, respectively, highlighting the degree of interest at both local and federal levels in this still-emerging initiative to increase the capital available to the nation’s most underserved communities. Special guest speakers included Jimmy Stracner, Regional Administrator for Region IX of the US Department of Housing and Urban Development, and Chris Dombrowski, Chief Deputy Director for the Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development (GO-Biz).
Because Opportunity Zones (OZs) are so new, with guidelines still being defined federally, the Forum opened with a primer – what OZs are, why they were created, and how they work – from Scott Syphax (Syphax Strategic Solutions) and Kevin Wilson (Novogradac and Company), both of whom are working extensively in OZs at the national level.
Following that introduction and level-setting, the Forum shifted to focus on three key “implementation issues” for OZs: first, what kind of investments seem best-suited to OZs; next, the importance of understanding community perspective and potential impacts on OZ residents; and third, local and state government actions that could improve the appeal of OZ investing in our region.
In the lead-off “Model Projects” discussion, Liz McFarland of Greater Sacramento demonstrated the beta version of an online mapping tool that will be available on their website by the end of this month. As well, Denton Kelley of LDK Ventures and Tyrone Roderick Williams of SHRA each summarized their current views of the most effective uses of OZ investments – which is unlikely to be in affordable housing, as both speakers agreed, despite the statewide housing crisis.
In the “Community Impacts” discussion, Ricardo Flores of LISC and Ky-Nam Miller, from San Diego and Oakland respectively, joined Clarence Williams of Sacramento-based California Capital. The three highlighted the imperatives of inclusive, community-based economic strategies, specifically in order to avoid possible gentrification of OZ neighborhoods in ways that could displace the very residents that OZs are trying to aid.
Finally, the Forum turned to the important roles of both state and local governments in supporting communities and creating an environment in which OZ investing occurs successfully – and consistent with State and local goals. Chris Dombrowski, of GO-Biz, emphasized the priority that the Newsom administration has placed on OZs early in the Governor’s term. A discussion panel of Fred Silva (California Forward), Robert Burris (Solano EDC and CALED), and Michael Jasso (City of Sacramento) then identified a host of ideas, like increasing local capacity through state assistance, developing a pipeline of projects that align with community objectives, and layering in other economic development tools such as Enhanced Infrastructure Financing Districts (EIFDs).
Without a doubt, Opportunity Zones can raise topics and concerns that can be hard to discuss – such as the fact that the federal government created no “guardrails” or requirements for transparency in OZ investing; concerns about exclusion and disempowerment of the very people that OZs were created to help raise up; and the potential for displacement of people already living in OZs as OZ investment flows in.
But also without a doubt, Opportunity Zones have the potential to shape the characters of our communities for decades to come, and for that reason it’s all the more important to have these hard conversations early, often, and inclusively. Valley Vision and its partners are committed to working hard on OZs, particularly to bring the different stakeholders in OZs together on these tough issues.
If you missed the Forum on Friday, you can catch the livestream feed on Councilmember Guerra’s Facebook page. You can also review the Forum Powerpoint presentation, the real-time audience polling results, and many more relevant resources on Valley Vision’s Opportunity Zones resource page. To keep up with Valley Vision’s work to advance livability in the Sacramento region, subscribe to our Vantage Point email newsletter!
Yzabelle Dela Cruz is a Valley Vision Project Associate contributing to the Innovation & Infrastructure and Leadership & Civic Engagement impact areas.
Valley Vision’s Chloe Pan and Meg Arnold also contributed to the writing of this blog.
Preparing Today’s Students for Tomorrow’s Workforce
Valley Vision CEO Bill Mueller gave the following remarks at the Hands On the Future 2018 Counselor’s Conference on December 4th in Sacramento. The summit was designed to help hundreds of high school and college counselors in preparing today’s students for tomorrow’s workforce.
“Thank you all for being here. You are the critical bridge in our economy, connecting students to their future. We are grateful for the job that you do, and respect the daily responsibility you carry. We are here to help and support you today.
As Cristina Mendonsa mentioned, I am the CEO of a nonprofit group called Valley Vision with offices here in Sacramento and in Stockton. We were created 25 years ago to help mayors and business CEOs, hospital executives and foundation leaders come together around a common table to address complicated issues like creating more affordable housing, improving healthcare access, or unraveling how to fill the jobs of the future that no single group could tackle alone. Our 33-member board includes the chancellors and presidents of all the major public and private universities, the top businesses and foundations CEOs, and many community and nonprofit leaders. Our job is to help our communities have the important conversations to be future ready. So Valley Vision is more than a name, it’s also what we do.
How do you plan for a future in an age of massive disruption? A time when technology is transforming old industries and remaking whole new job categories that didn’t exist even 5 years ago? What about the impact of artificial Intelligence, machine learning, genetic engineering, and the Internet of Things — how are these forces changing the nature of what work will be in the future? Which jobs will be replaced by machines, or end all together? Just how important is digital literacy to future success? (Hint: it’s very important, and we are lagging here).
Thinking more globally, the United Nation forecasts we will add another billion people to the planet by 2030 — that’s just 11 years away. Many of them will be born in India, China, and about half in Africa, UN data indicates, where medicine is getting better and birth rates are high, but food and water are scarce. As the climate changes, who will create the cures and breakthroughs that address our next global challenges?
As an independent organization that works closely with our region’s top universities, all the work force boards, government, business and community groups, Valley Vision starts to answer these questions by curating some of the best research from industry and government sources. We look deeply at reports from the Economist Intelligence Unit, McKinsey & Company, Brookings Institute and others. We read the latest findings and talk with the researchers themselves. We also create our own research, partnering with universities, national think tanks, and private enterprise.
That’s why I was asked to join you this morning. To tell you that we have studied the local economy and talked to area employers and have a good handle on what’s coming in the next 5 years.
So what IS coming next, you might ask…
I hope you might have a pen and some paper so you can take a few notes. I’m going to tell you what we have learned so far about the jobs of the future here. You’re going to hear more about this later this morning from experts from the field. I’m also going to tell you what employers and experts are telling us they need most from graduates. So here goes.
In 2015-16, Valley Vision worked with Theresa Milan and the Los Rios Center for Excellence and conducted quantitative and qualitative research to better understand six high growth industry clusters for which we have a competitive advantage. We held six forums to gain market intelligence directly from hiring managers and conducted individual interviews.
In 2017-18, Valley Vision, along with our workforce board and Strong Workforce partners, held several industry forums and regional advisory meetings to gain an even deeper understanding of in-demand skills and occupations. We held four Future of Work forums and also mapped more than 115 industry advisory committees with more than 2,200 members.
This is what we learned:
Manufacturing is not in decline, but is growing both nationally and locally. It is undergoing a renaissance due to technology and the advantages of local suppliers and the need for quality control. We have added over a million manufacturing jobs nationally since the recession, and are adding thousands of high paying jobs at places like Siemens Mobility that don’t need a four or even a two-year degree, but a high school diploma, certificates and on-the-job training. Dean Peckham is here from the Sacramento Valley Manufacturing Initiative, and can tell you more.
Construction will need over 36,250 jobs through 2021 to rebuild our communities and homes and to incorporate energy efficiency and green materials.
Information and Communications Technology will need over 22,000 new hires at companies like Teledyne Microwave Solutions in Rancho Cordova and Intel in Folsom, through 2021.
Food and Agriculture here employs over 31,200 people with over 1,800 employers. Notably, 55% of those jobs are “off farm” in production, distribution and processing. This sector will have over 5,000 job openings over the next few years.
Another of our studies found that job growth is anticipated to continue at a 2.4% growth rate in life sciences as healthcare. Registered nurses posted the largest job counts amongst the top 15 occupations with nearly 18,000 job openings expected over the next 5 years. Social assistance and ambulatory care are driving a lot of the job growth. This is just an example of what we have learned so far.
This region also hired the Brookings Institute to come in and do a “stress test” on our region’s economy. We are wealthy and productive when compared to the other top 100 metros in the US. But we are falling behind in digital training and literacy. We need to increase and align our efforts, especially for Blacks and Latinos that will make up a growing share of our workforce in the next 10 years.
You will hear more about these job trends from experts after my talk and ways you can put them to work for you and your students. The big takeaway here is that the Sacramento Region population is growing faster than any other region in California and we are experiencing a job boom.
Jobs are here – we just need to do a better job of connecting you to them and the skills to get hired. A lot of terrific job reports can be found on our website. Look for this image on the home page and click to the underlying information. We are here to help you.
I want to leave you with five truths we have uncovered from local employers and from leading research. These truths will help you prepare students for jobs in the future.
First, focus on skills, not titles. Job titles are in flux. They don’t predict what an employee will be doing. Focus instead on building a solid base of skills and fluency applicable to many occupations. Generalist eager to learn are more hire-able than specialists in most cases.
The second truth is that job ladders are gone. We are now in an age of job lattice — moving up, across and sideways over the course of our careers. Skills remain, but as industries merge and re-form and job requirements shift, progress won’t be linear any more.
The third truth we are hearing is that workplace skills are sometimes equal to or more important than technical proficiency. Adaptability, collaboration, problem solving, empathy, social awareness — these cannot be replaced by machines. And these New World of Work skills can both be a student’s biggest advantage and biggest deterrent to upward mobility and success. We need to teach them.
The fourth truth is that we must end the fiction that your education is over once you graduate. Today global competition and technology change require us all to be lifelong learners. Curiosity is key in the new world of work.
Last but perhaps most importantly, the fifth truth is that the evolving world of work requires us all must to be entrepreneurs. A entrepreneurial mindset is more and more vital in the creative destruction underway in our economy. It’s equally necessary for those filling job openings as those creating their own, Do-it-yourself future, building the next business enterprise. This is the gig economy imperative.
As the world confronts huge environmental and social changes, California is an ideal place to build a career for students wanting to create the answers to some of societies most vexing challenges. Not just cures and the latest technology breakthrough, but how will we feed the next billion? How can we make our communities more resilient to fire? Make water go farther for more people and grow more crops for a better life. The answers will come from your students. We have the jobs for them, and the opportunity is here to make the world a better place.
Thank you.”
To keep up with Valley Vision’s work to advance livability in the Sacramento region, subscribe to our Vantage Point email newsletter!
Bill Mueller is Valley Vision’s Chief Executive.
Keep Manufacturing Close: A Brooklyn Tale
Is manufacturing dead in America? Have all the good “blue collar” jobs been exported to low-cost countries, never to return?
News reports are full of stories about the loss of manufacturing jobs, but the truth today is something different. During the past eight years since the global recession, manufacturing has bounded back strongly, gaining 1.1 million jobs to reach over 12 million today – many based in California. Companies are bringing manufacturing back home for reasons of quality and creative control. According to the Institute for Supply Management, 17 of 18 major manufacturing industries have been in “growth mode” in recent months.
Manufacturing is vital to a healthy economy not just because it has the single highest multiplier of any economic sector, generating $1.81 in output for every dollar invested, or that every direct manufacturing job supports another four. Perhaps even more important for a middle-weight economy like Sacramento’s is that manufacturing occupations pay better than other working-class fields, averaging $57,000 a year, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics; are plentiful in our region, and with the right training, people can get on the highway from poverty to opportunity relatively quickly.
World-renowned fashion designer Nanette Lepore made a compelling case for keeping manufacturing close during the 2018 Study Mission program to Brooklyn, hosted by the Sacramento Metro Chamber. Brooklyn is seeing a manufacturing resurgence, chiefly with small, creative enterprises that leverage technology, local supply chains, and modern tools, like 3-D printing, to knock down traditional barriers to entry.
After years in Manhattan, Lepore is now operating from Brooklyn where the city is using their building codes to protect and preserve old warehouses as manufacturing sites and directing infill housing elsewhere. You can’t have all the beauty of fashion, art, or design without making room for the grit that builds it, said Lepore. Developers of the Brooklyn Navy Yard are breaking up massive buildings into smaller 500, 1,000, and 1,500 square-foot individual business sites to match the needs of smaller manufacturing enterprises with great success. Hyper-localized is the new story, we heard.
Keeping manufacturing close allows for improved creative control over the result, Lepore continued. You don’t have to wait days for proofs or early runs to know whether you hit the mark. Quality control is also dramatically increased when cycle times are shortened by hours or thousands of miles, reducing the margin for error. “Speed to market and proximity to suppliers also are big advantages in today’s economy,” Lepore said.
Could we be returning to the past?
Six hundred years ago, humanity finally left the dark ages thanks to the rebirth of the arts, learning, and invention. Historians point to the epicenter being places like Florence, Italy, where small, open-stall shops lined bustling city streets, bringing together clothiers with fine artists, cobblers, metal workers, sculptors, and machinists of all kinds, collaborating and borrowing from each others’ innovations. Those were the days of Leonardo Da Vinci. That close-knit manufacturing community launched the renaissance, and later the scientific revolution that would lead to the discovery of new cures, new frontiers, and improve living standards for millions.
In the greater Sacramento area, manufacturers like Siemens Mobility and Tri Tool have come together to form the Sacramento Valley Manufacturing Initiative (SVMI), with Valley Vision as their host organization. Their aim: to partner with educators to build the talent pipeline for in-demand manufacturing jobs in places like South Sacramento, Rancho Cordova, and Woodland. Research shows the Sacramento Region is home to over 2,700 manufacturing companies – half of which have fewer than five employees – in fields ranging from machine shops, food processors, and breweries to medical device companies whose technologies are being used around the world. There were 10,000 job postings for manufacturing positions in the Sacramento Region in the past 12 months, a massive gap and growing opportunity which area employers are eager to fill.
Brooklyn showed us a glimpse of Sacramento’s future. Let’s build it together. To get involved, please contact SVMI’s Dean Peckam or read more about the Sacramento Valley Manufacturing Initiative.
Bill Mueller was Chief Executive of Valley Vision.
Partnering to Craft an Inclusive Economy
Today over 200 leaders gathered from 28 cities and counties at the Regional Futures Forum hosted by the Sacramento Area Council of Governments to hear from a national expert about how our region’s economy has restructured since the global downturn nearly 10-years ago.
“The Sacramento region benefits from an educated workforce, world-class research institutions, and the presence of the state government, but our research shows that the region also faces significant challenges, including lagging growth of its export industries, stark educational and earnings disparities between white, black, and Hispanic residents, and investment needs in transportation and broadband infrastructure to connect residents to opportunity,” said Amy Liu, Vice President and Director of of the Brookings Institute’s Metropolitan Policy Program.
“In an age of rapid technological changes and an ongoing demographic transformation towards a majority-minority future, existing disparities will be exacerbated without deliberate action,” continued Liu. “Now, leaders across the region must do the hard work of creating a shared vision for inclusive growth, mobilizing people in government, business, and the broader community to tackle these challenges and make the Sacramento region truly inclusive and prosperous in the years ahead.”
Earlier this year, Valley Vision, the Greater Sacramento Economic Council, Sacramento Metropolitan Chamber of Commerce and the Sacramento Area Council of Governments partnered to engage the nationally recognized Brookings Institution to conduct a market assessment of the six-county Sacramento region. The study examines the economic drivers of successful economies in regions and benchmarked Sacramento against national markets with similar characteristics.
The findings from the Brookings Institution informed the full-day Regional Futures Forum that included breakout sessions and group conversations to dive deep into topics and to develop priorities and actions to take the region to new levels of economic growth, prosperity and inclusion.
“This report shows just how important it is that we build an inclusive economy that provides opportunities for everyone in the Sacramento region,” said Jay Schenirer, Sacramento City Council Member and SACOG Board Chair. “Together, our region needs to provide — among other investments — more workforce development and job training opportunities for youth and young professionals. Investing in digital skills training and connecting young workers to in-demand occupations and industries will help our industries grow while creating access to jobs for more people.”
The full Brookings Institution Sacramento Region Market Assessment can be accessed at: https://brook.gs/2r4PbjI
Sierra College Experience Leaves Lasting Impact
He was good kid, really. Yet hard to tell by outward appearances. Long hair. Scraggly beard. Ripped jeans. Skateboard in hand. It was probably his careless attitude and the way he disrupted the class that most perturbed the professor. This wasn’t high school after all, but college. This student had arrived late again and made a bit of a scene. It was an all-too familiar pattern.
So when the professor called him up after class, this kid knew he was in trouble. He began to stiffen up. Put up his defenses. When the class cleared, the conversation started.
“You really don’t care about me or our classmates,” the teacher stated flatly. “It’s also clear you really don’t care about yourself either. If you did, you’d take school more seriously.” The kid had heard all this before. It didn’t faze him.
The professor continued: “But you have an even bigger problem.” Now the student took notice. “There is no one at the helm of your life. You – your ship – it is drifting, aimlessly, on open water. You are going nowhere. If you think the pilot is your mom or your dad, or your friends, or someone else, you’re terribly mistaken. It’s now or never. You must be at the helm of your life and steer. Otherwise you will be lost. And so will your future.”
Jarring words that this young man could not escape. Caring parents can try to break through. Families can help. Friends can intervene. But sometimes teachers can say things in a way that penetrates.
That skateboarding kid, the one who was once not sure about his future or all that driven, graduated from Sierra College and went on to graduate from UC Berkeley and later earn a Masters degree from a Boston university. He was recently ordained a priest.
I’m his proud father.
Sierra College changed my son’s life. It also changed my life for the better. I also had a teacher who took notice of me and inspired and challenged me to think and be different. I look back upon that moment as a major turning point in my life.
Education does this. It not only unlocks knowledge and insights, helps us analyze, think critically, problem-solve and prepare for a career and a life of learning, education and those who practice it transforms lives. Education in no small way democratizes hope. Makes opportunity accessible to a small town kid like me whose father and mother never went to college.
Life turned full circle. Now there is a way we can pay it forward.
This June Sierra College is asking property owners in Placer County to consider a bond issue that will raise $350 million to modernize the Rocklin campus and invest in facilities that will advance science, technology, engineering, and math for advanced economy jobs. The last bond investment in Sierra College was back in 1957.
This past Monday the Valley Vision Board heard this matter and, after reviewing the issue from all sides over several weeks, voted unanimously to endorse this school bond. They didn’t hear a passionate plea or a personal story of change from their chief executive. They analyzed the facts and weighed the evidence. Investing in education is investing in the human capital we need to drive jobs and business growth, draw investment, create new products and services, increase the regional tax base, and position this region for a vibrant future that touches all of us. It’s why one of Valley Vision’s six driving strategies is to build a 21st Century talent pipeline and why we engage in a vast body of work around education and workforce development.
Sierra College is highly regarded, well run, and has put forward a thoughtful proposal with well-defined purposes and strong taxpayer protections. Leading organizations have pulled in behind it.
William Yeats said that “education is not the filling of a pail, but the lighting of a fire.” I know this has been true in my life. Perhaps this has been true for someone you know.
Twenty thousand students experience Sierra College today – 15 times more students than what was original planned for in the late ‘50s. Thousands more students are expected to attend the campus over the next few decades seeking purpose, opportunity and a chance to make a difference. This is a lot of new light, and worth kindling. Our future depends upon it.
Bill Mueller is Chief Executive of Valley Vision.
Sacramento Valley Manufacturing Initiative to Provide Job Training for Local Youth
by Mark Anderson, Sacramento Business Journal:
The local research and advocacy group Valley Vision and a group of Sacramento area manufacturing companies are working together to provide more job training for local youth.
The manufacturers hope to inform schools about their current technology and training needs, so that the schools can provide programs better suited to the local labor market.
“We want to develop a workforce to meet the needs of the 21st-century manufacturer,” said Dean Peckham, the project manager of the Sacramento Valley Manufacturing Initiative.
Many schools have ceased teaching industrial arts, and even the ones that do have programs might not meet the needs of local companies, Peckham said.
From a first scoping meeting that attracted 60 manufacturers in October, the volunteer group attracted 80 people to a formal organizational meeting at the end of February. That meeting included manufacturers and local high school and community college representatives, said Peckham, who retired from the city of Sacramento as a senior economic development project manager and is now a volunteer with Valley Vision.
“We’re going to make this thing happen,” said Kevin McGrew, director of quality management with Siemens’ Mobility division. Siemens’ (OTC: SIEGY) plant in South Sacramento employs more than 1,200 people who build locomotives, rail cars and light rail trains.
“We have as manufacturers had some individual relationships with some individual schools, but we have not had a common manufacturing voice out to all the workforce development groups and schools in general to help every high school program,” McGrew said.
The effort is intended to expand the workforce, and also to replace a wave of soon-to-be retiring workers, McGrew said. “If you walk through our places, there are a lot of gray beards.”…
Read the full article on the Sacramento Business Journal website.