Train The Work Force And The Good Jobs Will Come To Spokane

If Spokane invests in superior technical education, and if the education and business sectors collaborate to turn out top-quality, quickly trainable, readily adaptable workers, the good jobs will come.

That is ensured by the high quality of the community’s existing work force and cherished quality of life, according to a new study of the Spokane economy.

But both the quality of the work force and the quality of life will suffer if Spokane’s technical education system falls short.

Without better-paying jobs, the economy and in turn the entire community will stagnate and fall behind - not just the jobless and working poor but taxpayers and businesses, too.

“Spokane is at a point in its economic history where it must decide to grow and prosper or languish and become a third-tier city,” says a report on the study.

The four-month, $60,000 analysis was performed by The Pace Group of Tupelo, Miss., for the Spokane Area Economic Development Council.

The study underscores these needs:

Develop a quality work force educated and trained to compete at the global level.

Elect visionary leaders.

Focus “high-impact recruiting” on quality employers in a fast-changing business environment, as opposed to a scattergun approach. A list of 500 target companies is included.

The study examined dozens of state and local factors that businesses on the move consider. The Spokane work force gets an “A” for quality, an “A” for cost, an “A” for work ethic, but a “C ” for skills.

Quality of life and quality of the environment both rate “A’s.” Most other factors get a “B” - crime rate, highway system, air service, health care costs, worker training, local business climate, etc.

There are no grades in the report card below “C” and only three of those - the state business climate, the tax structure and, as noted above, the skills of the work force in Spokane.

The private-sector leadership is “energized” to act, according to the study.

Unfortunately, the report says, “The general quality of public leadership is a serious problem and requires attention. Visionary, cooperative public leadership will be essential for the community to succeed in the future.”

Indeed, there is no “sense of future” in Spokane, concluded Steve Jenkins, senior vice president, after interviewing more than 120 key business and civic representatives.

The consultant said it’s necessary to look at the “negatives” as well as the positives to chart an effective course of community action. As things stand now:

There are 16,000 to 32,000 workers in Spokane who are underemployed.

Wages are below the state, regional and national levels.

Poverty exceeds the state, regional and national levels.

For all that, the report indicates, the future can be bright - but only if Spokane acts to make it so. The community and its leaders must view change as an opportunity, as an ally, instead of a threat.

Momentum, the business-funded economic enhancement effort, has “stablilized” the economy, says analyst Jenkins. Now the economy must be elevated to a new high level of activity - “for everybody.” Wages must be raised “to create new wealth in the community.”

To accomplish this, Spokane must “assume the risk” of investing in technical education for jobs that currently don’t even exist - but will come if the work skills are available.

“I believe you will see billion-dollar plants, especially in electronics, become obsolete in five years and replaced by automation,” said Jenkins. Hence, instead of a few large industrial employers, he’d rather see Spokane land a lot of smaller plants.

Above all else, a quality, well-educated workforce is essential.

“Spokane has a variety of educational providers, yet cooperation and collaboration is not at the level to take full advantage of the resources,” says the Pace report. “There must be effective communication between the education and business communities, then action to back up the communciation.

“This is not a matter of one sector telling the other how to operate,” say the consultants. “It is an effort to create ‘collaborative cooperation’ to increase the quality of the workforce.”

The report recommends the establishment of a Workforce Development Council composed of educational “providers,” business “end users,” representatives from economic development organizations, and labor.

Super suggestion.

, DataTimes MEMO: Associate Editor Frank Bartel’s column appears on Monday, Wednesday and Sunday.

The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = Frank Bartel The Spokesman-Review