Regional development organizations are resourcefully restructuring job training programs to meet rural workforce challenges. They are finding new ways to make workforce investments that strengthen regional economies.

Training for Economic Sustainability
The Northwest Iowa Planning and Development Commission (PDC) is an eight county Economic Development Administration (EDA) funded district. They began administering job training for the region in 1983.

Initially, the job training programs, as outlined in the Job Training Partnership Act (JTPA) of 1982, were sufficient. However, when the region began experiencing an out- migration of youth, resulting in a shrinking labor market and population decline, the Northwest Iowa PDC responded with training modifications and expansion.

Following the guidelines of the Workforce Investment Act (WIA) of 1998, which replaced JTPA, the Northwest Iowa PDC and the region’s Workforce Investment Board enhanced youth services and centralized service with the support of local collaboratives. Northwest Iowa PDC Executive Director David Horan reflected on the program re-structuring, “We now help elementary school teachers put soft skills, like dealing with conflict, into their curriculums. We offer youth employment year round. We centralized dislocated worker re-training at one-stop career training facilities, started training for high school and college teachers to administer career self-assessments and coordinated school-to-work programs.” Horan added, “We had to adapt because skilled workforces attract and retain business and jobs. Good job training is good economic planning and a means to create economic sustainability.” The Northwest Iowa PDC last year trained and placed an estimated 37 dislocated workers.

Overcoming Rural Geography
Tri County Economic Development District (Tri County EDD), an EDA funded district in northeast Washington, has been developing telecommunications based training to overcome economic challenges caused by geographic isolation.

Three years ago, Tri County EDD incorporated a “telework initiative” into the region’s comprehensive economic development strategy (CEDS) and began working with the local college to set up a training curriculum. Martin Wold, Tri County EDD’s Executive Director explained, “Telework simply means people can work from their homes via their computers. Economically speaking, it’s an opportunity for our rural region to diversify the workforce and strengthen our economy.” At the same time Tri County was establishing the telework initiative, the Washington State University Cooperative Extension Energy Program was receiving seed money from the US Forest Service Economic Recovery Program to begin a “Rural Telework” project.

The project received a two-year grant from the US Department of Agriculture Fund for Rural America for a demonstration pilot, to show how telework reduces energy consumption and reduces transportation dependency in rural regions.

The project selected Tri County to participate in the pilot. Dee Christensen, Telecommunications Unit Manager for the Rural Telework project described Tri County’s telework initiative link to the project. “We’ll be working with urban employers to recruit rural teleworkers. Tri County’s telecommunications training is vital, because we’ll need to recruit from a skilled rural labor force.”

Christensen and Wold concur that the lessons learned from developing telework can be transferred to other rural areas to expand workforce capacity. Following full completion, the project aims to generate 30 to 60 jobs, and bring three to six new employers to the rural area.