PRESS RELEASE

Colorado Department of Labor and Employment •633 Seventeenth Street, Suite 1200 • Denver, CO 80202 •

(303) 318-8004 • Fax: (303) 318-8070

For Immediate Release

Date: April 6, 2007

Contact: Office of Government and Public Relations

Phone: (303) 318-8004

Fax: (303) 318-8070

Web: http://www.yourworkforcecenter.com/LeadvilleWFC.htm

PARTNERS IN LAKE COUNTY TEAM UP TO CREATE WORKFORCE NEEDS SURVEY

Leadville Workforce Center, Colorado Mountain College and Leadville/Lake County Chamber of Commerce need employer participation to gather information on training needs

(LEADVILLE) -- In a world where most information about the workforce is depicted in the broadest of averages, a new survey is being undertaken that will gather valuable insights that are specific to Leadville and Lake County. This survey of local businesses is being conducted by the Leadville Workforce Center, Colorado Mountain College (Timberline Campus) and the Leadville/Lake County Chamber of Commerce.

The list of businesses being asked to participate comes from the Chamber of Commerce membership list, the Workforce Center’s listing of employers and a list of regional businesses compiled by College Mountain College. Pulling from those databases, the survey will be sent to at least 225 employers in the Lake County area. Their responses will offer important insights to the region’s workforce and will assist in the development of training initiatives today and in the future.

“Through this survey, we hope to begin to develop an inventory of the workforce skill level in the community so that we can establish some benchmarking,” explains Carolyn Popovich of the Leadville Workforce Center. “A benchmark is a number you use to help put another number in context. It answers the pesky question: Compared to what? Now is the time to be thinking about benchmarks so that a year or two from now we can evaluate where we are compared to the past.

Hopefully, some skill gaps will have closed – but we can’t see how far we’ve come without accurate data about where we are today.”

In addition, she says, the survey will identify training needs that employers are calling critical in order to meet their future needs. “While it’s tempting to start and stop with the simplistic view of ‘skill levels down, bad; skill levels up, good,’ that level of analysis will not serve us well. Instead, we should evaluate where the skill gaps exist today and where they will likely exist in the near future. We will use the survey findings to develop an inventory of what type of skills will be required to better serve business owners now and five years out.”

Participating employers will also provide a brief sketch of their business today and into the foreseeable future. For instance, they will be asked how much staff they expect to lose in the next five years and where they expect their business to be during the same time span. Plotting out the future isn’t easy but a strategic approach to workforce planning is critical for Lake County’s future economic success.

Finally, the survey will be used to evaluate two resources available to business owners: Colorado Mountain College and the Leadville Workforce Center. “We want to know where we excel and where we have room for improvement,” Popovich says. “Are you aware of our services and have you used them in the past? Your candid and thoughtful replies will be used to assess the value of the training services we provide. We welcome your input.”

The survey the partners have developed isn’t time consuming to complete and the participation of business owners is crucial to ensuring that the results are an accurate reflection of the region. All information gathered through the survey will be kept strictly confidential, and no names or personal details will be released, nor will any information that could be used to identify a particular company.

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