One of the hallmarks of success is that the results achieved look easy.  That is especially true of projects that create seamless, customer-focused services.  After all, what could be more sensible?  From the outside, the most logical question about this project might be why this kind of training hadn’t been offered before, and why it is not a universal standard.

But, of course, excellence just doesn’t come without hard work, sweat, frustration, and sustained discipline and determination.  Nor does it come without a clear vision of what is to be achieved.

A clear vision – and a sense of urgency – are essential drivers of success

In this case, adversity was instrumental in defining the vision.  Industry and workers alike faced the same economic emergency, and shared the same goal of saving jobs and improving productivity and competitiveness.  Because of this, the Partnership was driven by a clear vision of what it wanted to achieve.  Federal Department of Labor funding fueled the work, but the engine itself was the Partnership’s consistent clarity about its goals, and its relentless push to achieve them.

Employers must play a central leadership role

Employers are the experts on what training is needed to improve productivity, increase worker retention, and provide upward mobility for entry-level workers.  To create training systems responsive to industry needs, employers must be leaders, not reluctant or half-hearted participants.  Workforce development agencies and training providers genuinely want to respond to industry needs, but they can only do so when those needs are clearly and consistently expressed, and when industry is willing to make the investment of time and effort to guide and direct change.

Industry-wide organizations such as the Food Processors Association and the Washington Growers League are especially important, because the Association can consistently advocate for and explain the needs of employers in the myriad meetings that genuine systems change entails.

Getting the right people at the table – and keeping them productive and accountable – is essential

This project crossed numerous jurisdictional boundaries across Eastern Washington – a large geographic area that is a long way from the headquarters of participating state agencies.  Getting everyone to a meeting was a logistical challenge.  Highly competent leadership, with good judgment about how to best use the valuable time of project participants was essential. Being clear about roles and responsibilities made it possible to hold each partner accountable for timely completion of work.

Achieving early results keeps people motivated

Building system capacity and creating lasting change takes time and patience.  Getting a few pilot projects off the ground quickly helps sustain interest by demonstrating what is possible.  State training dollars served as the catalyst that made quick results possible.

Collaboration between existing education and training systems is both possible and desirable

Short-term occupational training, delivered where and when it’ needed was called for in this project.  The education and training system met that goal.  In this project, public and private training providers competed for training contracts – and in some cases collaborated to win them.  The results is that the training and education system in Eastern Washington has increased its capacity to respond quickly to employer needs – and to think outside the box of academic quarters and campus-based classes.  Private vocational institutes and public community and technical colleges have learned how to revise existing curriculum and design new curriculum that is responsive to employer needs, and to deliver training on site, in modules appropriate to employer and employee needs.

Workforce Development Councils and other government agencies can act as facilitators that make the system run smoothly

Workforce Development Councils and other local and federal workforce development agencies can be a source of essential funding – but equally important, they can also provide strategic planning, coordination, and brokerage services.  As intermediaries between training institutions and employers, they can marshal the resources to develop skill standards and assessments that are needed to develop career pathways for workers and industry-driven curriculum that has a direct and immediate impact on productivity.

Success should be celebrated – and replicated

This project received awards and honors not only because it was an outstanding success, but because it applied for awards and honors, and asked for recognition and active participation from the Governor.  These awards and honors were important to the morale and continued motivation of those involved.  Media coverage of the Governor’s personal appearances and congratulations to workers who received training helped raised the profile of the project, improve the image of the industry, and demonstrated the value of training to people throughout Eastern Washington.

Celebrating and publicizing the success of this project also nudged the system towards the goal of making demand-driven, on-time skills training – delivered when and where employers and employees need it – the new norm for the education and training system.

Improvements that last

This project produced lasting change for this group of companies and their employees.

	New curriculum – and a more responsive system for changing curriculum – have been institutionalized by both private training providers and community and technical colleges.
	The Labor-Management Committee continues to meet, and has become a permanent source of leadership and vision-setting for industry workforce and training needs.
	Employers have internalized important lessons about the importance of employee skill assessments and coordinated workforce development initiatives.
	Everyone involved has recognized the key value of industry associations in designing and implementing effective workforce development strategies.

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