Published: June 22, 2009 10:31 pm      

Survey to identify future job skills

The Eastern Kentucky Concentrated Employment Program Inc. is launching a six-month survey of eastern Kentucky employers to identify the skills the region’s workers will need to succeed in the future.

The Workforce Opportunity Project survey results will guide the kinds of training EKCEP will fund to help the region’s employers and workers.

“We are asking employers to tell us what only they can: what training do they need the most from the workforce training system in eastern Kentucky? This project is about East Kentucky business leaders helping each other. This is not an outside study. This is an opportunity for business leaders in our own region to define the training services that will help us all prosper,” Jeff Whitehead, EKCEP executive director said.

The survey will include 100 face-to-face interviews with company decision-makers who will be responsible for hiring future employees throughout the 23 county area served by EKCEP. The training needs for positions ranging from entry-level to executive will be evaluated.

“This project will have a huge impact on how we train, where we train and when we train eastern Kentucky’s workforce. This vital information will let us spend our training dollars where employers say they will do the most good,” Whitehead said.

Companies of various sizes will be contacted by Career Span Inc., a career resource firm conducting the survey under contract with EKCEP. Carla Ockerman-Hunter, president of Career Span, will be the survey’s project manager.

Rocky Adkins, chairman of the EKCEP Workforce Investment Board, said the study will play a large part in helping create a competitive advantage for eastern Kentucky’s workforce.

“I cannot underscore enough the importance of this project to eastern Kentucky businesses and our future economic vitality,” Adkins said. “These 100 businesses and their employees will help us understand the needs of the region and what kinds of training and educational tools we must plan for to be competitive in the years to come.”

Results of the survey will be published by March 2010. A Web site, currently in development, will provide comprehensive information relating to the project and may be found at www.workforceopportunityproject.com. Project status updates will be posted to the blog site at workforcesurvey.blogspot.com.

For more information about the Workforce Opportunity Project survey contact Ockerman-Hunter at Career Span by e-mail at carla@careerspanusa.com or by calling (859) 233-7726.