In Wayne County people are our greatest resource. The sustainability and longevity of business relies heavily on a plentiful supply of skilled workers. Wayne County is dedicated to creating a seamless path for its people to enter the workforce through a joint effort involving area K-12 and post-secondary educational institutions and workforce service providers. Dubbed the Workforce Innovations Net
work (WIN). This collaborative partnership focuses on the county’s workforce development needs, priorities, and innovations to provide outstanding career opportunities for area residents and to ensure a skilled workforce is available to retain good companies as well as attract new industries. The WIN partners include the Wayne County public school systems, the Wayne County Schools Career Center, Ohio State ATI, Wayne College, the Common Good, Ohio Means Jobs-Wayne County, and private employers. The WIN provides career and occupational information, K-16 education programs and adult education partnerships. It serves as a connector for information sharing, identifying resources, and sharing best practices in workforce development. The desired outcomes of the WIN are to:
• Identify regional workforce skill and competency needs
• Articulate emerging skills and competencies needed in targeted industry sectors
• Create and recommend solutions to close workforce skills gaps
• Champion talent attraction, engagement and retention best-practices
• Establish measures and evaluation to demonstrate value and outcomes of work
These efforts support Wayne County’s major economic development activities that spur growth and wealth creation. Central to this approach is strategically focusing long-term workforce efforts on competitive and growing industry clusters. The initial focus has been to meet the skills and competencies needed to support the advanced manufacturing industry sector. Other potential long-range industry sectors of interest include health care services, food manufacturing & processing, agbiosciences, and information technology.
