Regional Workforce Summit

The Mid-America Regional Council (MARC) will be hosting an all-day Regional Workforce Summit, Connecting Workforce Partners, on Tuesday, June 21, at Liberty Memorial. The summit is to formally launch the Regional Workforce Intelligence Network of Greater Kansas City (RWIN), a new workforce and economic data exchange system designed to encourage workforce data exchange and collaboration between area professionals.

The summit is part of the America Works Initiative funded by the Walmart Foundation, which The MCC Insider reported on in March.

Speakers at the event will include representatives from MARC, the Walmart Foundation, the Kansas City Business Journal, the Full Employment Council, the Missouri Department of Economic Development, Johnson County Community College, and other notable community leaders. Representatives from MCC include our own Dr. Tom Vansaghi, associate vice chancellor of college and community relations, and Margaret Boyd, executive director of the Institute for Workforce Innovation and interim director of the Health Science Institute.

There is still time to register for the event. The fee is $15.

Walmart Foundation grant benefits MCC

Through its partnership with the Mid-America Regional Council (MARC), MCC is participating in a research project that is being funded through a two-year, $500,000 grant by the Walmart Foundation's America Works Initiative. The MARC project builds on the 2005 WIRED program, whose purpose was to analyze prominent industry sectors and develop training to address workforce needs.

The new funding will support a variety of workforce initiatives, including a survey of five hundred area businesses designed to determine Kansas City hiring and training needs. Research findings will benefit MCC in developing relevant courses for in-demand jobs, as well as continue to strengthen community ties. The MARC research committee is made up of a comprehensive group of educational institutions, industry experts, workforce investment boards and government entities concerned with workforce development. Pat Lees, performance manager for the MCC Institute for Workforce Innovation (I.W.I.) serves on MARC's coordinating committee.

The five hundred-company survey will commence by the end of this month, with results compiled in May. Plans are also underway to host an upcoming workforce summit this summer.

For more information about MARC or MCC research initiatives, please contact Pat Lees.

New Tool Tracks Job Market, Workforce Trends

The MCC Institute for Workforce Innovation has teamed up with the Mid-America Regional Council to give MCC staff and faculty easier access to information on job market trends.

MARC, the metropolitan planning organization for the bi-state Kansas City region, has agreed to provide MCC with access to a recently-acquired database that analyzes and generates reports on job market trends. The database, called EMSI, was developed specifically for colleges, workforce boards and economic development groups. The system can sort data by industry, occupation, demographic group or region, with projections for up to ten years.

As I.W.I. continues to look for new ways to support MCC’s development of a skilled and educated workforce, EMSI will be a valuable tool to support on-going research of regional needs. The I.W.I. community development team has already begun using the robust database tool: last month, the team created a report on the Lee’s Summit area at the request of leaders at Longview.

Kevin Kelley, I.W.I.’s director of community development, hopes others at MCC will also take advantage of this new tool.

“As the campuses are looking at ways to address the specific needs of their respective communities – and MCC as a district is looking at ways to address the needs of the metro area as a whole – EMSI is really going to revolutionize how we do program planning,” Kelley said. “The EMSI system allows us to focus down to a single ZIP code, or out to a national level. We’ve never had access to something like that before.”

The database’s capabilities will enable MCC, MARC and other community partners to investigate occupational trends and opportunities within the metropolitan area and see how Kansas City compares to the rest of the country. Other software features include access to business data which will be useful for forming industry partnerships. Economic impact reports can be used to track MCC’s continued role in the community, and the career pathways analyses and projections will aid MCC in delivering programming that ensures students’ success after graduation.

MCC has a long-standing relationship with MARC. Among other initiatives, MCC is a member of the organization’s workforce research committee, which also includes representatives from the Greater Kansas City Chamber of Commerce, the Kansas City Area Development Council, the Full Employment Council, the Workforce Partnership, Johnson County Community College and Kansas City Kansas Community College.

Workforce and job market reports, including research for a specific MCC service area or campus, can be generated upon request. For more information, contact Kevin Kelley, Pat Lees or Chris Butler at the MCC Institute for Workforce Innovation.