Entrepreneurship Everywhere
Sample Workforce Preparation Programs by State
This section provides examples of collaboration between one-stop career centers designed to assist the unemployed and community organizations providing training, coaching, and resources to foster self-employment and entrepreneurship.
"When there are no available employers why not find customers that will pay for what you know how to do? That is the essential foundation of self-employment and entrepreneurship."
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Maine CareerCenters, Maine Department of Labor
Steve Duval, Director
Maine CareerCenters
Maine Department of Labor,
55 State House Station,
Augusta, Maine 04333,
207-623-7981
Email: Stephen.R.Duval@maine.Gov
Website: www.mainecareercenter.comFocus: Helping Businesses locate qualified workers, helping job seekers find employment or help with establishing their own businesses, helping connect professional training and development providers, and providing information about employment and business legislation and regulations.
Geographic Area: Augusta Maine is the headquarters and operates throughout the state. There are four Workforce Investment Boards serving Maine.
Age Level: Clients must be of age to be employed.
Funding Sources: State funding of the CareerCenters, the scholarship programs and the Small Business Development Centers has allowed them to partner with private organizations, private no-profits, and other funders to expand the services to Maine's citizens.
Abstract: The Maine Department of Labor manages a system of services designed to help persons seeking employment and businesses seeking employees. They manage a system of 21 CareerCenters throughout Maine where services are available to citizens. They partner with many organizations such as the Community Colleges within Maine who offer training and the Center for Women, Work and Community who are focused on helping women succeed in business through their 18 centers throughout the state of Maine. They manage the funds for the Life Long Learning Accounts (LILAs) 401K type accounts (Contributions from Employers and Worker) to help individuals gain training for job advancement. Pre Apprenticeship and Apprenticeship programs are managed and encouraged by the DOL as well as Competitive Skills Scholarships to assist citizens in advancing in their chosen occupation.
Coastal Enterprises was developed in 1977 as a private non-profit community development organization focused on micro-enterprise financing and business development strategies to help fledging businesses in coastal and natural resources businesses.
The Maine Enterprise Option is managed by the 21 CareerCenters to help those who have a specific business idea and are about to exhaust their unemployment benefits.
The Small Business Development Centers network operates out of 31 offices throughout Maine to provide business counseling, training, and information.
Governor John Elias Baldacci established Maine's North Star Alliance Initiative in 2006. The North Star Alliance Initiative, (NSAI) is an industry-led collaborative, synthesizing business, R&D, education, workforce, and economic development resources to re-skill a workforce and launch a new regional economy in coastal Maine. Referred to as the "Four Pillars of Economic Development", the strategy focuses on building capacity and addressing gaps in Workforce Development, Research and Development, Outreach and Market Development, and Capitalization and Infrastructure Development. The targeted industry sectors of Maine's North Star Alliance include a range of enterprises that make up or support the marine trades and those that utilize advanced composite materials, including boat building, marine/waterfront infrastructure, marine service and repair, building products, sporting goods, and ballistic armor. These industries represent the majority of the economic base of Maine's mid-coast region.
The DOL website has links for those individuals who desire to start their own businesses. CareerCenter staff help counsel citizens who have interest in developing their own businesses toward the service provider who can assist them advance their dream.
Christina Sklarz-Libby, Program Manager
The North Star Alliance (NSAI)
Brunswick, ME
1-207-287-4599
Email: ???????????????????
Website: www.mainesnorthstaralliance.gov
Note: The NSAI website is in its final creation stage and is planned to be rolled out by early September. The site address will be www.mainesnorthstaralliance.gov. The site will provide an overview of the Initiative, a list of the partners with a link to each of the partner's home pages, scheduled meetings, news releases, a list of the programs/benefits available from the NSAI, as well as several pages dedicated specifically to the NSAI workforce efforts including an area dedicated to job openings available within the targeted industry sector.Geographic Area: Coastal Maine including 12 counties: Washington, Penobscot, Hancock, Waldo, Knox, Lincoln, Kennebec, Androscoggin, Sagadohoc, Cumberland, York, Piscataquis
Age levels: PK-12 career curriculum, no restrictions indicated.
Funding Sources/Partners: A collaborative effort of this size has never been attempted within Maine before.The Partner Roster of Maine's North Star Alliance Initiative: Brunswick Municipal Government; Governor's Office of Redevelopment, Reemployment and Business Support; Harbor Technologies; Maine Built Boats; Maine Community Foundation; Maine Composite Alliance; Maine Department of Economic and Community Development; Maine Department of Education; Maine Department of Labor; Maine Marine Trades Association; Maine State Planning Office; Maine Technology Institute; Private Industry Representation (individually listed in Attachment , Pillar Membership); Solera Capital; Southern Maine Community College; University of Maine of Orono, Advanced Engineered Wood Composites Center; US Department of Labor; Washington County Community College; Workforce Investment Boards of Aroostook/Washington, Central/Western Maine, Coastal County, and Tri-County.
Abstract: NSAI management team shares the duty of attending individual scheduled meetings as well as working with each of these pillars as they move through defined strategies. The overall profile of each pillar is:
- Workforce Development: Develops and delivers just in time applied knowledge and skills to both incumbent and new workforce, utilizing faculty jointly sponsored by industry and education and space within Maine's businesses, secondary schools, adult education centers, community colleges, and university systems. The team also identifies any existing training resources than can be utilized in conjunction with WIRED funding.
- Research and Development: Identifies and prioritizes new industry based research initiatives, leveraging existing R&D resources with the ultimate goal of increasing Maine's industry focused R&D workforce. These activities are being accomplished through a contractual arrangement with the University Maine Orono's Advanced Engineering Wood Products facility.
- Outreach and Development: Works to expand new market development initiatives within the boat building and composites industries, extending the reach of Maine brand products into both the domestic and international markets while showcasing career opportunities within these industry sectors.
- Capitalization and Infrastructure Development: Engages philanthropic and investment partners throughout the state to develop strategies that will provide capital and management assistance targeted for business and industry growth, facility improvement and expansion in the targeted industries in order to provide the necessary backdrop for workforce development.
This revolutionary industry-led collaborative, synthesizes business, R&D, education, workforce, and economic development resources to reskill a workforce and launch a new regional economy for coastal Maine. Referred to as the "Four Pillars of Economic Development", the proposed strategy focuses on building capacity and addressing gaps in Workforce Development, Research and Development, Outreach and Market Development, and Capitalization and Infrastructure Development. The lead of industry in the initiative manifests itself in the creation of an industry coordinator position that works in partnership with the professional organizations and agencies that support industry, recruits industry representation to serve as working team members on the Steering Committee as well as within each of the four pillars, but most importantly collaborates with industry to identify and then respond to training and workforce needs as well as the identification and utilization of economic development resources and support that will allow industry to realize the full potential of advancing and applicable technology.
In order to successfully accomplish the overarching goal of the WIRED Project to spur the integration of education, workforce, and economic development systems, Maine's North Star Alliance partners have identified the following six goals:
- Create high quality, skilled jobs that support the competitiveness of the targeted industries, the income of Maine workers, and a return for the public investment.
- Expand current markets and develop new ones so that the boat building, composites, and marine trades industries achieve global industry leadership.
- Transform and build upon the capacity of the public system to nimbly and flexibly support competitive boat building, composites, and marine trade industries that are looking to expand capacity, create and/or improve their workforce, and/or take their technology to the next level.
- Through advanced training opportunities build on the willingness, ability and skill sets of both the current and future workforce.
- Ensure that the economic development delivery model is sustainable and can be replicated for other targeted industries and regions.
- Catalyze innovation through research, development and workforce preparedness that will sustain and improve the global competitiveness of Maine's boatbuilding, composites and marine trades industry.
Recognizing the realities of this changing regional economy, Governor John Elias Baldacci has established Maine's North Star Alliance Initiative. The North Star Alliance centers on three major industry associations: the Maine Composites Alliance, Maine Built Boats Inc, and the Maine Marine Trade Association, jointly representing over 285 companies across a wide range of manufacturing and service industries. Additional members include the University of Maine, the Maine Community College System, the Maine Technology Institute, Eastern Maine Development Corporation, the Maine Community Foundation, local and regional Workforce Investment Boards, the Governor's Office, and the State Departments of Labor, Economic and Community Development, and Education. Over $21 million in leveraged resources is brought to this project from these and other partners.
Of even greater interest is the collaboration of Maine's North Star alliance Initiative with Southern Maine Community College who has submitted a $2 million Community Based Job Training Grant. The grant will be used to establish a composites training facility in the Brunswick community, the site of the future base closing. Working in conjunction with the college in the process of creating the composites training curriculum is a world renowned composites training institution. NSAI has executed a letter of support in which the broad terms of the collaboration are outlined.
Currently, the Initiative management team is working with both USDOL ETA WIRED staff and several state agencies that already track many components necessary to document the Initiative's progress. A set of standards by which activity can be measured is currently being created. To this end, in addition to acquiring a more concise profile of the targeted industry sector, the management team is working in conjunction with the Workforce Pillar as well as industry representatives to conduct a business visitation with each individual company. An obvious benchmark will be employment and past revenues of each company prior to accessing assistance from the NSAI. Additionally, machinery and equipment costs associated with upgrading labor skill sets and the always desired value of non NSAI leveraging will be included. A major portion of the evaluation process will involve the standard activities associated with workforce development.
By matching benchmarks and standards to periodic monitoring, the management team will be able to better identify when and where the Initiative may be straying or ineffective in its efforts. These findings will then be brought back to the Executive Committee for further evaluation and then if necessary to the Steering Committee for revision. Until this activity is formalized in the near future, management team will continue to capture individual company profiles via a basic database while the Workforce Pillar team tracks individual activity via the already established Career Center system.
Maine's North Star Alliance management team is charged with identifying and then recommending to the Executive Committee a longterm strategy by which to continue the efforts of the Initiative after the grant has closed. To date, the following are just some of the activities being considered for the basis of Initiative continuity and will be built upon/replaced accordingly. This process will be ongoing through the end of the grant period. All NSAI partners will be solicited for their suggestions as well.
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