| Principal Investigators: | Robert Glover, PhD and Christopher T. King, PhD |
| Sponsor: | WorkSource – Greater Austin Area Workforce Board |
| Project Duration: | April 2005 – August 2006 |
| Description: | The Ray Marshall Center will collaborate with industry and community representatives to work with two industrial sectors to alleviate critical skills shortages in key occupations. The two targeted industrial sectors will have high job growth, pay higher than average wages and benefits, and be experiencing critical skill shortages in key occupations. The project will examine root causes for these critical shortages and propose practical solutions. The researchers anticipate that the first target sector will be health care. Abundant information is already available regarding this industry in Central Texas, as well as existing activities and institutions that can be built on. Researchers will do a quick verification to confirm this choice. This strategy of selecting health care on the front end will allow researchers to accelerate the project rapidly into the second (root causes) and third (solutions) phases for this sector. Key representatives from this sector have indicated that while much is known about it already, much more needs to be done to understand and effectively respond to its needs.
The second industry sector will be selected on the basis of findings from the data analysis and discussions with representatives from industry and the community regarding their responsiveness to work with this initiative. Researchers will build on existing efforts and make best use of available data and programs underway. They will collaborate with interested employers in the selected industries to verify the shortages, examine root causes, and seek practical solutions to alleviate the shortages. The project will be documented in a series of reports, including a Critical Skills Report, for each of the two industry sectors selected, a report on Root Causes of the shortages, and a report on Solutions tailored for each sector. Each of the solutions reports will include a work plan, with endorsements that could be used as the basis of a proposal to be submitted to an external funding agency or organization. The researchers view this project as a means to establish a more effective collaborative process in Central Texas – not merely a research project designed to develop a series of written reports. They aim to put into placed a catalytic process that will generate and facilitate activities by key actors. Success will require strong input and meaningful participation by the firms and industries involved, as well as by training providers and the community. The end result for Central Texas should be improved productivity for employers in key sectors, as well as enhanced labor market success for area residents. |
| Reports Available: | Critical Skill Shortages Project: Recommendations for Selection of Two Key Industry Clusters for Further Work Authors: Robert W. Glover, Suzanne Hershey, Christopher T. King, and Deepshikha Roychowdhury Date: June 2005 Publication Type: Report, 48pp. Critical Skill Shortages Project: An Assessment of Root Causes for Skill Shortages in Biosciences and Biotechnology in Greater Austin Critical Skill Shortages Project: An Assessment of Root Causes for Skill Shortages in the Wireless Industry in Greater Austin Critical Skill Shortages Project: Addressing Potential Skill Shortages in Biosciences and Biotechnology in Greater Austin Critical Skill Shortages Project: Addressing Potential Skill Shortages in Wireless Technology in Greater Austin |
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