The Blog

Eleni Papadakis, Executive Director, Workforce Training & Education Coordinating Board

11/03/10

With more than 300,000 Washingtonians unemployed and looking for work, no job should go unfilled. Yet a recent survey of employers found that 6 percent had such a hard time finding qualified applicants, they left the job empty. At least 11,000 jobs went unfilled in our state when so many are desperate for work.

The Workforce Board identifies high-demand fields and works with our education and training system to ensure we have the ability to train more people for these jobs. While this is important work, there’s another approach that helps people fill jobs and generates new openings.

Every day, entry-level employees come to work and do their job well. Employers could look to these entry-level employees to fill more difficult positions. By “up-skilling” reliable employees with more training, the employer creates jobs that can be backfilled by entry-level applicants.

This grow-your-own strategy is gaining momentum in Washington’s health care field, an area that faces a shortage of skilled workers. By forging partnerships among employers, the education sector and labor organizations, workers are getting the skills they need to enter this expanding field. For example, a $5 million grant from the U.S. Department of Labor, administered by the Workforce Board, is making it possible for janitors, food handlers and clerical staff at health care facilities to connect to higher demand and higher skills jobs, such as nursing and medical assistants. As these front-line workers move up, their original jobs become available to fresh hires.

As Washington continues its pioneering work in creating these learning laboratories, all of us benefit — workers, employers and our economy.