Southwestern PA sees a worker shortage coming...Time to recruit young people Thursday, November 14, 2002 Southwestern Pennsyvania is moving to put young people high on the economic development agenda. In a report released today, the Task Force on Young People, organized by the Allegheny Conference on Community Development focused on an issue that many other regions will start to experience: a projected shortage of workers as Baby Boomers retire. To address the issue, the Task Force believes that southwestern Pennsylvania needs to engage in a sustained, focused, regional effort to make southwestern Pennsylvania a location of choice for young people. Read more. Go The report echoes a good deal of Richard Florida's work on "the creative class". A similar effort is underway in Memphis with the chamber's Talent Magnet strategy. Among the other recommendations: -- Making attracting and retaining youth the top priority for the region by establishing a "Next Generations Consortium." -- Give high priority and high profile to fostering a commitment to diversity by creating a "CEO Roundtable on Diversity" and by encouraging a culture of diversity. Advancement and leadership opportunities for people of color, women, and New Americans is also important, and measures of their roles should be created and tracked. -- Create ongoing means to collect views of young people about southwestern Pennsylvania and use that data to inform community and economic development projects. -- Focus on utilizing the full value of our colleges and universities by building greater, coordinated partnerships between them and with the business community for curriculum development, internships, and recruitment. -- Create a more coordinated and aggressive effort for recruitment of young people to the region. -- Review all existing economic development and infrastructure plans (particularly transportation) using a "youth lens" for possible reprioritization. posted by Ed Morrison |		This work is licensed under a Creative Commons License. links Some Background on EDPro Weblog The purpose of this weblog is to help economic development professionals -- EDPros -- keep up with the changes sweeping our profession. Strap on your goggles. It's a whole new game. There are no experts any more. The only place to learn about economic development is from other EDPros who are doing it. One other point: the prevaling approach (paradigm, if you like) in economic development is shifting from competition to collaboration. There are a lot of reaasons underlying this shift, but here's the important insight: You, your community, and your region will do better by collaborating and sharing information. So, spread the word...Share the knowledge. Tell a friend about EDPro Weblog. If you are using a news reader, here is the link to syndicate this site: Here's the link if you are a bloglines subscriber: Speaking and workshops on Open Source Economic Development As the idea of Open Source Economic Development starts spreading, more people are asking about it. Visit the I-Open web site to learn more. My colleagues and I are happy to explain the basic concepts in a talk or a workshop. E-mail Susan Alshuler if you'd like to learn more about workshops and speaking. Background on Ed Morrison Download some background information on me here.

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