By AARON LONDON, Staff Writer May 11, 2011 12:05 AM
This is the fifth in a five-part series focusing on strategic economic development goals identified by participants in countywide economic development summit meetings in March. Five teams were chosen to refine goals in preparation for the next summit, scheduled for Friday.
As community leaders and elected officials prepare to meet Friday for the next session on economic development, job creation remains a primary issue.
But attracting new businesses that provide jobs involves more than making deals with prospective companies. Matching the kinds of jobs to the skills of available workers is a key to developing an effective economic development strategy and one of the five strategic goals adopted by summit participants.
"A lot of what we're focusing on is having to do with research and data that we can translate into specific action," said Rick Fraser, director of the Center for Business Excellence and head of the committee focusing on the goal of "talent delivery." Even the name "talent delivery" reflects the broader focus required to address the county's chronic high unemployment.
Fraser said the committee has gathered information on the skill sets area residents have to tailor economic development efforts to the proper industries.
"I guess the missing piece is our next task, which would be to identify what skills would be needed by the targeted industries another committee is working on," Fraser said. "We need to be able to identify what kind of training and skill sets those companies need."
Fraser said the committee has prepared a list of training providers in the community who can offer retraining for displaced workers.
"We'll reconvene and start the discussion about what kind of training is needed," he said.
Greg Rawls, executive director at Flagler Department of Economic Opportunity, the county's public/private economic development agency, said the county has organizations that can provide the kind of training needed to make the area attractive to companies seeking to expand or relocate.
"We have the Flagler Technical Institute and the Advanced Technology College at Daytona State," he said. "These are gems for us to be able to adapt our construction workers for a new tool set and a great asset for developing workforce talent."
Rawls said one of the targeted industries identified by summit participants is light industrial manufacturing.
"What is great about that is there are transitional skill sets," he said. "Residential construction translates easier to that type of business."
Rawls said another advantage the county has in talent delivery is an available labor pool.
"It is evident that we do have an eager talent supply available," he said.
The next economic development summit meeting takes place at 8 a.m. Friday at the Flagler County Agricultural Extension Office on Sawgrass Road.
