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EMPLOYER FOCUS GROUP FOR

CBIRD COMMUNITIES CAREER LADDER SYSTEM

Notes from Meeting Hosted by Cameron Works, Inc.

7 a.m. Tuesday, September 17, 2002

Valley International Country Club, Las Fuentes Room, Brownsville

This focus group was held at the above time and place with the following individuals participating:

AFLAC Joe De Pasqual and Aurora M. Mark

Admin Plus Home Health Frances V. Saldana

American Investigations Pilar Carrizales and Dan Flores

Brownsville Area Manufacturers Association Ruben N. Vega

Brownsville Chamber Frank Feild

Brownsville Independent School District Rogerio V. Arredondo

Brownsville Medical Center Kathy Jo Almendarez, Carolyn Bockins, and

John Schwarz

Brownsville Public Utilities Board Ana I. Castro and Rick Luna

Brownsville Surgical Hospital Mariana Ayala

Cameron Works, Inc. Stella Garcia and Maria Elena G. Ramirez

City of Brownsville Henry Gonzalez

El Jardin Water Supply Corporation Gale Armstrong

Fiesta Pages Jerry Rodriguez

Los Fresnos CISD Shannon Milum

Lucio Pest Control Santana Lucio, Jr.

Roy Garcia Insurance Claudia P. Garza

South Texas Vo-Tech Terri Carrejo

Southern Union Gas Letty Gonzales

Tech Prep of the Rio Grande Valley, Inc. Patricia G. (Pat) Bubb

Texas Workforce—BSU Rosalinda Zarate and Jose Palacios

Texas Workforce Center Minnie Lucio, Iracema Banda, and

Manuela Nunez

Transforma Marine

Manuela Perez

University of Texas at Brownsville and Margie Mancillas and Hector Quintanilla*

Texas Southmost College

University of Texas-Pan American S. J. Sethi, Ph.D.

*Also with BAMA, Cameron Works, and Tech Prep RGV

Hector Quintanilla, meeting chair, welcomed everyone to the meeting. Quintanilla addressed the group in the various roles he represented—as President of the Brownsville Area Manufacturers’ Association, as Vice President of the Cameron Works Board, as a member of the Tech Prep RGV Board, and as an employee of UTB/TSC.

Pat Bubb presented an overview of the CBIRD Communities Career Ladder system envisioned for this region and also shared the way in which Tech Prep currently shares labor market information with students, parents, and educators.

S. J. Sethi gave an explanation of the development of the draft lists of targeted industries and occupations presented to the group for discussion.

Participants then broke into small groups and discussed the questions presented. After discussions, the small groups reported to the larger group about their findings. Those reports, and written comments shared during the meeting, are as shown below.

1. Would your organization benefit from the database planned for the Career Ladder system? Why or why not?

Yes, it would benefit to know what kind of jobs are out there and what kind of candidates are available.

It would also benefit to know if we could find out how many of the graduates intend to stay in the Valley after high school and/or college.

A hospital representative indicated he would be interested in the availability of nurses. He would be willing to allow nurses on his staff to take an on-line test so as to enter their skills into a database for matching skills of job applicants against those nurses’ skills. There are, however, confidentiality concerns. The individual speaking indicated that he would not want to give his employees time on the job to take a test, so that their skills could be matched against those of potential applicants, and then have those employees themselves become listed in the database to be hired by others. There were discussions of concerns about security of employees. Taking away the element of possibly creating a recruiting tool for somebody else, it seems to be a good idea—having a skills match for somebody to be able to assess himself or herself. The consensus in this small-group discussion was that if a skills-match database is put together, incumbent workers whose skills are entered into the database should do so anonymously, so that there would be no possibility of those workers’ being recruited by others.

2. What changes to the CBIRD Career Ladder system design would this group recommend?

The following information, if added to the design, would benefit the employers and job seekers:

1. Add information on what basic skills are needed for a job.

2. Add information on industry and occupation projections.

3. Add a brief description on every company mentioned in the database.

4. Put educational pieces for young job seekers on “how kids can plan for the future,” “how to handle money/credit cards,” “basic skills employers are looking for,” etc.

5. Add a list of experts on the database who can answer questions on their professions and/or make presentations to school children about their professions.

Comment/Question: How do you plan to publicize this database to the public at large?

It needs to target high schools and counselors. Career counseling for students needs to be improved. As an example, one individual cited the case of her own daughter, who graduated with a college degree and is now working at a Gap store.

3. Do the listings of targeted industries and targeted occupations reflect the needs that participating employers are experiencing in their businesses?

The majority of the occupations on this list are already the targeted occupations for Cameron County.

Also see answers to question 4, below.

4. Are there any industries and occupations that are in demand that do not appear on the lists? If “yes,” please provide information.

Occupations that were suggested for inclusion:

1. Heavy Equipment Operators

2. Home Health Attendants

3. Security Officers

4. Private Investigators

5. Sales Representatives, General

6. Operations in the Printing/Press Industry

7. Industrial Electricians—they need both electrical and industrial background.

8. Vector Control (Pest Control) Technician

9. Sales representatives/associates

10. Landscapers

11. Warehousing and Logistics Management

5. What changes to the listings of targeted industries and targeted occupations would this group recommend?

See answers to question 4, above.

6. What are the top reasons that employers cannot fill positions? What are the largest shortcomings of the employers’ current workforce? Where is the employed population weak in its skills?

Employers cannot fill positions because:

1. There are not enough qualified people.

2. Job seekers do not have interviewing skills; they don’t know how to carry themselves.

3. It is hard to get the right “fit” (right person for the right job)

4. Better-prepared job applicants are needed.

Comment: In the old days there were programs at school where kids were given training on how to write resumes, interview, dress up, etc. Something similar needs to be given more importance at both the school and college level.

It is hard to place people at low pay. Starting at minimum wage is difficult. There was a discussion of the fact that many minimum-wage positions are entry-level positions in large firms and that the salary structure is not going to change because it would impact all of the rest of the salaries paid at this employer’s place of business.

Number of positions is a factor. The budget is such that they will not be allowed to hire some no matter what. Hospitals need the two- and four-year degrees. On the RNs and Radiologic Technicians, they will train. They tend to see more in the clerical part. The positions are not there. It is usually in clerical positions.

At one private vocational-technical school in Brownsville, they get students with 4^th or 6^th grade writing skills.

BISD is the largest employer.

Lack of basic skills is a factor.

Comment: (This individual was speaking as a former executive director of a boys’ and girls’ club who now works in human resources.) Counselors are key! Counselors are having to do too much paperwork. They do not have the opportunity to see the kids. (A discussion of school counselors followed.) There was a recommendation to ask a company to designate one person to come over and give talks—talk to the kids about how much they could make in that job. If all high school students would get an aptitude test as they exit high school, that would be good.

7. What are some high-turnover positions and skills?

Security Officers – they leave as they are offered higher-paying jobs by Border Patrol and other organizations.

8. (a) How many companies have developed internal career ladders?

Four employers said that they had developed internal career ladders.

One hospital representative indicated the hospital did not have an internal career ladder, but was thinking about one.

The retail stores and call centers do have internal career ladders.

(b) Of the companies that have developed career ladders, how many have shared that information with their employees so that employees can see the opportunities that exist within the companies?

All four have shared that information with their employees.

(c) Of the companies that have internal career ladders, do those companies have training programs that help workers move up on those career ladders?

Yes, all four have training programs that help workers move up on those career ladders.

In closing, Quintanilla asked the group to contact Tech Prep staff if they had any additional ideas. He pointed out that this is only one of seven focus groups that will be held throughout this region, that data-gathering will continue. After expressions of thanks, the meeting was adjourned.

EMPLOYER FOCUS GROUP FOR

CBIRD COMMUNITIES CAREER LADDER SYSTEM

Notes from Meeting Hosted by Harlingen Area Chamber of Commerce

9 a.m. Wednesday, September 25, 2002

Chamber Board Room, Harlingen, Texas

This focus group was held at the Harlingen Area Chamber of Commerce with the following individuals participating:

ADTECH Zeferino Vega

Cameron Works, Inc. Mary Cruz, Nelda Torres-Najera, and

Maria Elena G. Ramirez

IC2 Institute, UT-Austin, and Abdu Megateli

CBIRD-TRAC

Harlingen Area Chamber of Commerce John Crutchfield, John Phillips, and Randy Seitz

Harlingen Chamber Education Committee Bob Johnston

Rio Hondo ISD Anneliese McMinn and Elda Garza

San Benito CISD Celeste Sanchez (also representing boards of Tech

Prep RGV and Cameron Works) and Delia Weaver

Santa Maria ISD Alfonso Medina

Tech Prep of the Rio Grande Valley Pat Bubb

Texas State Technical College Harlingen J. Gilbert Leal, Ph.D., and Stephen M. Vassberg

(both also representing Tech Prep RGV Board)

Robert Stelzer

Texas State Technical College System Rich Morris

Texas Workforce Centers Frank Cazares, Manuela Nunez, Nora McKinney

Tyco Valves Mack Garza

John Crutchfield, Chamber President, welcomed everyone to the meeting.

Gilbert Leal, who chaired the meeting, welcomed everyone and presented opening remarks.

Randy Seitz presented remarks about the way the career ladder system and labor market study facilitate economic development.

Rich Morris shared information about the system he has designed for Central Texas, which was the software originally envisioned for use in the CBIRD Communities Career Ladder system. (To see this system, visit: www.centraltexasjobfit.com.)

Gilbert Leal then led a discussion of the questions presented to the group. Questions, and answers to them, appear below. The answers were either written directly onto forms and then copied here, or else have been transcribed from shorthand notes of discussions.

1. Would your organization benefit from the database planned for the Career Ladder system? Why or why not?

Yes.

Yes, we could match their advancement and perks to our jobs.

We need you to describe career ladder in more detail—need better understanding of process. Develop market survey.

Would be a motivator in plants.

Any time the college starts a new program, in order to get it approved by the Coordinating Board, the college has to have data to show that the need for the program is there. Because TSTC is statewide, TSTC can use data from all over the state. If TSTC were a community college, the college would have to look at data from Cameron County. That is one need.

On behalf of Cameron Works, this system would be a benefit because of the training they can pay for through their system. A local career ladder would help them to identify some careers that have not been identified for them. The workforce board has a statewide list that it works with, but could use a local list. They could add this to their list and work with it.

Speaking as a former manufacturing manager, I’d say that the career ladder concept inside of a manufacturing plant is something that plant management sees as a motivator to fill in the gaps so that a person coming in on the floor could see the steps he/she could take, or needed to take, in order to move into a higher-paying position. This is a good concept as a motivator.

As far as the high school, this would benefit them. They would work with their students coming in as ninth graders and the school could help them plan their next four years. This could be used for counseling and guidance so that students could have access to a system.

The assessments people have taken would benefit manufacturers in terms of helping them find what they are looking for. If they had a database where they could search for a skill—a mechanical skill, for example—instead of going with a person who is just looking for a job, that would benefit the industry. Right now manufacturers are spending a lot of time training and do not have an assessment of applicant’s skills.

2. What changes to the CBIRD Career Ladder system design would this group recommend?

Make it flexible and dynamic to respond to rapid changes.

Unsure of system design. Need more information.

Need to show how career ladders apply to each occupation. Gaps in education. 1-1/2 hour assessment; instant feedback.

Identify the jobs that are here. Then find out, do those jobs have career ladders or not? Then match training programs to the needs. Ask questions such as: What is the workforce that is available? Is it fully employed, unemployed, or under-employed? See what each one of these is and what it is doing. C2L will put this together and bring something that will be useful to the region. If we do not have that information, companies will not be attracted. At the same time, we want to improve the jobs that are available.

Cameron Works needs to know what is available and in what do we need to develop training.

Two initiatives are working here: The CBIRD side—economic development for current employers and helping the residents of the Valley. We need to say, “What is it that we want to have two years from now?” The second is—to have a complete database where somebody can look and see if a job is available. The other key component is, “Where is the money?”

The slide that shows the diagram with connections is a good slide. Job market, business, universities and other educational institutions who are responding to the demands of the job market, and individuals who are employees, all have a role to play in accessing the system. We need to see how we can put these things together. With respect to the funding, as far as CBIRD is concerned, one of the basic ideas they want to push is to encourage leveraging resources instead of fighting for resources. CBIRD is a catalyst, working with multiple regional partners and helping these partners together to address the issues in order to build the region on a bi-national basis and thereby get the resources. CBIRD-TRAC is here to be a catalyst. For the grant proposal that will initially fund the C2L system, the vision is that everybody will be participating together. What is happening now is that there are small pieces of a system present throughout the region, but there is a lot of duplication, which creates a situation in which we are not getting the results that we want. The whole concept of C2L was presented to CBIRD by an individual who works for an economic development company. That is where we started—to address their concerns.

The important part is: we are all agreeing that the information is needed. Each of us needs a different component. The question is, what is it going to look like? We need to make that clear.

3. Do the listings of targeted industries and targeted occupations reflect the needs that participating employers are experiencing in their businesses?

Where is manufacturing? SIC Codes: 3400 (manufacturing) and 3465 (metal stamping)

SIC Code 34 is not in your target listings, but needs to be.

Add Quality Technician and Plastics Process Technician.

Where do you see the biggest growth in SIC code? With our business, we see SIC Code 34 on top and we do not see the industrial code in this list. The core manufacturing SIC codes are not on this list. If we don’t have the code but do have the job titles, pull up some of the industrial codes! Get those jobs into these lists!

4. Are there any industries and occupations that are in demand that do not appear on the lists? If “yes,” please provide information.

Press operators (coil fed), plastic injection operators, toolmakers, and die makers.

Perhaps need to forecast and target industries and occupations we don’t have but would like to bring to the Valley to get better-paying jobs and so prepare the work force to follow.

Job Title: Quality (Inspection) Technicians (use measurement machines, processes, software

to assure products to specification; quality systems)

Job Location: All Rio Grande Valley manufacturers

Salary Range: $8 an hour to $15 an hour

Approximate Number of New Workers Needed Each Year: Not sure

Job Title: Plastic Process Technician

Job Location: All plastic manufacturers—Rio Grande Valley and all Texas

Salary Range: $8 an hour

(The wage range for a new journeyman Plastic Process Technician (PPT) in our training program at TSTC is $11.50 - $14.00 per hour. PPT's with 10 years experience get $20+ and are difficult to find.)

Approximate Number of New Workers Needed Each Year: Not sure

5. What changes to the listings of targeted industries and targeted occupations would this group recommend?

This group recommends the inclusion of the industrial codes, as discussed above.

Tourist industry is expected to grow. Need to target it. Because of security issues on the border, there are some occupations that we need to include to prepare workforce.

6. What are the top reasons that employers cannot fill positions? What are the largest shortcomings of the employers’ current workforce? Where is the employed population weak in its skills?

Skills, lack of work ethics, shortcomings of employees, lack of education, and high expectations of wages.

Lack of experience because many of the manufacturers are new and emerging.

Lack of skills—lack of specific skills, or qualified skills.

In manufacturing there are very specialized skills. Within the manufacturing sector it can be difficult to jump from occupation to occupation. The employee’s motivation is a “biggie.”

Look at broader skills like, “How mechanical are they?” “Do they like working with their hands?” “Do they enjoy making something that someone else will use?

Machinists do not exist in their industry any more. They are more specialized. They have NC operators. In their operations they are tool makers or apprentices. A machinist per se would not fit into that category. In the list of occupations they do not see press operators. This individual (the speaker) ran an ad in the newspaper and got zero responses for press operators!

Receptionists. The attitude of people who go in to apply, they keep them one week and they are gone. It is not only “Do they have the skills?” but also “Do they want to work?”!! We need to teach those work ethics in the school systems. Workers cannot learn work ethics on the job!

This is where the assessment part comes in. If somebody wants to be a receptionist and they do not know how to deal with the customers, they cannot succeed.

He recommends that we build ladders and disseminate that information within businesses and industry.

That information is extremely important for the school districts as well as TSTC.

7. What are some high-turnover positions and skills?

No one responded to this question.

8. (a) How many companies have developed internal career ladders?

(b) Of the companies that have developed career ladders, how many have shared that information with their employees so that employees can see the opportunities that exist within the companies?

(c) Of the companies that have internal career ladders, do those companies have training programs that help workers move up on those career ladders?

Few.

Need more training at lower level of manufacturing operations.

We are finding that in the industry there is very little career development. Career development is disappearing. It is costly and the business world is changing rapidly. The career concept has disappeared from the corporation. This project is trying to help reintroduce it in a more practical way.

EMPLOYER FOCUS GROUP FOR

CBIRD COMMUNITIES CAREER LADDER SYSTEM

Notes from Meeting Hosted by Rotary International, Rotary District 5930, Rio Grande City

12 noon Friday, November 8, 2002—El Patio, Rio Grande City

This focus group was held in conjunction with a Rotary International meeting, with the following individuals participating:

Name Place of Employment/Business

Patricia G. (Pat) Bubb Tech Prep of the Rio Grande Valley, Inc.

Billy Canales Rio Motor Company

Romeo Garcia Zarsky Lumber Company

Emma G. Gonzalez Starr County Teachers Credit Union

Leonel Lopez STE Comm.

Romeo Lopez Texas State Bank

Javier D. Margo Educator

Arturo Menchaca Rio Grande City CISD

Gloria Ramos WorkFORCE Solutions

Karen Gail Ramos Guest

Samuel Ramos Municipal Judge

Clarissa A. Recio Guest

Cuauhtemoc Roldan WorkFORCE Solutions

Noe R. Sanchez Sanchez Insurance Agency

S. J. Sethi, Ph.D. University of Texas-Pan American

Roger H. Williams Starr Produce—Ret.

Samuel Ramos, Rotary President, welcomed everyone to the meeting and conducted the opening session.

Billy Canales introduced Pat Bubb and S. J. Sethi, who presented employer focus group items as the program for the Rotary meeting.

S. J. Sethi presented remarks about the way the targeted industries and occupations lists had been developed.

A discussion of the questions presented to the group followed. Questions and answers to them appear below. The answers written on response sheets appear below. Notes of general discussions follow.

1. Would your organization benefit from the database planned for the Career Ladder system? Why or why not?

Yes—will connect us (business) to work force.

Yes, because we are all business people, either self-employed or not.

2. What changes to the CBIRD Career Ladder system design would this group recommend?

No one responded to this question.

3. Do the listings of targeted industries and targeted occupations reflect the needs that participating employers are experiencing in their businesses?

Yes.

No. I’m in the financial business employment.

4. Are there any industries and occupations that are in demand that do not appear on the lists? If “yes,” please provide information.

Security-related occupations.

5. What changes to the listings of targeted industries and targeted occupations would this group recommend?

Teach responsibility and accountability.

I would recommend tellers, clerical, loan officers, etc.—anything to do with financial institutions.

6. What are the top reasons that employers cannot fill positions? What are the largest shortcomings of the employers’ current workforce? Where is the employed population weak in its skills?

Lack of professionalism.

People do not want to work.

Lack of work skills—education.

7. What are some high-turnover positions and skills?

Social Workers.

Technicians.

Receptionists.

Tellers.

8. (a) Does your company have an internal career ladder?

Yes (two respondents).

No (one respondent).

(b) If you have developed a career ladder system, have you shared that information with your employees so that employees can see the opportunities that exist within the company?

Yes (one respondent).

(c) If you have developed an internal career ladder, do you have a training program that helps workers move up on the career ladder?

Yes (one respondent).

NOTES FROM GENERAL DISCUSSIONS

We need to teach people to be trained in the courtesy or the responsibilities of the jobs they are having. People need work ethics, general courtesy, people skills, and soft skills.

We need to make them more responsible. The accountability and responsibility that used to be found in the workplace is not there any more with younger people. A lot of the jobs have been state or government jobs, but in private business, if we do not do what is right, we will not be there very long. We have to keep up and compete, and employees have to do what is right for the customer. In other jobs it doesn’t really matter—they just go and do their thing and that is that. In private business, if you do not do what is right, you will not be there very long.

I hear people say, “I would like to have my own business and I will do what I want to do, and people will not tell me what to do.” “Actually, when you have your own business, you do what the customer tells you to do or you will not be there very long. It is tougher in private business than it is working for the state or municipality.”

We have a lot of people who can do the job; they just won’t do it.

There are jobs here. The problem is, we do not have people skilled in specific jobs. The dealerships here pay better than minimum wage—they need technicians and mechanics—and people in the office.

We have people go looking for a job, but they want only so many hours or they will lose public benefits. They just want a paycheck, and that is the problem.

One of the other problems we face is, there is not a mechanism in place that would track the turnover rate--employees who work for six or eight months and then look for another job. There is not a background-check process. They move from job to job. There is no tracking mechanism that would tell an employer the type of work an applicant performed and the type of performance appraisal he got on the exit interview.

In my resume, I should have the background I had—that way the employer could see whether the person “job hopped.” Do not have something to track what these guys are looking for or where they have been.

The other thing they have been asking for is a skilled-labor directory. We have big companies coming to town to do construction, and the taxing entities tell them they have to hire local people. They cannot find them because they do not have a list of who to look for. When it comes time to hire them, they do not have the background to support it. We need to get that and have an organization saying, “We will provide the insurance if you provide them the job.”

I thought the chamber of commerce was supposed to have a job bank!

They have an organization now looking for welders. They are building a feed lot. They have to lay pipe to build the corrals and gates. It is hard to find an organization that can do that.

(Gloria Ramos speaking) That is what we do at the Business Center. We have the database you are looking for. We could put out a job fair flyer and bring in everyone who is interested in that job. Our motto is: “Get a job! Get a better job! Get a career!” We bring in the unemployed and the under-employed. Right now we are working with three companies from Corpus. Offshore drilling. Came to the Valley to find welders. We will do that for you. If you need someone with those types of skills, we will look for them and bring them in.

City governments are requiring more and more people to have licenses of different sorts. My experience in building a home recently is, there are people out there who know their jobs in plumbing and cabinet-making and such but they claim that they do not have a license and do not know where to get one. That is an area of concern. There are people out there who want to know, “Where can I go? What do I need to do?” That is one concern.

There are areas out there that we are not telling our people that Spanish is important. I believe a person with the capacity to speak both languages and speak them well is important. The ability to speak Spanish with Mexico as close as it is and the international flavor that this Valley has, it is important to be able to speak and write and do the necessary things with people from Mexico. We need to tell people about this.

As far as I know, we have only one licensed plumber and one licensed electrician. People don’t know where to get a license for an electrician or carpenter or any other profession, “where do you go?” “How do we get this certificate?” STCC is doing that. We had one at STCC. Turnover rate was very good. Everything requires employment afterward. We were having trouble with placement after the training.

On contractors and people like that - I went to the MBOC (Minority Business Opportunity Committee) at UTPA once, 10-15 people signed up on how to get their license and do it right, and then only two of them showed up. We have a problem getting people to show up for the training.

The other thing we have a problem with is getting licensed people to do things. Even the city hires people without a license, they say, “We have people available to do these jobs.” If a business like mine—a private business—hires an unlicensed person and something happens, we are responsible. If something happens with an unlicensed worker, the business would be responsible.

EMPLOYER FOCUS GROUP FOR

CBIRD COMMUNITIES CAREER LADDER SYSTEM

Notes from Meeting Hosted by Raymondville Chamber of Commerce

Raymondville City Hall, Raymondville, Texas

8:30 a.m. Thursday, November 21, 2002

This focus group was held in conjunction with the Willacy County Industrial Foundation, Inc.’s annual meeting, with the following individuals participating:

Name Place of Employment/Business

Joe Alexander Mayor of Raymondville

Jerry Brackhahn Ken’s Furniture

Patricia G. (Pat) Bubb Tech Prep of the Rio Grande Valley, Inc.

Elma Chavez Raymondville Chamber of Commerce

Guy Fambrough Fambrough Realty and Insurance

Eliazar Garcia Raymondville City Manager

Glenn Harding Harding Properties

Abdu Megateli CBIRD-TRAC

Hon. Simon Salinas Willacy County Judge

S. J. Sethi, Ph.D. University of Texas-Pan American

Stephen M. Vassberg Texas State Technical College Harlingen

Paul Whitworth Raymondville Chronicle

This employer focus group was conducted under the title of “other business” during the annual meeting of the Willacy County Industrial Foundation.

Guy Fambrough, Industrial Foundation Chair, chaired the meeting.

Pat Bubb presented a very brief introduction to the CBIRD Communities Career Ladder system envisioned for this region and also shared the way in which Tech Prep currently shares labor market information with students, parents, and educators.

S. J. Sethi presented remarks about the way the targeted industries and occupations lists had been developed.

A discussion of the questions presented to the group followed. Questions, and answers to them, appear below. The answers written on response sheets appear below. Notes of general discussions follow at the end of the questions.

1. Would your organization benefit from the database planned for the Career Ladder system? Why or why not?

Although there was a comment that the system would help Willacy County to work with industry that is coming in, the general consensus was that the group needed more information.

There had not been time for a complete presentation at this meeting; so the group agreed to schedule a presentation about both CBIRD and the Career Ladder program after the first of the year. This should occur in January or February.

2. What changes to the CBIRD Career Ladder system design would this group recommend?

See answer above.

3. Do the listings of targeted industries and targeted occupations reflect the needs that participating employers are experiencing in their businesses?

Be sure that occupations related to law enforcement are reflected in the list. The prison is an important employer for Raymondville. They have about 400 or 500 workers—it is one of the biggest employers in the area at this time.

Add Spaceport to the list as an emerging industry.

4. Are there any industries and occupations that are in demand that do not appear on the lists? If “yes,” please provide information.

Add Corrections Officers to the list.

5. What changes to the listings of targeted industries and targeted occupations would this group recommend?

Anything related to Spaceport. There would be dozens of occupations that would be considered.

6. What are the top reasons that employers cannot fill positions? What are the largest shortcomings of the employers’ current workforce? Where is the employed population weak in its skills?

Willacy County does not have positions to fill.

7. What are some high-turnover positions and skills?

No one responded to this question.

8. (a) Does your company have an internal career ladder?

(b) If you have developed a career ladder system, have you shared that information with your employees so that employees can see the opportunities that exist within the company?

N/A

(c) If you have developed an internal career ladder, do you have a training program that helps workers move up on the career ladder?

N/A

GENERAL DISCUSSION

During the Industrial Foundation meeting, there was a discussion of Spaceport developments in Willacy County. Because the Spaceport has a direct bearing on planning for emerging occupations, excerpts from the Spaceport notes are included here.

Phase I of Spaceport work has been finished and successfully done—which was an appropriation of $150,000 by the last Legislature. There is still a remainder of the $350,000 as we move into Phase II. Phase II will be discussed at a meeting set to follow this one. The Aerospace Commission is requesting a commitment to push this forward. To justify this funding, they want to have some kind of launch early in the year. One or both of the people from Fort Stockton will be doing something in February here. That entails a lot of things they need to do. The MOU between them and Fort Stockton – supposedly the contract has been signed by JP Rockets. The U.S. Air Force has not signed it yet. However, the Air Force did not want Fort Stockton but Fort Stockton wants a piece of this. The 10:30 a.m. meeting this morning will be attended by Willacy County’s consultants, to continue the county board’s work into Phase II, which will be the rest of the grant the board received during the last Legislature. Today they will be talking about going back to the Legislature. They will have another Spaceport Day in Austin. Then this afternoon there is a presentation at 1:30 p.m. in Harlingen by the Executive Director of the Texas Aerospace Commission at the City Hall Chamber Board Room. This will be a presentation for the Lower Rio Grande Valley Development Council. They had asked for a presentation, and this is it. This is an important meeting because Willacy County needs help from across the Valley. Spaceport Day is tentatively set for February 25, 2003 in Austin. They encourage participation from lots of constituent groups. Also, Raymondville’s Mayor has been talking with a gentleman from Houston who has some rockets for sale. (A discussion of fund-raising efforts followed.) The activity of the Willacy County Board has taken front and center from the Spaceport Consortium. We are not replacing them; we are working with them. (John Crutchfield is Treasurer of the Board of the Spaceport Consortium.)

EMPLOYER FOCUS GROUP FOR

REGIONAL LABOR MARKET STUDY AND

CBIRD COMMUNITIES CAREER LADDER SYSTEM

Notes from Meeting Hosted by McAllen Chamber of Commerce

8 a.m. Friday, November 22, 2002

This focus group was held at the above time and place, with the following individuals participating:

Name Place of Employment/Business

Steve Ahlenius McAllen Chamber

Adrian A. Arriaga AAA Real Estate & Investments (Tech Prep Board)

Mike Barrera, Ph.D. McAllen ISD

Luis Bazan McAllen Chamber

Patricia G. (Pat) Bubb Tech Prep of the Rio Grande Valley, Inc.

Ed Garcia Pharr-San Juan-Alamo ISD

Stephanie Hawk McAllen Economic Development Corp

Alicia Madrigal Sharyland ISD

Carlos Margo The Partnership, STCC

Abdu Megateli CBIRD-TRAC

Sam O. Olivarez Barrera’s Supply Co., Inc.

Keith Patridge &nb