FALL/WINTER 2010 - PART 2

A Note from the Editor: Happy New Year! As previously communicated, a busy autumn last year – time largely focused on executing the Ultimate Home Game – made it necessary to combine the Fall and Winter 2010 editions of this newsletter into one publication. But plentiful content created bulk, and we opted to split this edition into Parts I and II to make the read more enjoyable. Part I was sent to you before the holidays, and as promised, here is Part II.

Marcellus ShaleNET: Preparing our Region's Workforce for New Energy Careers

60-SECOND INSIGHT: Sarah Topper & John Rassau, Co-chairs, PPG Industries Science Education Council

South Hills Symposia Spotlight Careers Unique to Pittsburgh Region

Supply and Demand: TRWIB Study Examines Job Seekers and Their Opportunities

By Stefani Pashman, CEO, Three Rivers Workforce Investment Board

With over 100,000 unemployed in the region and over 5,000 individuals expected to exhaust their unemployment benefits, knowing more about the job seekers and the opportunities available to them is valuable. To improve our region's ability to better match candidates with job openings, the Three Rivers Workforce Investment Board (TRWIB) is conducting a comprehensive supply and demand study. On the supply side, we'd like to know more about job seekers' skills, knowledge and experience. On the demand side, our goal is to have a comprehensive view of available jobs, salaries, skills required and where the market is moving. We've partnered with the Allegheny Conference on this undertaking and expect to complete this project over the next year.

To begin, we conducted an analysis of the thousands of online job postings in the Pittsburgh region. What we found was encouraging and helpful:

1. There are thousands of jobs available across multiple occupations and nearly all offer wages far above the family-sustaining wage level, about $20 per hour.
2. Most employers are not recruiting by industry; approximately half the jobs are listed by occupation only. The key to today's jobs is not industry-specific knowledge but competencies or "transferable skills." With skills such as writing, communication, computer, team building and problem solving, it's possible to shift from health care to manufacturing.
3. About two-thirds of Pittsburgh's jobs don't require a college degree. College degrees may provide an edge in the job market, but a high school diploma plus post-secondary training can also set an individual on a solid career trajectory.
4. Approximately two-thirds of the jobs posted are in Allegheny County and most are in Pittsburgh. While employers have spread beyond the city limits, that's still where most of the jobs are found.

This is a summary of our key findings. View the full report.

Marcellus ShaleNET: Preparing our Region's Workforce for New Energy Careers

It's good news for a region when a key strategic economic sector enjoys unexpected growth. The advances in technology that now make recovering unconventional natural gas possible have become an enormous plus for our economy, not only helping us on the path to greater energy independence, but also creating thousands of well-paying jobs, putting new wealth into our communities, and offering long-term employment opportunities in regions hard hit by the recession.

Energy is a key part of Pennsylvania's economy with ample natural resources and exceptional technological innovation being led by the state's colleges and universities. Until the 1980s, the natural gas in underground shale formations was largely inaccessible. However, beginning with the development of the Barnett Shale in the Forth Worth, Texas region, new technologies, such as horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing, have made the recovery of shale gas deposits both possible and economically viable.

Workers are in Demand; Industry Prefers Local Employees

Pennsylvania's Marcellus Shale is a "super giant" gas field that will yield decades of gas production in close proximity to the major population centers of the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic. The drilling of a single well requires 400 people working in nearly 150 occupations. In addition to many different types of engineers and highly trained technical specialists, 47% of a well workforce is made up of general labor (20%), heavy equipment operators (17%) and on- and off-road truckers with commercial driver's licenses (10%). These positions offer an important opportunity to re-train and assist low-wage and unemployed workers for jobs that have significant career growth opportunity, largely through on the job training, and which pay above-average wages.

But because shale-based natural gas drilling jobs are new occupations in the greater Pittsburgh region, a pre-formed, experienced workforce is lacking. The gas industry has clearly stated its preference for a local workforce and is committed to hiring local employees as fast as workers can be identified and trained.

Marcellus ShaleNET Will Prepare Workers for Six Key Positions

To fill this gap, the Allegheny Conference on Community Development, Westmoreland County Community College, Pennsylvania College of Technology and the Pennsylvania Independent Oil and Gas Association joined forces to create Marcellus ShaleNET. Funded with a $4.96 million grant from the federal Department of Labor – the largest award nationally in the grant round – Marcellus ShaleNET is a multi-state, comprehensive recruitment, training, placement and retention program for jobs in the gas industry throughout the Marcellus Shale footprint (eastern Ohio, northern West Virginia, most of Pennsylvania and southern New York). Linking industry, Workforce Investment Boards (WIBs), and training providers, Marcellus ShaleNET will help ensure local worker placement in six high-demand positions: derrick operators, rotary drill operators, service unit operators, roustabouts, welding and brazing operators, and truck drivers.

To learn more, contact James H. Hayes, director, workforce and economic development, at Westmoreland County Community College. Phone: 800-262-2103, ext. 4090 or e-mail, hayesj@wccc.edu or Byron Kohut, ShaleNET director, Western Hub, at 724-696-4594; e-mail: kohutb@wccc.edu.

60-SECOND INSIGHT: Sarah Topper & John Rassau,
Co-chairs, PPG Industries Science Education Council

What is it about Pittsburgh that continues to make it an attractive place for a global company like PPG for whom technology and innovation, particularly with regard to R&D, are critical components of the core business?
PPG Industries' vision is to continue to be the world's leading coatings and specialty products company. PPG has been headquartered in Pittsburgh since its founding in 1883. Today, the company serves customers in industrial, transportation, consumer products and construction markets and aftermarkets. PPG operates in more than 60 countries around the globe. Sales in 2009 were $12.2 billion. In addition to corporate headquarters, more than 80 percent of our global R&D is conducted in western Pennsylvania at facilities around Pittsburgh. The region has a reputation for being desirable in science, technology, higher education and health care. This enables PPG to recruit and retain talented employees both from the rich local pool of university graduates as well as from across the country and worldwide.

Considering PPG's workforce, what's most in demand currently with regard to employees and skill sets? What will the future look like for PPG's "workforce of tomorrow?" Who and what (with regard to skills) will be in demand?
PPG's research and development centers employ scientists, engineers and technicians in a variety of disciplines. We need people who can innovate, and who can develop tomorrow's breakthrough technology. Employees need to have the technological backgrounds necessary to work with cutting-edge science and to improve existing processes and products to compete in a global market. These skills will continue to be in demand in the future because there will always be room for improvement, regarding the next greener chemistry or higher performance material.

PPG's Science Education Council appears to provide a unique, collaborative approach for the internalization of critical career education throughout a large company – and it's an initiative co-chaired by research chemists, not HR-types. Why and how did PPG take this career education tack? What are some key advantages of this unified approach?
Several years ago we recognized that there were many small groups and independent associates working on various educational initiatives through personal contacts. The R&D leadership encouraged us to work together and form a cross-R&D team that could better facilitate community interactions, increase our number of contacts and maximize the impact of our activities.

Our R&D associates tend to be enthusiastic about the work we do. We remember being curious students ourselves. When requests for career information come in from the community, we welcome the opportunity to share our enthusiasm. We find that the general public often does not have a firm understanding of the day-to-day world of scientific research, so we try to take any opportunity we can to promote it.

What are a few of the obstacles you've encountered when promoting STEM-focused careers … to students, parents, educators?
Time is our biggest obstacle. We are a volunteer organization within PPG, and while we would love to participate in every outreach activity available, our primary job responsibilities must obviously come first.

How is PPG's Science Education Council overcoming such obstacles?
Since coming together as a cross-R&D group we've had spectacular support from upper management. Employees at all levels are encouraged to participate in at least one initiative a year, and associates are permitted 24 hours of working time per year to do so. The more volunteers we have, the more impact we can make outside of PPG with minimum impact internally.

What would the Science Education Council consider to be one of its best career education successes?
Our success can be seen in numbers – both the number of associates we've had involved in our activities and the number of students we've been able to impact. Since we formed the group we've been formally tracking these numbers and setting yearly goals to increase them. We've surpassed our goal of having 25 percent of all R&D employees active in at least one outreach effort per year, and we've had contacts with an estimated 10,000 students.

What's the best advice you can give to young people interested in the kinds of career opportunities that PPG has?
Young people need to maintain their natural levels of curiosity – don't be afraid of the unknown … embrace and explore it. Never shy away from a subject because you've heard it is difficult or it seems unfamiliar at first. Science is everywhere, impacting your daily life. By learning and using science, you can have an impact, too.

What advice do you have for other companies looking to internalize career education in order to more effectively build the workforce of tomorrow?
While the benefits of outreach efforts to the local community are obvious, there are also benefits to be had internally. Employees can increase their engagement and report an increased feeling of pride in their work. Many feel that it sharpens their communications skills and provides opportunities to network internally as well as externally. A small time commitment can yield unexpected benefits.

South Hills Symposia Spotlight Careers Unique to Pittsburgh Region

Real-life connections between students and regional employers are being made as high school students in the South Hills participate in their 12th round of annual career symposia. The first symposium in the series of four was held on October 21, 2010 at South Park High School. It centered on careers in business, government, law and information technology. The second symposium was held at Peters Township High School on December 10, 2010. It focused on careers in the arts, humanities and communications. At each event, professionals in fields that ranged from law to radio broadcasting interacted with over 200 young people – our regional workforce of tomorrow preparing to make some important and exciting decisions about which post-secondary paths they will choose.

During the symposia panel sessions students heard from different speakers who discussed the behind-the-scenes details of their jobs. A question-and-answer session followed each engagement. In the open forum portion, students were encouraged to interact freely with the employers by asking in-depth questions about their professions and requesting their contact information. At the business symposium, resume coaches and career counselors gave tips on how to construct a winning resume and advised students how to dress for a job interview. Addressing a group of active social media users, the presenters also articulated how students should (and should not) maintain their online persona while searching for a job or applying to colleges.

Bill Flanagan, executive vice president of corporate relations with the Allegheny Conference on Community Development, was the keynote speaker at the business symposium. He discussed the Pittsburgh region's unprecedented job growth in spite of the economic recession and highlighted the five key sectors in the regional economy where more than half of the available jobs can be found. During the arts symposium, actor and Pittsburgh native Billy Hartung led an activity involving improvised dramatic scenes.

Reflecting on her participation in the business symposium, one Canon-McMillan student commented, "It was informative!" Aware of an upcoming medical careers symposium, a South Park student remarked, "I'm looking forward to it. I want to be a psychiatrist." A Bethel Park student at the arts symposium enjoyed hearing from local photographers and graphic designers. She is taking art classes at Carnegie Mellon University and would like to pursue a career in the arts. Plans are already underway to expand the career symposium model, with 10 more high schools preparing to hold their first annual career symposium in the coming academic year. Interaction with local professionals provides students with boundless opportunities for experiential learning. Through these connections, employers gain knowledge of what paths students are exploring and have the opportunity to expose students to the skills and knowledge it takes to succeed in different occupations. At the same time, students gain a true understanding of what they can do now to best prepare themselves for successful and rewarding careers in the future.

Upcoming Career Symposiums:

• March 10, 2011: Science, Technology, Engineering, Math, Trades and Aviation; Bethel Park High School
• April 15, 2011: Health and Human Services; Upper St. Clair High School
  

Laura Fisher - Publisher | Philip Cynar - Editor

The Pittsburgh Regional Compact is an employer-driven initiative collaboratively
sponsored by the Allegheny Conference on Community Development, business
leaders, educators, students, educational institutions and workforce development
organizations across the 10-county Pittsburgh region.