One of the county’s goals from its Economic Development Strategic Plan is to collaborate with public agencies and private partners to help economic growth throughout the county.

 

In recent weeks, Assistant Administrator Dan Weber and Commissioner Rachel Leonard have been meeting with representatives from the Minnesota School of Business, Central Minnesota Jobs & Training Services, the City of Elk River, the Amborn and Decklan Groups and the Elk River Chamber.

 

Their goal is to find ways to link education, business and resources to encourage innovation and workforce education to provide individuals with the skills they need to achieve their goals and build growing economic communities in the future.

 

“There are a lot of people retiring, a lot of competition for jobs,” Weber told the county board at a workshop in July, “and a lot of people are saying they’re having trouble finding employees. 

 

“We’ve been working with the MN School of Business, CMJTS and some of the local business people to come up with some solution.”

 

Mike Zdychnec, Executive Program Director for Healthcare Management at MN School of Business, said finding competent workers is a problem.

 

“One of the biggest economic development issues we’re going to be facing as a county, a state and also as a country is the development of our workforce,” he said.

 

“One of the things I’ve found in the workforce today, even though we have a relatively low unemployment rate, we still have a mismatch with the skills that are available and the jobs that are going to be available. Education of the workforce is going to be absolutely critical for economic development. This is not just simply an education issue.”

 

Zdychnec said there are already training programs for workers, but there isn’t a coordinated effort with the business community to make sure that training leads to economic growth in the future.

 

“What are we trying to accomplish? Instead of just throwing classes out there, we need to come to grips with why this is important in the first place,” he said. “It’s very similar to healthcare. It’s very fragmented. People are doing their own things, but they aren’t coming together with a common mission.”

 

Zdychnec said many businesses are not aware of what they need to keep growing and competing in the future. That includes continually educating their employees and learning more about their own industry. 

 

“Critical thinking, problem-solving, collaboration, initiative, curiosity, entrepreneurship, imagination, how to analyze information, trying to create an environment where new business ideas can be created and flourish in the community,” he said. 

 

Zdychnec said he visited Germany last year and had a chance to observe their education system. Apprenticeship was an integral part of their business economy.

 

“Now that model would never work in the U.S., but they’ve got some very key foundations that I think will work,” he said, “educating kids much earlier, getting employers much more involved in the education process.”

 

He said the current eduction system isn’t designed to prepare kids for the business community in the future.

 

“We all know from an educational perspective, we need to do a better job of preparing, and not just memorizing things in the classroom,” he said. “How does it apply to the work world? How does it apply to my life? How is it relevant to my life?”

 

Weber said one of the first things the group would like to do is use up to $10,000 in economic development funds to sponsor a series of workforce development classes throughout the year. The funds would be used to pay instructors. Weber said he figured it would cost between $1,500 and $2,000 a class for five to six classes.

 

“The instructors will do research on what they’re looking for and have curriculum designed specifically for those people,” he said. “They’ll take care of all the materials.”

 

Commissioner Rachel Leonard said she believed it would help local businesses.

 

“A lot of small businesses need a little help ,” she said. “Whether they’ll come or not is another question.”

 

Commissioner John Riebel asked if there were already similar classes out there.

 

“Does the workforce Center have anything like this?” he asked.

 

Weber said they do have different programs.

 

“That’s why they’re on the committee - so we don’t duplicate our efforts,” he said. “We want to create programs that aren’t already out there. That’s why we have a wide representation on the committee.”

 

The proposal for “EduBiz” will come before the commissioners in August for final approval.