While the Economy Slides, Demand Grows for Skilled Workforce

It’s amazing that even in our current period of economic decline there are still segments of the economy that are struggling to find skilled workers.  Here’s an example of an innovative partnership in Alabama designed to grow the supply of welders, pipefitters, and other skilled craftsmen.

The craft trades of welders, electricians, pipe fitters, steelworkers, plumbers and insulators, to name a few, have been good jobs until the recent recession. The average skilled tradesman is in his or her 40s or 50s and that’s the driving force behind the unusual cooperation between unions and non-union employers.

“This has been a perfect fit for the (contractors and unions) working on this project and we’re raising a lot of eyebrows working together,” said Leroy Nicholson, director of the Alabama AFL-CIO Labor Institute for Training. “You have to change the way of thinking and work together if you’re going to survive.”

 ClearTrend has been a leader in helping organization establish partnerships to solve workforce challenges.  Our skill set includes identifying stakeholders and funding sources, aligning workforce knowledge and skills with technical training and college degree programs, and helping leaders build the business case to invest in human capitol.

ClearTrend LLC Files Provisional Patent for Innovative Workforce Analysis Technique

This is great news!  This week we took a big step forward in formalizing our Workforce System Simulation process.  In preparing our patent application we received advice from many our our friends and colleages in industry and in the academic community.

The provisional patent applicaiton is titled “A System and Method for Modeling and Analyzing Workforce Systems Using Dynamic Simulations.”

Here’s the first paragraph of the abstract: 

“Workforce problems are analyzed and needs such as workforce development, hiring, training, promoting and transferring workers are quantified and forecasted using workforce system models that allow dynamic simulation of multiple scenarios to derive optimal strategies.  The model for a given workforce includes input and output of people through the system, the “flow” of people within the system, and constraints on movement and advancement.  Models allow simulating various “what if” scenarios to identify probable results of workforce plans, decisions, strategies, and external forces acting on the system.