Specialized Studies of Need & Opportunities for ICT Careers
Assessing Employer Needs, Industry Trends, Workforce Status.

Outcomes

• Understanding industry and workforce needs. A thorough assessment of local industry, local workforce, local education system, and industry trends, as the basis for an IT workforce development program.
• Job identification. Identifies high-demand industry jobs, entry-level jobs, and skills and education required.
• Establish workforce resources and capabilities: Inventory of training programs, public employment resources and local workforce capacity, to determine what additional services may be needed.
• Collaboration. Fully engages industry in its own development in collaboration with industry, government and educational institutions and community-based organizations.
• Catalyst in industry growth. An effective, well-informed intermediary (ICT expert) can be catalytic in growing the local industry.

Study Objectives

• Industry Assessment: Identifies the demand for jobs in the ICT field, nationally, regionally and locally.
• Occupational Profiles:
• Defines specific “high demand” jobs within the industry, job skills and educational requirements related to those jobs.
• Identifies entry level jobs, job qualifications, and career pathways.
• Workforce Assessment: Assesses the capacity of the local workforce to meet industry labor demands; includes basic demographic information.
• Education Assessment: Inventories existing public (K-20), private and technical education and training programs to see which programs would prepare students to fit prospective IT jobs, and which programs might be needed to fill the gaps.
• Assessment of the Local Workforce System. An assessment of existing public employment system (CalWorks, Workforce Investment Agencies) to determine if these are actively or effectively working in the IT industry and what gaps (if any) need to be filled.
• Ongoing data analysis. Ongoing primary and secondary data collection and analyses, to stay current.

Organizational Prerequisites

• Technical expertise in manipulation and analysis of economic databases.
• Research access to existing studies and market data.
• Survey development, administration and follow up.
• For data gathering: Students and/or community staff or volunteers to ask survey questions and follow up, by phone and/or door-to-door.

Other ways to obtain the information

• Contract with college/community college, a CBO experienced with Labor Market Studies, or a private agency to do the study
• Ask City or County agency to do a study that may be accessed by the CBO.
• Use existing Labor Market Studies from national and local agencies.
• Get faculty and student assistance from the local college/community college.
• Involve City/college/community college/industry in a collaborative to develop a local study.
• Neighborhood Asset Mapping – a process involving the local community in assessing needs, resources and opportunities.

Challenges

For the Organization

• Technical expertise in manipulation and analysis of economic databases.
• Support and resources necessary to complete and evaluate local surveys.
• Positive relationship with the local business community.
• Survey responses from local residents.

Elements of Success

• Minimum requirements: Hire staff or consultant with documented experience in organizing and conducting a labor market study; proven technical expertise in manipulation and analysis of economic databases.
• Minimum time to allocate to this project:3 months.
• Minimum support staff: experienced Project Director (staff or consultant) (1 FTE for 3 months); Admin Assistant (1 FTE for 3 months), 5+ (depending on size of community) community volunteers or students to do surveys (0.5 FTE for 3 weeks); board members or organizational leadership involved in industry interviews (1-2 hours/interview),
  Other needed: relationships with local leaders in the IT industry; worksource system, educational system.

COLLABORATIONS

• Corporations.
• Foundations.
• Government local.
• State.
• Federal.
• Community College.
• Other nonprofits.
• ndividuals.
• Local Business.

SOURCES OF FUNDING

Contributed

• Corporations.
• Foundations.
• Government.
• local (city/county.)
• State.
• Federal.
• Individuals.

Earned income

• Fees (contract.)