Regional Industry-Driven Centers of Excellence as a Vehicle for Investment in Innovation Scott Sheely Lancaster County Workforce Investment Board Lancaster, PA “A Demand-Driven Incubator Site”

Industry Cluster Analysis Foundational for understanding what industries are important within the local industrial mix; Which industries are growing and which are failing? Which industries are growing good jobs? In what career ladders should we invest?

Moving to Action Shared understanding and vision; Action by policymakers to institutionalize the vision; Give clear direction to the existing system that change is expected; Begin changing the things that you control; Start trying to influence what you don’t control.

Concentrate on What You Can Do Spend more time developing better intelligence about businesses; Occupational information; Career ladder mapping; Skill mapping; Really address employer relations with the right people; Strategic; Operational;

Concentrate on What You Can Do Focus on priority industries; In contracting; In the way one-stops are structured; In bringing funding streams together; Educate your staff; Develop relationships; Economic development; Educators.

Drilling Down Industry cluster analysis is historical; Problem facing most of America is how do companies stay competitive in the world marketplace…forward-looking; Cost and process control will get us so far; Innovation is the key; New products; New technologies; New companies.

Deep and Wide Every cluster has a local competitive advantage; Challenge is to identify what that is; Need to build an innovation system that supports the competitive advantage; Wide…all of the partners Deep…concentrating on the right thing;

Regional Industry-Driven Centers of Excellence Centers of Excellence are normally attached to universities, hospitals, or government entities (NASA, NIH); Our Centers focus on enhancing local competitive advantage; Pulling together many actors to accomplish the task.

Functions of a Center Research and Development; Technology Transfer; Entrepreneurial Development; Incumbent Worker Training; Connection to K-12 and Higher Education for Career Ladder Development.

In Lancaster County Industry Clusters Health Care Biotechnology Ag and Food Communications Construction Metals and Metal Fabrication Automotive Centers Long-Term Care Practice Packaging Ops Production Agriculture Construction Tech Wood Finishing Automotive Tech

Structure of Centers Part of Lancaster Prospers, a coalition of economic development partners in Lancaster County; One of seven strategies; Run by the WIB which functions as the administrative entity providing fiscal, staffing, and promotional support;

Structure of Centers Each has a host organization which may or may not be an educational institution; Each has a Steering Committee which is entirely private sector and a Support Committee of everyone else; Website is the public face of the organization.

Wood Finishing Competitive advantage of a large concentration (4,000+ employees) of high-end custom kitchen cabinet manufacturers (75+ employers); Shortage of skilled finishers; No established skills curriculum in companies or at schools; R & D rests mostly with vendors.

Wood Finishing Steering Committee operational; Contracted with company to develop curriculum in conjunction with a standard-setting organization…American Wood Finishing Institute; Found R & D partners in ETAC, an EPA-oriented organization, and Penn State School of Forest Resources; Networking with Hardwood Development Council; Incumbent worker training consortium with ten companies.

Packaging Operations Packaging is at the heart of the biotechnology and ag and food clusters in the area; No packaging technology programs in the region; Higher-end process control skill training not available at any institution; R & D…big guys have it internally…little guys are at the mercy of vendors.

Packaging Operations Support Committee operational; Hired two engineers to do assessment of capacity of schools to upgrade and of the state-of-the-art in packaging technology among companies; Cooperating with NSF recipient in MN on curriculum development; Hershey Foods driving force in training area technical school teachers; Three WIBs, ten county area; 32-company Food Training Consortium already in place.

What We’ve Learned Think deep and wide…deep understanding of the industry…wide in terms of linkages with other entities; Think beyond workforce to innovation; Think beyond WIA in funding.

For More Information Scott Sheely Executive Director Lancaster County Workforce Investment Board 313 W. Liberty St. Suite 114 Lancaster, PA 17603 717-735-0333 ssheely@paonline.com