10.
Combined City Council Work Session/Special Meeting - AMENDED
- Meeting Date:
- 12/13/2022
- From:
- John Saltonstall, Business Retention & Expansion Manager
- Department:
- Economic Vitality
Co-Submitter:
David McIntire
TITLE:
Update regarding progress on recent Workforce Development efforts.
DESIRED OUTCOME:
Council awareness of the collaborative process undertaken to create the scope of work and agreement to study the community’s workforce development framework and identify potential actions to improve it.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY:
Council provided direction and funding to secure a consultant who will perform an analysis of the existing workforce development system to identify ways for the City of Flagstaff to create and fund a Robust Workforce Development System. The intention will be to expand and strengthen current workforce development efforts by the City.
City of Flagstaff Economic Development Offices is seeking to contract with a consultant to execute that direction and to identify present successes and gaps in delivery of workforce, and to chart paths of opportunity for the City to support meeting the gaps and delivering capable, adaptable, productive workforce into the future.
INFORMATION:
The exploration into Creating and Funding a Robust Workforce Development Program to expand and strengthen current workforce development efforts by the City began as a F.A.I.R. (Future Agenda Item Request) by Councilmember Salas which was then supported by the requisite number of other councilmembers to advance the item. Building off of that conversation, staff invited the new Executive Director of the ARIZONA@WORK Coconino County Workforce Development Board to participate in a presentation to Flagstaff City Council on the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act known as W.I.O.A. in March 2022 outlining the origins and overall framework of the existing workforce system. That presentation aided in the structure of the effort to develop this scope of work.
Staff convened a group of representative stakeholders to explore the language of the FAIR which is the following: A discussion for Council to bolster economic development by “Creating and Funding a Robust Workforce Development Program to expand and strengthen current workforce development efforts by the City”. Participating stakeholders represented Northern Arizona University, Coconino Community College, the Economic Collaborative of Northern Arizona, the ARIZONA@WORK Coconino County Workforce Development Board, and private industry.
The Scope of Work has three main sections. The first section focuses on a survey of the existing workforce development system and is intended to provide a broad understanding of the existing workforce system, programs that serve formal/specific career pathways and that deliver general skills. The second section focuses on future industry and related workforce needs and is intended to look into the future to understand how the workforce development system is positioned to maintain the Flagstaff community at expectedly high levels of services and to meet the needs of future industry whose operations generate a low environmental impact and provide high wages relative to Flagstaff. The third section focuses on pathways to workforce development and is intended to chart a path from the present to the next 1-5 years and the next 5-10 years which drives actions, policies, and investments that deliver the workforce required to keep a sustainable community running from the infrastructure in the ground to the innovations around the world.