Academy program worthwhile effort

All sorts of good things happen when you work together.

We think these sentiments apply to the Workforce Academy, a training program designed to better Merced County’s business climate. Academy members met last week to address the county’s business challenges and hear inspiring messages from several high-ranking corporate executives.

With a University of California campus due to open in Merced next year, the Merced area is certain to embrace considerable economic growth, both in the short term and in the longer range. We’d like to think our “growing pains” won’t be that traumatic. But this is where cooperative efforts are bound to be needed from public, private and commercial sectors to smooth this area’s growth.

There are several issues this county’s business leaders must continually address for this area to truly embrace commercial, retail and industrial prosperity.

These include making it attractive for new businesses and industries to locate here, developing a skilled work force for current and future employers to draw upon and finding ways for young people to pursue successful careers here rather than in the big cities.

The emphasis on educating young people in business and technological skills cannot be overemphasized. The business community needs to partner with local school systems to equip future workers with the skills they need for community college, even higher education and ultimately the job sector. Along with education, all these agencies may need to recruit and inspire the young people who ultimately will attend colleges and training schools and be available to fill local jobs.

Here’s where the Workforce Academy can have a profound impact. It provides local businessmen and women a chance to interact with employment and training agencies in Merced County - pinpointing where the greatest needs are here in terms of qualified job candidates for certain agencies. For instance, a need may be identified for people skilled in certain technical fields and this needs to be communicated to the people ultimately responsible for educating them.

Making sure the proper infrastructure is in place to make it feasible for new businesses and industries to locate here also should be a high priority. That’s something the member agencies of the Workforce Academy regularly assess and would be a good topic for future academy sessions.

Academy participants include area chambers of commerce, the Merced County Workforce Investment Department and Merced County Economic Development Corp. The Workforce Academy will meet again June 26 in Merced and later in Los Banos.

We think these kind of inspirational and idea-exchanging sessions are valuable and should be encouraged.

The problems and challenges of developing a skilled work force and the training necessary to achieve it won’t be solved overnight but they must remain in the forefront of discussion.

The future does look bright for Merced commerce and industry - especially when people from all walks of life pitch in to make things better.