Workforce and Economic Development

Working Together to Prepare The Workforce

There may be no more diverse and challenging field in continuing education than workforce development. Each institution seems to work with its own definition of workforce development. At one university it may be only a non-credit operation, only for-credit at another, based only in graduate level certificates, or workforce development may be administered as a hybrid of all of these.

Some of us operate under the umbrella of professional development, covering both leadership and workforce development programs and services, and perhaps including technology training. Of course, from one area of the country to another, workforce development is driven by the size and unique characteristics of each business community or by the nature of government-sponsored initiatives.

UCEA's Workforce Development Community of Practice (CoP) provides opportunities for CE professionals and their institutions to understand how their workforce education and training programs are shaped by employment trends, by the skill needs of a local or regional workforce, by the habits and practices of employers in each community, and by the economy itself. This CoP brings together leadership and/or workforce continuing education professionals for the purpose of sharing ideas, understanding trends, assessing needs and establishing competencies, engaging in benchmarking studies, building partnerships, recognizing best practices, and mentoring those new to the field. Here is where the concept of synergy is demonstrated at its best, for we make genuine efforts to communicate and share in ways that make each of us more effective, more successful.

You'll benefit from the following activities as a member of the Workforce Development Community of Practice:

Share resources and discuss issues on the UCEA Member Forum's Workforce Development messages boards and libraries.
Exchange information via email with CE workforce development colleagues throughout the country.
Attend the annual Workforce Development Forum in January where you will learn the latest on current workforce trends, share best practices and new workforce development marketing/management ideas, as well as network and exchange ideas with other colleagues or mentor with experienced workforce development professionals.
Attend other UCEA conferences and meetings that will enhance your abilities to recognize and respond to emerging markets and other new opportunities, to broaden your perspective on your chosen profession, as well as to manage your responsibilities more successfully.
Enhance your own workforce development efforts by using ideas and resources made available to you by colleagues in other areas of the country.
Discover the advantages of partnering with other institutions and organizations to propose and/or develop projects together.
Participate in Workforce Development CoP projects designed to provide you with useful information for your own operations, valuable resources, stimulating discussions with colleagues, and motivating ideas.
Nominate your institution for programming excellence awards.
Receive publications from UCEA on news, trends and pertinent information concerning continuing education.

Members of this Community are concerned with:

Tracking employment trends
Benchmarking
Forging educational partnerships
Assessing needs and establishing core workplace competencies
Designing workforce learning using diverse delivery modes

For further information on this CoP, please contact one or both of the co-chairs of the Workforce Development Community of Practice:

Andrew Billingsley at andrew_billingsley at ncsu.edu or Brian Vollmert at bvollmert at niu.edu.

For information concerning membership in UCEA, please contact Cyrus Homayounpour, Director of Membership, at 202.659.3130 or cyrus@ucea.edu.