I had the pleasure of participating in a webinar last month hosted by the Patrick Bertagnolli with the Rough Rider Center in Watford City and Deb Nelson with Vision West. We were one of 6 panelists that talked about different approaches to preparing students for their future, how to get people the training they need for success in certain roles, and tools that help employers prepare for the workforce. We were thrilled to be part of the panel that included Microsoft, the Emerging Digital Academy, Be More Colorful, Omnibyte Technologies, and the NDSU Nice Center.
I had a few observations from the meeting that came to light:
- There are so many individuals that are passionate about helping developing future workforce, regardless of how they are coming at the issue. There were school personnel who are working with students on developing skills they need for success, economic development leaders trying to figure out how to help their companies get set up for future growth, and employers exploring new ways of building their workforce. The trick is getting everyone to work more efficiently together, something we’re specifically trying to do at Golden Path.
- Technology is increasingly become a career enabler – whether it be developing a career in tech through coding (what Emerging Digital Academy is trying to do) or using technology to drive career awareness (i.e. Be More Colorful using Virtual Reality to educate students) & skill development (the NICE Center teaching Entrepreneurship or Microsoft teaching Project Management or Business Analysis skills through LinkedIn Learning), technology is become a big enabler. It’s exciting how each of the panelists had some technology component central to what they were trying to do.
- When the collaboration works well, it can drive amazing results. Ray Berry’s story at Omnibyte Technology was impressive in how he used interns to develop the software his company sells – not only did he find resources to help him build his product, but he gave students an amazing real-world experience and hired a few of them. Truly a win/win.
The cool thing about this webinar is it also demonstrated how we can all work together to solve problems, and also how some of the workforce development challenges we face have a regional component, but often they have the same core need – get the right person with the right skill set the right education and hook them up with the right company so everyone wins. We at Golden Path are excited to continue working with the panelists and how we can leverage their solutions to help create the next wave of rock stars, as well as leaders in the western part of the state on how we can help drive their success!
If you missed the webinar and want to hear the recording or review presentations, please go to https://bit.ly/32vrV22. You can also find contact information with each of our panelists in the document attached to this post.