Finger Lakes Region Works to Attract Job Talent

By ANDREA DECKERT
Rochester Business Journal

Ontario County officials have talked repeatedly about the number of high-tech jobs soon to be available in the region, including ones at the Infotonics Technology Center Inc. in Canandaigua and Cornell Agriculture & Food Technology Park Corp. in Geneva.

Officials now are showing students and other job seekers what types of jobs will exist and what they can do to prepare for them.

Local leaders have helped create a leafy-tree model-a diagram-of jobs soon to be available at both sites with the goal of growing, attracting and retaining a talented work force in the Finger Lakes.

Karen Springmeier, executive director of the Finger Lakes Workforce Investment Board Inc., said the model provides youths with job opportunities available in their own backyards.

A project team from Syracuse University, along with the local parties, worked to develop the model. A grant from the state Department of Labor paid for the work.

The group first met in 2003 and included representatives from both business parks, economic development leaders and representatives from local educational institutions.

Career decisions start as early as junior high school, Springmeier said. Her agency is spearheading the effort and helps employers in Ontario, Seneca, Wayne and Yates counties find and train workers.

The model gives people a visual of a long-term career progression pathway in high-growth and high-wage industries. The model shows career opportunities, job responsibilities, salary ranges and education, work and skills requirements.

Officials say the beauty of the model is that both tech centers start with the same core base of math and science-which make up the trunk of the tree-but then branch out to different areas of expertise. The jobs then can be pursued based on a student's or worker's interest, Springmeier said.

The jobs range from those that can be obtained with a high school diploma-such as a packaging or maintenance technician-up to a research scientist with a Ph.D. The leafy tree will be enlarged into a floor-to-ceiling poster and placed in schools.

Now that the model has been created, the next step is to work with local school districts and local colleges and technical schools to help get the skills needed for the jobs in the workplace.

Springmeier thinks the time is right to push the model, noting that people are coming to live in the Finger Lakes and the economy is somewhat stable.

The tree focuses on young people, but the agency also is targeting transitional older workers who may have been laid off by larger companies or taken an early retirement but still are looking for some work, she said.

The model received positive response when Springmeier presented it to the state Workforce Investment Board.

Michael Manikowski, executive director of the Ontario County Office of Economic Development and Industrial Development Agency, said the leafy-tree model further promotes the culture of entrepreneurship developing in the region.

Instead of leaving the area to pursue high-tech, good-paying jobs, young people can do so here, he said.

Anne Tinker, director of human resources at the Infotonics Center, said the model gives students important information related to careers in an easy-to-understand way.

It also shows them a variety of jobs needed at the high-tech sites. "When people hear 'research and development,' they often think 'scientists,'" Tinker said. "But there are so many more (types of workers) needed to run the (Infotonics) Center."

Using the model as an educational tool should encourage youths to stay interested in math, science and technology. The model, coupled with programs such as the Infotonics Center's science camp for youths, helps show them science can be "interesting, fun and intriguing," Tinker said.

Daniel Fessenden, executive director of the Ag & Food Tech Park, said the park's involvement with the local Workforce Investment Board is to establish a "pipeline full of well-trained, local and highly motivated (workers)" to help companies in the agricultural, food science and bio-based industries that do business here compete in a global marketplace.

"If we do this right, the technology-oriented jobs we are creating today will be sustainable for years to come," Fessenden said. "The beauty is if we can be proficient at developing initiative-and even disruptive-technologies we won't be in a race to the bottom line. We'll have the luxury of being able to set the bar at new heights.

"I'm hopeful our work with WIB will help inspire students to recognize and accept this exciting challenge."