SINCE GOVERNOR CARCIERI established the Governor’s Workforce Board, in September 2005, the 17-member panel has supported strategies that improve the existing skill base of the Rhode Island workforce and that anticipate the future needs of growing and emerging businesses. In the past 16 months, the Governor’s Workforce Board has made more than $11-million worth of strategic investments in Rhode Island that reward collaboration among the state’s employment, education and economic-development entities. Such investments are helping to fulfill the governor’s vision for a highly skilled workforce that enhances the state’s ability to compete in a global marketplace.

For example, the Workforce Board has pooled resources with the State Workforce Investment Office to offer $1.8 million to date in Industry Partnership Grants that support high-growth industries in the state. Unlike individual grant recipients, these partnership grants are awarded to coalitions of related businesses, and are facilitated by such trade associations as the Hospital Association of Rhode Island, Rhode Island Manufacturing Extension Services and the Rhode Island Hospitality Association Education Foundation.

Each partnership is charged with identifying the skill gaps between the available workforce and available training resources. The ultimate goal of these partnerships is to help education and training institutions align curricula with industry needs and create career ladders for advancement within each industry. So far, eight grants have been awarded in advanced manufacturing, health care, information technology, construction, marine trades and hospitality. In addition, the Workforce Board has just published a Request for Proposals (RFP) for Industry Partnership Grants in the financial services and biotechnology areas.

While the effects of the industry partnerships should benefit all Rhode Island businesses, the Governor’s Workforce Board’s recent $2 million RFP for Comprehensive Worker Training should continue to help small businesses raise the skill levels of their employees. Last year, more than 90 percent of the matching grants offered through Comprehensive Worker Training were awarded to small businesses. Just last month, more than 100 companies submitted worker-training proposals for 2007. The Workforce Board will award matching grants of up to $50,000 late this month, with training to begin as early as April.

Another initiative geared to high-growth industries is the Workforce Expansion Grants program. In collaboration with the Rhode Island Economic Development Corporation, the Workforce Board has allocated more than $1.9 million in Workforce Expansion Grants since September 2005, with special emphasis placed on the high-growth areas reflected in the industry partnerships. In the last six months, these have helped create 400 new jobs with eight different companies, including telecommunication giant Verizon, boat builder Pearson Composites, financial leader Bank of America and mortgage broker Equity Concepts.

In addition to raising the skill levels of Rhode Island workers, the Workforce Board hopes to lessen barriers to employment, such as language and literacy issues. The Workforce Board is helping to fund a variety of Rhode Island Office of Adult Education initiatives, including the multi-year, multi-partner Adult Education Grants. The Governor’s Workforce Board has also allocated $725,000 in Job Development Fund money for English as a Second Language and Adult Basic Education services, including education classes at the netWORKri Providence, Pawtucket and Woonsocket career centers.

While adult-education services can benefit today’s workforce, youth career education can help Rhode Island build tomorrow’s workforce. This is why the Workforce Board has facilitated another multi-agency collaboration — a re-envisioned Youth Workforce System. The new Youth Workforce System melds educational and employment pipelines for Rhode Island youth ages 14 to 21 into a single framework. While in the past service providers for youth programs needed to offer all education and employment components, now the service providers may play to their strengths, bidding only on their expertise within the larger framework, such as career counseling, literacy services or job shadowing.

Also in past years, each of Rhode Island’s workforce-investment boards awarded different grants for youth employment. However, 2007 marks the first time that the Workforce Partnership of Greater Rhode Island, Workforce Solutions of Providence/Cranston, the State Workforce Investment Office and the Workforce Board have pooled their resources to put forward a single unified RFP for youth career and training needs. The total grant award is expected to reach $3.5 million, with $2 million — a 300 percent increase from 2006-provided by the Workforce Board. The Youth Workforce System not only represents a new paradigm of inter-agency collaboration here, but also serves as a model of service delivery for other New England states.

Viewed collectively, the recent accomplishments of the Workforce Board form a coherent campaign to transform Rhode Island’s workforce-development system. By combining forces with other agencies and organizations, the Workforce Board is magnifying the impact and the reach of its resources. It has also created new partnerships and, hence, new communication channels through which some of the best minds in the state can brainstorm future workforce solutions.

Adelita Orefice is director of the Rhode Island Department of Employment and Training and executive director of the Governor’s Workforce Board. Joseph MarcAurele is chairman of the the Governor’s Workforce Board and president and chief executive of Citizens Bank of Rhode Island.