Defining Work Ready

[share]Community leaders and stakeholders are making progress on a shared vision for workforce development in the Adams County region. The Adams County Workforce Initiative began in April 2013 when more than 40 area leaders gathered to discuss workforce issues and create a platform for continued collaboration. Much work has been done since that time to move workforce development forward.

Several key issues were identified during the April meeting and three teams were established to address the most critical of those issues.

  1. Career Guidance Team: Working with businesses to convey to individuals the career opportunities and earning potential available in the Adams County region
  2. Work Readiness Team: Developing work-ready citizens to become successful, productive members of the regional workforce
  3. Succession Planning Team: Ensuring that as workers retire, the knowledge of those retirees stays with local companies and within the community
2014 Essential Workplace Skills
Click to enlarge image.

All three groups have been meeting regularly and as a result of those meetings, have developed missions and goals specific to their area of workforce development.

Work Readiness Team

Activities of the Work Readiness Team include:

  • Develop and adopt a list of essential workplace skills and organize them into foundational, intermediate and advanced levels – completed
  • Partner with the Workforce Investment Board of Western Illinois to validate these essential skills by obtaining employer and agency endorsements – completed
  • Share the essential skills document with area agencies to ensure prospective employees are hearing the same work-ready message – ongoing
  • Identify ways for candidates to illustrate/validate their work-ready skills to employers – ongoing
  • Host a joint meeting with the Career Guidance team to present both teams’ plans to area employers

The Team unveiled its Essential Workplace Skills document during a press conference on Wednesday, August 27, 2014, as part of Illinois Workforce Development Week. It also shared a list of employers and agencies that have already endorsed the essential skills and made endorsement forms available to organizations interested in supporting the initiative. Employers or agencies interested in receiving a copy of the endorsement form may download a pdf here.

The Work Readiness Team will hold a series of workshops for agency representatives to provide a more in-depth introduction of the essential skills and how the Team will be promoting the skills, to those individuals working on the front lines of workforce placement and development. The schedule for the workshops is:

  • September 9, 9:00 am, Quincy Senior Center
  • September 17, 1:00 pm, John Wood Community College
  • September 25, 3:00 pm, Quincy Workforce Service Center 

Workshops will include resources to assist agencies when preparing job seekers, group discussion on the challenges and resources to help job seekers that often have barriers to seeking and keeping employment such as those job seekers with felonies, lack of child care, and transportation issues. For more information about these workshops, contact Howard Kirchner, Director of Workforce Development, Two Rivers Regional Council of Public Officials at 217.222.1560 x230.

The Adams County Workforce Initiative is being guided by a steering committee consisting of representatives from the Workforce Investment Board of Western Illinois, John Wood Community College, United Way of Adams County, Quincy University, West Central Region Education for Employment System #240, Quincy Public Schools, Vatterott College and the Great River Economic Development Foundation. Individuals interested in becoming a member of one of the workforce teams should contact Angela Caldwell at 217.223.4313 or caldwella@gredf.org.