RCEDA 8.5x11 Report d3

Working Regionally for the Inland Empire - Inland Empire Regional Planning Unit (IERPU) The workforce development vision for the Inland Empire is a reinvented regional system that engages business and industry in identifying high quality jobs and designing training programs to prepare a competitive workforce. The IERPU partners will prepare the workforce by ensuring that services address barriers to employment and promote educational attainment to create pathways from dependency to prosperity. Planning and Implementing Services through the IERPU • The Inland Empire region consists of Riverside and San Bernardino Counties. • The region was the first to develop a Regional Memorandum of Understanding. • Provided Regional Training for line and management staff • Workgroups that include stakeholders from theWorkforce and Economic Development staff of the two counties, the community colleges and adult education were created to tackle specific issues and/or develop policy and procedures. The specific areas include: career pathways, incumbent worker training and apprenticeships to provide a framework for consistency between the two counties. Industry Focused

The counties have hired industry coordinators from the manufacturing and healthcare industries to assist in developing customized training desired by businesses from these industry sectors. Logistics will be the next sector to hire a coordinator from the industry.

Manufacturing Initiative The Inland Empire’s two workforce boards, in collaboration with their community college and education partners, have engaged in a year-long process of outreach and solution-building to serve the manufacturing industry in the region. To date, 70manufacturers in the region have been contacted and given interviews and needs assessments. Many local and regional manuf acturer groups were likewise consulted. Some takeaways from the extensive outreach were: • Manufacturers have a diverse set of needs • It’s difficult to find a common denominator for a large number of manufacturers • Current challenges are key • Communication is more efficient and effective when done in small regional groups, rather than with individual employers alone The interviews and outreach led to the partners creating amachine operator training program. The program was supported by local manufacturers from Yucaipa, Chino, Riverside and Rialto. It features a 240 hour program to prepare candidates for a career in manufacturing. Two more manufacturers are looking to come on board and direct hires occurred starting with the first cohort.

Future projects for the program include: • Expansion of the machine operator training program • Creation of a fabricator and an industrial sewing technician training program • Evaluating the feasibility of an electronics technician pipeline in the High Desert • Youth Apprenticeship Program • Incumbent Worker Training Collaborative efforts are conducted to encourage alignment of workforce development, education and economic development in efforts to engage employer/industry champions and promote services to individuals with barriers to employment by supporting ongoing dialogue between labor, business, education, community and the public workforce system. In celebration of 2018 National Manufacturing Day, planning for this event is underway for a panel discussionwith regional manufacturing industry experts on “Overcoming the Challenges of Manufacturing in the Inland Empire.” The primary goal is to increase participant understanding of the opportunities in the manufacturing industry, current workforce issues and to introduce and provide resources that will support career and educational needs. Topics covered by the panel will include workforce development, training and maintaining talent, plus up and coming CTE programs.

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