Category: Uncategorized

Engagement from business, community and early childhood leaders is key 

The Talent 2.0 Child Care Task Force is recommending seven ways to address the lack of affordable child care, which has been deemed a challenge employers face when attracting and retaining workers. These recommendations and more are in the report “Recommendations to Address the Need for Additional Affordable Child Care in Larimer County” released earlier this year.

Along with lack of affordable child care, the Talent 2.0 Regional Workforce Strategy (2017) also identified housing attainability and the cost of transportation as additional challenges employers face. The Talent 2.0 Child Care Task Force was formed in June 2018 to develop strategies that address the child care issue, identify changes to the current system and address the issue of child care gaps.

“This group of dedicated volunteers worked over a period of just six months to develop an extensive number of recommendations and strategies that can change the landscape of child care in Larimer County,” stated Mary Atchison, consultant at Yellow Wagon Leadership and facilitator of the Talent 2.0 Child Care Task Force. “These strategies, when implemented, will help businesses and families be more successful. They will also support the developmental needs of our children.”

Recommendations:

1. Establish a Larimer County Child Care Work Group, including strategic stakeholders from across the community, to continue the work of the Talent 2.0 Child Care Task Force and to implement the recommended strategies.
2. Recruit and retain a highly trained and qualified early care and education (ECE) workforce that is paid a competitive wage.
3. Educate and engage employers around the impact of child care on the workforce.
4. Collect and analyze updated data about the impact of child care on employment and families.
5. Conduct a public education campaign incorporating the results of data collection.
6. Broaden and develop new and diverse funding streams for all aspects of early care and education, including public, private and philanthropic resources.
7. As part of a comprehensive child care solution for children ages 0 – 5, continue to explore options to institute universal preschool across Larimer County utilizing existing providers and space to accommodate all 3 and 4-year-old students.

See the full report HERE

“This report was produced by a team of leaders within child care, government, education, and the business industry. The child care issue in Northern Colorado directly effects our economy and job growth,” said Eric Lea, Vice President / Branch Manager with Robert Half and serves on the Talent 2.0 Child Care Task Force. “We came away with some ideas that we need to continue to tackle (in order) to move the needle. I was honored to be a part of this working group and know if we bring the right people to the table we can show progress.”

Now that the report has been accepted by the Talent 2.0 Steering Committee, the Child Care Task Force will reconvene to determine the next steps that need to be taken to begin implementation of these recommendations. The goal is to partner with other interested groups and the business community to ensure that these recommendations move forward.

About Talent 2.0

Actively support employers in finding, attracting and retaining the talent they need by connecting regional employers with residents and residents with better economic opportunities. Visit www.nocotalent2.com

Talent 2.0 Partners

City of Fort Collins Economic Health Department
City of Loveland Economic Development Department
Fort Collins Area Chamber of Commerce
Larimer County Economic Development Department
Larimer County Workforce Center
Loveland Chamber of Commerce
Northern Colorado Economic Alliance
United Way of Larimer County

About Northern Colorado Prospers and Align, Attract and Retain Talent

Northern Colorado Prospers (NCP) is a five-year strategic initiative of the Fort Collins Area Chamber of Commerce designed to address four specific challenges facing business in Northern Colorado. Fix North I-25; Align, attract and retain talent; Bold voice of business and Retain and expand existing business. For more information, visit www.NorthernColoradoProspers.com

Goal 2: Align, Attract and Retain Talent

The region needs a dynamic labor market that provides employers with the workforce they need both today and in the future. More than ever before, successful communities will be those whose employers can find talent and whose residents can find jobs that let them work to their full potential. The Chamber will implement strategies to ensure a competitive advantage for area employees through quality workers and for area workers through quality jobs.

About the Fort Collins Area Chamber

The Fort Collins Area Chamber of Commerce is a local association of 1,250 businesses and organizations that care about the region’s future. The Chamber works to build our region’s future through business. The Chamber believes successful businesses make a strong local economy, which lets our community afford a great quality of life. To that end, the Chamber serves as a convener and cultivator of leaders and influencers, a catalyst for business growth and a champion for a balanced, resilient, thriving economy. For more information about the Chamber, call (970) 482-3746 or visit www.FortCollinsChamber.com.

LinkedIn just published its annual “Top Skills” list, which analyzes data across the professional social network in order to rank which skills are both in high-demand and low-supply.

The Microsoft-owned brand happens to be releasing the news at the turn of the new year as employees often start the year with resolutions to learn new skills and establish better work habits.

Specifically, these latest rankings address hard skills and “soft skills,” the latter of which can be translated to skills that cannot be replicated or performed via artificial intelligence. (So maybe your job isn’t prey to the robots just yet.)

Framed another way, these are the skills that employees could consider the most worth learning in 2019. LinkedIn Learning editor Paul Petrone wrote in a blog post this week that 57% of senior leaders on the platform today say soft skills are more critical to their businesses than hard skills.

At the same time, there are definitely spikes in job postings recruiting for prospective hires with specialized training and skills revolving around A.I. and cloud computing. That’s just the reality of the business world today. But LinkedIn suggests that digital workplaces are producing new needs and uses for “old” skill sets. Podcasts are a prime example of a digital medium growing exponentially relying on a number of established verticals, from audio production to marketing.

Here’s a rundown on the top five for each category, as defined by LinkedIn based on internal data.

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Working parents can get it done. They can get things done at work with kids to take care of on top of it. Packing lunches, school drop-offs and pickups, and sports practices to a non-parent seems nearly impossible to accomplish on their own, let alone with a full-time job to worry about.

One place where that isn’t always praised is at work, but it doesn’t have to be that way. While leniency is a fine line for parents versus non-parents, there are ways to be a better boss to working parents.

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Lab Development Funding Provided to Support the Much-Needed Addition of Industry Professionals to the Local Workforce

FORT COLLINS, Colo., Dec. 12, 2018— Advanced Energy Industries, Inc. (Nasdaq: AEIS), a global leader in highly engineered, precision power conversion, measurement, and control solutions and Front Range Community College (FRCC), Colorado’s largest community college, today announced a partnership to help fund the college’s new Center for Integrated Manufacturing(CIM).

AE will invest $200,000 in cash and equipment to fund the creation of the Advanced Energy Electronics Lab at the CIM. The 27,000 square-foot CIM facility will offer students a state-of-the-art lab and classroom facilities to enhance their learning experience, allowing them to gain a hands-on career understanding prior to entering the workforce full-time. In addition to this donation, AE will provide students internships, scholarships and job opportunities.

Meeting the Need

“There is a shortage of advanced manufacturing professionals in Colorado’s workforce,” said Andy Dorsey, president of Front Range Community College. “In partnerships with companies like Advanced Energy, we can educate skilled workers to help the state economy thrive.”

Around 6,000 manufacturers currently operate in Colorado, employing 5.5 percent of the state’s workforce. These companies also account for 93 percent of the state’s exports and 7.3 percent of the state’s Gross Domestic Product.

“Front Range Community College is committed to manufacturing and engineering technology,” said U.S. Senator Michael Bennet of Colorado, who visited manufacturer Hirsh Precision Products in Niwot with FRCC officials earlier this year. “Colorado is leading the way in encouraging high-quality career and technical education programs to train the next generation of workers for success in the 21st century.”

“I’m thrilled Advanced Energy is partnering with Front Range Community College to create the new high-tech Center for Integrated Manufacturing,” said U.S. Senator Cory Gardner of Colorado. “This partnership will provide the skills necessary to build a world-class manufacturing workforce right here in Colorado, and I’m excited to see the results of this new program. The need for a skilled workforce is something employers around Colorado talk about – this addresses the need.”

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Under the ‘Bold Voice of Business’ goal of Northern Colorado Prospers is a strategy to ‘maintain communications with the public that emphasizes the important of business to a strong quality of life.’ To that end, the Chamber has launched Bringing Business Home .

The focus of this public campaign is to create a greater awareness and understanding of the Fort Collins business community. By featuring Chamber members and their businesses, we hope to help make the connection between business success, economic vitality of the community, and our ability to afford great public quality of life amenities.

As defined in the campaign messaging, Northern Colorado is a special place. Natural beauty, great climate, excellent education, vibrant recreation-we’re privileged to have it all. Local employers make it possible for us to live and raise families here. You’ll find them nurturing community both within and outside their workplaces. Meet a group of proud Northern Coloradans committed to Bringing Business Home.

The Chamber’s campaign partner, Jet Marketing has helped capture and present these business stories. You will find them in the paper, online, on the radio and pictured on one of the most visible billboards in Fort Collins.

Help us emphasize the vital contribution business makes to the community by:

Fort Collins has been named one of the 2018 10 Best Places to Raise a Family by Livability.com.

To determine the 10 Best Places to Raise a Family, Livability’s data scientists first analyzed all U.S. cities with a population between 20,000 and 300,000 and weeded out places with high childcare costs and low Great Schools scores.

The list was created by cross-referencing 2018 city population estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau, Population Division with data from Great Schools, the Center for Neighborhood Technology, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation/University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute and the Institute of Museum and Library Services.

All in all, Livability data scientists and editors analyzed more than 2,000 cities based on the following criteria in order to determine the 2018 10 Best Places to Raise a Family:

• Number of potential playmates (percent of the population that is under age 6)
• Quality of public schools
• Measures of children’s health
• Affordability of housing and transportation options
• Cost of childcare
• Number of daycare options, parks and libraries
• Walkability and other factors related to the physical environment
• And, because we know what really matters to kids: the number of candy stores

And, finally, our editorial experts weighed in to give the list our Livability stamp of approval.

“This year’s Best Places to Raise a Family list highlights some famously family-friendly cities and some gems you might never have heard of,” says Winona Dimeo-Ediger, Livability.com’s Managing Editor. “To get to the heart of what makes a city great for families, we combined rigorous data collection and ranking criteria with personal testimonials from these cities’ most important residents: kids.”

About Livability.com:

Livability.com explores what makes small to mid-sized cities great places to live, work and visit. We examine issues such as affordability, cultural amenities and talent attraction, and celebrate the accomplishments of these cities through our monthly top 10 lists, our annual ranking of the Top 100 Best Places to Live, and daily articles exploring the who, what, why and how behind the “where.” Livability.com is a division of Journal Communications, Inc. 

The Chamber hosted the Northern Colorado Prospers (NCP) Quarterly Update during the morning of October 10 at the Ranch Bar & Grill at the Budweiser  Events Center.

More than 50 investors were in attendance to receive an update on progress being made on the region’s key challenges: transportation, labor force, business environment and retaining key employees.

The morning included an update on the creation of a regional talent portal and Susan Brake (Vice President for DCI)  provided insight into the Talent Attraction industry and how our efforts in Northern Colorado will fit into the nation-wide picture of Talent Attraction

Sandra Solin, Northern Colorado Legislative Alliance (NCLA) lobbyist, presented on the two transportation measures (Proposition  109 and Proposition 110) on the fall ballot. She also gave an update on North Interstate 25 projects and funding.

More updates and information can be found in the October 2018 Quarterly Update publication.

Northern Colorado Prospers (NCP) is a five-year strategic initiative of the Fort Collins Area Chamber of Commerce designed to address four specific challenges facing business in Northern Colorado. Fix North I-25; Align, attract and retain talent; Bold voice of business and Retain and expand existing business.

Photos courtesy of Zebrajellyfish Photography