E-Blast March 2022
Congratulations to the following North Far North Colleges and Butte County Office of Education in receiving the California Apprenticeship Initiative 2021-2022 CAI: New and Innovative December 2021 Submission. The region will be receiving total awards in the amount of $2,500,000.
The California Community Colleges Chancellor’s Office, Workforce and Economic Development Division acknowledge the quality of applications and the ability to meet diverse sector needs. Pending Board of Governors approval as well as the availability of funds, commencement is April 1, 2022. A list of the project applications and the funding status can be viewed here.
American River College
Sacramento City College
Shasta-Tehama-Trinity Joint CCD
Butte Co. Offices of Education
A new report from Equal Measure shows how Talent Hubs in Dayton, Ohio, St. Louis, and Shasta County, Calif., are working to acknowledge inequities and increase opportunities for people of color. Created by Lumina Foundation and now run by CivicLab, Talent Hubs across the nation cultivate talent with a focus on helping Black, Hispanic and Latino, and Native American students overcome tough barriers to learning.
The U.S. Department of Education this week released new details about provisions it wants to include in its forthcoming gainful employment rule, a measure that would hold postsecondary career education programs responsible for ensuring their graduates can find work and pay off their student loans.
Please join us on Thursday, March 31st from 3:00 PM – 5:00 PM for a virtual ICT Regional Advisory meeting that will highlight emerging trends and occupational demands related to cybersecurity. New labor market information will be presented on this vital emerging topic and the implications for workforce development.
Additional Advisories
Hospitality, Culinary, and Tourism– April 22nd (2:00 – 3:30 PM)
Forestry Management– April 28th (3:00 – 5:00 PM)
The North/Far North Center of Excellence is sharing a quarterly report on job postings, unemployment, industry measures, and other real-time data. The COE sends out a condensed version of the economic update in the COE North/Far North newsletter and its own newsletter.
Download the March 2022 COE economic update here. Find this and past economic updates at the North/Far North website. Sign up here to receive the economic update and COE newsletter in your email inbox.
SUMMARY
Unemployment— Unemployment rates are at or below pre-pandemic levels. In the Greater Sacramento region in December, the average unemployment rate dipped to near pre-pandemic levels (4.5%). In the Far North, that rate declined to below pre-pandemic levels (5.1%).
Labor Force— After consistent improvements throughout 2021, in December the North/Far North region and California saw a disappointing decrease in labor force, especially in the Far North. At least some of the improvements in unemployment rates in the last two months of 2021 are owed to people dropping out of the labor force.
Industry Trends— The construction and the transportation and logistics sectors continue growing beyond pre-pandemic job levels. The health care and social assistance, government, manufacturing, and hospitality and tourism sectors recovered well during 2021, but they experienced zero growth during the last quarter of 2021.
Jobs Postings— Jobs postings volumes continue to grow in the government, health care and social assistance, manufacturing, and transportation and logistics sectors. The trends indicate that some sectors have adapted to current economic conditions, whereas others are experiencing employee hiring and retention challenges.
REPORT SPOTLIGHTS AND NEWS
The economic update presents new research reports and the COE’s new statewide website.
- Valley Vision hosts the COE for a workforce industry advisory meeting for the Greater Sacramento (North) region on cybersecurity trends Thursday, March 31 from 3:00-5:00 p.m. Register here.
- The COE for the Greater Sacramento region collaborated on research related to remote work, and produced a study of Placer County’s workforce trends. Details and report downloads are included in the full economic update.
- The COE statewide team just released a new website with improved publication searches and regional navigation. Take a look! https://coeccc.net/
Submitted by: Aaron Wilcher, Director, North/Far North Center of Excellence, WilcheA@losrios.edu
The work of the North Far North Regional Consortium (NFN RC) contributes to and is aligned with the California Community College Chancellor’s Offices’ Vision for Success, Strong Workforce Program and goals.
NFN Career and Technical Education (CTE) strategies, activities, programs, and investment strategies presented in this plan, are aligned with economic and workforce development partners and informed by data provided from multiple sources including
- North Far North Center of Excellence
- Economic Forensics and Analytics
- U.S. Census Bureau
- California Employment Development Department
- Launchboard
- State and national research documents
- Personal interviews
Click the read more link below to view the plan. The plan can also be accessed on the NFNRC website under the resources tab at any time.
It was always easy for Celeste Wiser to picture herself as a college educator, doing her part to boost the quality and quantity of nurses in rural Northern California. She just pictured herself a little older.
“I definitely thought I would have a lot of gray hair before that,” jokes Wiser.
A nursing instructor at Lassen College, Wiser is one of a growing number of practicing nurses gravitating toward careers in higher education. And with California’s nation-worst nursing shortage projected to reach critical mass by 2030? It’s a welcome trend.
“When we’re short on nurses, it affects our community,” says the proud professor, part of the original team to reboot the College’s critical LVN program in 2017, and a driving force behind Lassen’s attempts to bolster the local workforce.
Known as the “Land of Natural Wealth and Beauty,” Butte County is also an agricultural powerhouse, boasting an overall production of more than $688 Billion in 2020.
A key player for walnuts, rice, almonds and prunes, the region employs more than three times the national average of workers in the ag sector, with jobs sprouting steadily at four-percent growth until 2023, according to a recent NoRTEC report.
Yet, despite the bountiful harvest and burgeoning opportunities, the entire state is facing an ongoing ag labor shortage. In Butte County’s Gridley Unified School District, the solution is simple: offering robust agricultural pathways to grow the talent pipeline from the ground up.
With the help of a recent Strong Workforce grant, the District has made the Agricultural Career Technical Education program stronger than ever, increasing staffing to implement a new “AgriScience” Academy.
“We have four teachers in that pathway, which is probably unusual … for a small high school of 650 students,” says Principal Justin Kern. For the small rural area, he says offering an array of ag pathways allows students to build on the skills “that are necessary to join the labor market here.”
