Editor’s Note: “The Economic Development Side” originally appears in the Pine Bluff Regional Chamber of Commerce’s weekly member e-newsletter. It is written by Rhonda Dishner, the Economic Development Alliance’s executive assistant.
There is a lot of media attention today about the critical need for a skilled workforce for industry — locally, regionally, nationally and globally.
Reports say that this need exists because the current, incoming labor force is frequently lacking in the most basic knowledge (including soft skills also known as people skills) as well as a work ethic. And because older, baby boom workers with the key experience and training are retiring in large numbers. And because jobs of the future will require technical skills not required of previous generations.
But Alliance President Lou Ann Nisbett heard at a recent Little Rock forum that the future workforce is actually in child care today. In fact, “Your Future Workforce is in Child Care Today” was a topic of one session of the “Engaging the Workforce of Today, Developing the Workforce of Tomorrow” gathering of state leaders that was held Sept. 26 at the Clinton Presidential Center.
The “conversation” was convened by the Good 2 Great Initiative: Arkansas Advocates for Children and Families, Arkansas Community Foundation, Arkansas Public Policy Panel, and Arkansas State University.
Independent reporting for Pine Bluff & Jefferson County since 1879.
All the program panelists discussed, in some form, the importance of education in a child’s first five years. Program hand-outs also stressed that development of problem-solving and soft skills necessary for later career success are developed in those early years. One panel even emphasized this early education as “an essential component in a community’s infrastructure.”
With the Alliance’s long-standing focus on workforce development, Nisbett is working on several local initiatives aimed at improving adult proficiency and increasing worker certifications. Because of this focus, she is often invited to meetings related to enhancing the workforce. That’s why she attended the Little Rock forum.
The importance of education is an established fact. But, to Nisbett, this identification of the early childhood “workforce” was another dimension entirely. And reason to appreciate the statewide leaders who are advancing public and private programs for K-12 quality improvement efforts.
We’re told that workforce members of tomorrow are learning today. We just hadn’t realized that some of them are still in preschool.
(Suggested simple educational tool: Early verbal interaction with a child, such as reading books.)