Job training is crucial to filling jobs, say Springfield speakers at regional economic meeting

The annual meeting of the Springfield Regional Development Corporation drew a crowd of 60 people to the NewsBank Conference Center in Chester. Executive Director Bob Flint addresses the audience.

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Job training is crucial to filling jobs, say Springfield speakers at regional economic meeting By JEFF EPSTEIN Vtreporter@eagletimes.com Nov 1, 2018 0 Facebook Twitter Email Springfield Regional Development Corp. annual meeting The annual meeting of the Springfield Regional Development Corporation drew a crowd of 60 people to the NewsBank Conference Center in Chester. Executive Director Bob Flint addresses the audience. JEFF EPSTEIN SPRINGFIELD, Vt. — It wasn’t exactly a surprise to the members of the Springfield Regional Development Corp. (SRDC), but executive director Bob Flint and several speakers reinforced Tuesday that the key to filling employer needs was job training, and otherwise developing the workforce. The remarks were made at SRDC’s annual meeting, at the NewsBank Conference Center in Chester. More than 60 people attended the event, including area business leaders, government managers, and some candidates for local legislative seats such as Alison Clarkson, Dick McCormack, Alice Emmons, Bob Forguites and others. The first report came from SRDC’s Paul Kowalski, who spoke about the River Valley Employment Fair that took place Sept. 12, co-sponsored by SRDC, the River Valley Technical Center and others. Over 30 employers in various fields and recruitment agencies attended that event. Giving responses from the employers to SRDC questions, Kowalski said that employers are willing to train new entry level workers, but “a recurring response in this area was the need for ‘soft skills’... in short, people skills.” Based on the observations of the job fair, “Our region is rich in opportunity,” he said, especially for job-seekers who already have some skills in specialized fields such as health care or manufacturing. For his part, Flint said that workforce development “dominates everything we do.” He reeled off an update of projects around Springfield and Chester designed to make the area more attractive to companies and workers, saying Springfield is an “opportunity zone.” Within the local area, many business are making investments, he said. “There are several businesses in this room, in this region, that have made investments in their facilities to accommodate growth.” Beyond individual companies, Flint said Springfield is working to improve local infrastructure, including SRDC itself. “SDRC has an option to purchase the former Park Street School, which we can see as being a headquarters,” he said. “Early projections are this is a $20 million project and puzzle pieces for that are starting to come together. A few weeks ago the governor announced that we had received $350,000 in downtown tax credits to go toward that project.” advertisement Flint added that further developments regarding the former Park Street School site would likely occur before the end of the year. The featured speaker was Mathew Barewicz of the Vermont Department of Labor. Barewicz displayed a series of graphs showing economic trends in the state, particularly in recovery from the recession period starting in 2007. One thing he pointed out was that much of the job and economic growth over the last 10 years was urban, particularly in the Burlington region. When Burlington area statistics are removed, it shows a much flatter trend for the rest of the state. However, he added, employers in the state need workers, especially in professional and technical business services, construction, information and health care. “There are jobs in Vermont, requiring all experience levels, requiring all education levels” said Barewicz. However, students may not be aware of the opportunities.