In This Issue..

• New veterans training center at Crane
• WIRED Initiative boosts STEM training
• Biocrossroads Linx initiative to boost phamaceutical development
• State urges employers to go online for large scale separations
• WorkOne Centers to offer digital literacy classes
• IPIC Launches BioworksU.com
• New occupational codes application
• WIRED Initiative offers leadership training
• Hire a veteran job fair this month
• New Connersville WorkOne office

About this Newsletter

Welcome to the latest issue of Workforce Developments, a monthly e-mail newsletter from the Indiana Department of Workforce Development.

This newsletter is designed to keep Indiana policy and opinion makers and other officials up to date on activities taking place in workforce development across the state. Please forward it to others you believe might find the content useful. If you prefer not to receive this newsletter, unsubscribe information is available at the bottom of this mailing.

New Learning and Employment Center for disabled veterans launched at Crane

The Department of Workforce Development has joined with several other organizations to help launch a new center to help train disabled veterans.

The department and Lilly Endowment, Inc. have provided grants to the Crane Learning and Employment Center for Veterans with Disabilities. The new center will provide veterans with on-the-job training and educational opportunities through Ivy Tech Community College and Vincennes University. The disabled veterans will serve as apprentices at the Learning and Employment Center and then work full time in their selected field at Crane.

In addition to the funders and educational institutions, other organizations involved in the project include the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, Crane Technology Inc. (CTI), and EG&G.

New WIRED Grant to boost Science, Technology, Engineering and Math education

A new effort in North Central Indiana announced last month will boost the number of Hoosiers receiving training in Science, Technology, Engineering and Math (STEM).

Ivy Tech Community College has received a $3.1 million grant from the state’s North Central Workforce Innovation in Regional Economic Development (WIRED) initiative, a 14-county partnership of educators, workforce and economic development officials and other leaders working to rebuild the region’s economy.

The new program is expected to train an estimated 44,000 people in North Central Indiana over the next five years.

The grant will establish a three-pronged program to encourage and enhance STEM training and education to those who need skill enhancement. The initiative is the culmination of an 18-month effort between Ivy Tech Community College, the Indiana Department of Workforce Development, Office of the Governor, and Indiana WIRED. This collaborative effort that will be led by Ivy Tech Community College will engage businesses, workforce service providers, K-12 leaders, and higher education throughout the region. The partners will also work together to foster talent development and promote careers in high-wage high-demand jobs across North Central Indiana.

“This new STEM initiative holds great promise for Indiana’s future,” said Teresa Voors, commissioner of the Indiana Department of Workforce Development. “It will ensure that more and more of our students graduate from high school with the necessary science, technology, engineering, and math competencies so critical for success in the workplace of the 21st Century. We look forward to continuing to work with the WIRED initiative and Ivy Tech as we collaborate on this and other initiatives which help grow our economy and workforce.”

For more information on the North Central WIRED initiative, go here.

New BioCrossroadsLINX initiative advances Indiana’s pharmaceutical development industry

Officials from BioCrossroads, Cook Medical, Indiana Department of Workforce Development, the Indiana Economic Development Corporation, Ivy Tech Community College, and Purdue University last month announced the launch of BioCrossroadsLINX, a non-profit organization building educational and workforce development programs and regional collaborations. The new initiative is designed to advance Indiana’s drug development and manufacturing strengths and help Indiana’s biopharma assets connect with biotech discovery centers such as San Diego, San Francisco and Boston.

Outsourcing specific drug discovery and development services is a growing trend in both the biotech and pharmaceutical industries. As a result, there are opportunities for Indiana companies to capitalize on rising demand and to build upon existing strengths. Indiana is one of only a few areas in the United States with a concentration of companies that excel in specialized and sophisticated drug development services such as contract research, contract manufacturing, and logistics. Through these 40+ companies and nearly 7,500 employees, Indiana is uniquely positioned to support both large pharma organizations and smaller biotech companies.

The BioCrossroadsLINX Board includes key members of Indiana’s academic, government and industry life sciences partners. Dr. Rutledge will serve as Chairman of the Board. Joining him are: Ken Cornetta, Chair and Professor of the Department of Medical and Molecular Genetics, Indiana University School of Medicine; Nathan Feltman, Secretary of Commerce for the State of Indiana and CEO, Indiana Economic Development Corporation; David Johnson, President & CEO, BioCrossroads; Dan Peterson, Vice President of Industry and Government Affairs, Cook Group; Tom Snyder, President, Ivy Tech Community College; and Teresa Voors, Commissioner of the Indiana Department of Workforce Development.

State urges employers to go online for large scale separations, temporary layoffs

The Department of Workforce Development continues to urge large employers to use a new online initiative for employers designed to speed up the processing and payment of unemployment benefits for individuals laid off as part of a large scale separation or a temporary short term layoff or shut down.

This web-based initiative allows participating employers to pre-enter wage and income information on all employees affected by temporary shut downs. When a listed employee enters his or her social security number to file a claim, all of the data items associated with the layoff, such as last day worked, wage information and employer data will automatically be filled in for the employee’s claim. The employee will only need to fill in a small amount of data associated with the claim.

WorkOne Employment Centers to offer digital literacy skills

Digital literacy skills are increasingly needed to find jobs, apply for jobs, and move up to better paying jobs.

To help address this, WorkOne Employment Centers in eight of the state’s eleven workforce regions will soon be offering digital literacy classes to provide Indiana residents with basic skills in computers.

The Indiana Department of Workforce Development recently provided competitive grants in eight regions for participating WorkOne Centers to pilot “Just in Time” basic computer classes. The WorkOne sites will offer self-paced computer classes in computer labs to help build basic computer skills in Hoosiers who currently lack them. The workforce regions participating in the program are: Center of Workforce Innovations (Northwest Indiana); Workforce Development Group (South Bend region); Partners for Workforce Solutions (Northeast Indiana); River Valley Resources (Central Indiana); Alliance for Strategic Growth, Inc. (East Central Indiana); Workforce Network, Inc., (West Central Indiana); and Workforce Development Associates Inc. (Southeast Indiana).

For more information on the digital literacy classes, contact a WorkOne Center in the eight participating regions.

IPIC Launches BioWorksU life science career-exploration Web site

The Indianapolis Private Industry Council has launched BioworksU.com, a new interactive Web site that features games, experiments and other experiences to introduce young people from fourth grade to young adulthood to exciting careers in the high-demand life sciences industry.

The Web site is the first in the country to offer games and activities to entice young people to consider high-demand careers in the life sciences. It is set in a virtual university to emphasize the necessity of higher education to achieve the skilled occupations featured on the site and to reward the student with a “degree” when he or she has accumulated enough game credits. The site takes the student through a series of “buildings,” “laboratories” and other resources to learn about careers, the work that each entails and the education needed to achieve them.

IPIC, which is the principal workforce development agency for Marion County, oversaw the project, which involved partners from a number of health care facilities and research companies.

Partners included Dow AgroSciences LLC; Roche Diagnostics; St. Vincent Health and its affiliate, St. John’s Health System in Anderson; Wishard Health Services; the Indiana University School of Science - Biology Department; and the IU School of Dentistry.

BioWorksU.com has been under construction for nearly two years, when IPIC received a $1 million U.S. Department of Labor grant to address the shortage of skilled health care workers, the lack of capacity in Central Indiana to train health care workers, and the imminent need for skilled workers in the region’s growing biotechnology industry. To access, BioworksU.com, go here.

New occupational codes application at DWD

A new application launched recently on the DWD Web site will make it easier for career and occupational professionals to select and find occupational titles and help Hoosiers find jobs. The new application uses a new graphical interface to help individuals using the federal O*NET system better navigate the array of occupational codes used throughout the workforce system.

The O*NET system serves as the nation's primary source of occupational information, providing comprehensive information on key attributes and characteristics of workers and occupations. Central to the project is the O*NET database, containing information on hundreds of standardized and occupation-specific descriptors.

Occupational codes are the thread that ties education, training, job seeker skills and employer requirements together. The target audience for the new application includes the K-12 educational system, colleges and technical schools, training providers, job seekers, and employers.

The US Dept of Labor provided grants to the states in 2005 to update their state applications and integrate to the new O*NET system, which replaced prior occupational classification systems formerly supported by the US DOL. Indiana has tried to make the system more user-friendly, by developing graphics to steer a customer through the coding trees to find the correct job family. The traditional customer-based self service approach often resulted in inaccurate information or required staff assistance.

Early indication of the state’s graphical approach has been positive. The normal search time of several minutes has been reduced to a few seconds in many cases. More importantly, the accuracy improved dramatically. The use of graphics provided a universal way of displaying occupations that proved to be familiar and comfortable to users, reduced the reading requirement and improved the opportunities for making right choices quickly.

To go to the new Web site, click here.

WIRED forum boosts regional leadership

The North Central Wired initiative recently sponsored a forum aimed at developing the region’s leadership and to better connect assets across organizational and political boundaries. The forum also discussed where Indiana WIRED has been and where it is headed, and on the critical role civic leadership plays in guiding the region’s economic transformation.

WIRED is a federal initiative designed to energize the nation's economy through regional economic development partnerships and work force education and training. The program, funded at $15 million over three years, combines the business, civic and educational resources of 14 Indiana counties - Benton, Carroll, Cass, Clinton, Fountain, Fulton, Howard, Miami, Montgomery, Tippecanoe, Tipton, Wabash, Warren, and White - along with the region's colleges and universities and other key organizations.

In 2006 the U.S. Department of Labor awarded a grant to the Indiana Department of Workforce Development, which tapped Purdue University to oversee the Indiana North Central WIRED project.

Hire a veteran job fair this month

More than 50 companies and organizations will participate in a central Indiana job fair November 7 designed to help Indiana veterans find meaningful employment, officials from the Indiana Department of Workforce Development have announced.

The Indiana veteran’s job fair is one of more than 100 nationwide that will be held between October 23 and November 15 under the auspices of the HireVetsFirst campaign, an initiative of the United State’s Department of Labor.

The Indiana job fair is scheduled for Wednesday, November 7 at the Valle Vista Golf Club and Conference Center, 755 E. Main Street in Greenwood from 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m.

New Connersville WorkOne

State and local economic and workforce development officials gathered in Connersville October 24 to celebrate the grand opening of the new Fayette County WorkOne Express office. The new office is located at 710 Eastern Avenue. Office hours are Monday through Friday from 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. The telephone number is 765/825-8659.

For a map and listing of all of Indiana’s WorkOne offices, go here: WorkOne Centers