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Here is the next one article that profiles a union leader from Philadelphia. Cheryl Feldman demonstrates the vision required to implement sector-based models of education and training.
Specifically, the approach emphasizes portable skills, credentials, and linkages to college wherever possible.
Here's an excerpt from her interview.
Q: I've been reading about something called sector training. What is that?
A: [Sectors] are clusters of employment and career opportunities within an industry - health care . . . life sciences . . . manufacturing.. . . In the past, workforce development may have had training programs that really didn't drill down into a particular sector. . . .The sector initiative involves . . . really doing an assessment on what the needs of that sector are. From a workforce-development perspective, that incorporates not just the front-line workers, but what are the career-ladder opportunities?
Q: Hasn't a lot of workforce training just been getting people in the door, and then neglecting them in low-level jobs?
A: Absolutely. . . . The best sector initiatives are really approaching a strategy for changing those low-wage jobs into family-sustaining jobs - with health benefits and pensions - that are connected to career ladders.
Q: Give me an example.
A: The residential workers who are working in mental health and mental retardation. . . . There are very few credentials required. And there are no career ladders. . . . You get in that job, and with some exceptions, . . . there's really not anywhere you can go. We have an industry-partnership stakeholder group involved [in] creating a degree program that hasn't existed previously, that gives college credits for our behavioral-health technician program.
Q: After they've done all this work, what are they getting?
A: Two [partner] employers have agreed that the result of this work will be promotion, creating career ladders in direct patient-care delivery.
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