A rotating look at the sectors of industry that drive the Portland metro economy – Advanced Manufacturing, Clean Energy, Construction, Healthcare, & High Tech – from a workforce development perspective |
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Regional Trends in Healthcare
During the past four years, the healthcare sector has faced multiple challenges. More than any other sector, healthcare was acutely impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. During the pandemic, healthcare providers found their jobs increasingly stressful and dangerous. This led to an increase in worker turnover as older workers opted for early retirement and younger workers left the industry.
Healthcare Annual Growth Rates,
Portland-Vancouver Metro Area vs. United States, 2015-2022
|  |  | The Columbia Willamette Workforce Collaborative (CWWC) -- a group made up of Worksystems and our sister workforce development boards in Clackamas County and Southwest Washington -- is addressing the healthcare workforce from a regional perspective. Healthcare sector leads for Washington, Multnomah, and Clackamas counties, as well as Southwest Washington, meet quarterly with employers to address healthcare challenges and work on solutions around recruitment, training, and hiring. Watch this space for more news about training and career opportunities in the healthcare sector. | | | |
New CareerWork$ Medical Training Starts Jan. 15
CareerWorks$ Medical is an 8-week, no-cost program that prepares participants for entry-level employment in healthcare. The next CareerWork$ Medical cohort begins on Jan. 13, 2024.
Participants train for roles in medical reception, customer service, patient registration, patient access, and more.
To learn more about CareerWork$ Medical, or to apply, click here.
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Quality Jobs in Healthcare
As part of our commitment to fostering equitable prosperity in the Portland metro area, Worksystems has launched an initiative called Quality Jobs (QJ). The QJ initiative establishes a set of guidelines – the Quality Jobs Framework – that define what a quality job is in our region, and Worksystems staff work with employers to encourage them to provide jobs that meet these criteria.
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In healthcare, employers are offering more flexibility and benefits to become and maintain QJ status, including:
- Flexible hours and shifts
- Paying tuition costs upfront rather than reimbursing
- Working with housing options close to work locations to negotiate discounted rent
- Mentors assigned, and improved onboarding processes
- Recognition and celebrations
- Allowing paper application process for those that don't have access to a computer, or for whom English is not their first language
- Raising salaries that traditionally are low-paying
- Creating internal career pathways
To learn more about Quality Jobs in healthcare, contact Sabrina Van Artsdalen, svanartsdalen@worksystems.org.
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CONSTRUCTION
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A career in construction pays high wages and new workers are in high demand! Check out the new free monthly Skilled Apprenticeship Trades Workshop! This online workshop helps interested jobseekers to learn more about how to apply for and be competitive in a registered apprenticeship program. Get paid to learn!
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Are you interested in learning more about how to best inform others about these opportunities? This website offers information on: prerequisites for all major apprenticeships, a day in the life of tradespeople, Apprenticeship 101, lesson plans, and more. Check it out!
For more information on Worksystems' construction-related programs, contact Anthony Samperio, Senior Project Manager -- asamperio@worksystems.org
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CLEAN ENERGY
What is the Clean Energy Sector? This sector is synonymous with efforts to transition our way of living and doing business in the United States to those with lower greenhouse gas emissions. Drought, heat events, wildfires, water and air quality concerns, intensifying winter storms, flooding, and ice storms in recent years have catapulted the need to do this, while also hardening our infrastructure and communities against the impacts of such events, to the forefront of our collective consciousness.
The clean energy transition involves two parts. One is to increase the amount of renewable energy from solar, wind, geothermal, and hydroelectric sources, that is used to keep our buildings’ lights on and appliances running, and power vehicles that move things and people, while decreasing the amount of energy used that comes from traditional energy sources such as burning of fossil fuels. The other part involves making our buildings, appliances and vehicles so they are able to use that energy, and also use it as efficiently as possible.
Investments in the clean energy transition are being made at the local and federal levels. These investments will increase demand for products and services related to the transition and subsequently the demand for people to do the work of making those products and providing those services. Acknowledging this, Worksystems is adding Clean Energy as a priority sector, which means that an advisory panel of businesses connected to the clean energy industry will be engaged in a regional workforce strategic planning process.
Worksystems will formalize a definition of the Clean Energy Sector and the occupations that are part of it during this planning process. More to come as we work with stakeholders in the community and the industry to launch this work.
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ADVANCED MANUFACTURING
Worksystems is proud to announce that – in partnership with our sibling workforce boards the region, Workforce Southwest Washington and Clackamas Workforce Partnership – we are co-founding a new regional industry-centered convening, temporarily named the Columbia-Willamette Manufacturing Partnership, which will help guide our manufacturing workforce plans and measure our success in the region.
This effort – based on the proven Next Generation Sector Partnership model – will bring together local public education institutions, economic development boards, chambers of commerce, ports, government agencies, and more to advance the region’s manufacturing sector. It will enable industry to identify its pressing needs, and the supporting partners to propose solutions to meet those needs. This model moves us away from grant-funded proposed solutions towards grant-assisted support for industry’s workforce challenges. Watch this space for more information about how you can get involved with the Willamette Manufacturing Partnership.
To learn more about careers in advanced manufacturing, click here or contact mboyd@worksystems.org
To learn about the Quick Start to Semiconductor rapid re-careering program, click here.
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HIGH TECH
Worksystems is working proactively to close the representation gap in the high-tech workforce. Historically, the tech industry has been under-represented by women and people of color. Worksystems partners with community organizations to create opportunities for members of these communities to start a tech career.
Currently, we are working with the Immigrant& Refugee Community Organization (IRCO) to facilitate a short-term cohort in a CompTIA A+ certification that helps graduates get technology jobs and break into the field with no or limited prior knowledge (CompTIA is a nonprofit trade organization that issues professional certifications for the information technology industry). The nine-week course prepares participants to take the two exams necessary for CompTIA A+ certification.
Subjects include System Components, Networking Concepts, Installing Motherboards & Connectors, Troubleshooting PC Hardware, Supporting Network Services, Supporting Mobile Devices, and more.
The next training cycle begins in the first quarter of 2024. Watch this space for more information!
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SECTOR SPOTLIGHT is a publication of Worksystems, the workforce development board for the City of Portland, and Multnomah and Washington counties. It is published six times per year, with a rotating focus on each of our targeted sectors of industry: Healthcare, Construction, Advanced Manufacturing, High Tech, and Clean Energy.
Focusing on key industry sectors is part of the Worksystems Strategic Plan. Learn more about how we're working to support individual prosperity and business competitiveness in our region here.
Worksystems is dedicated to fostering a prosperous community by upholding the values of Justice, Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion. Learn more about our commitment to JEDI values here.
(c) 2023 Worksystems
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