How do we solve the workforce shortage in our state?

Two years ago, give or take a couple of weeks, we wrote about the fact that in our state there are more job openings than qualified workers to fill those vacancies. The Washington Roundtable addresses that issue in its Great Jobs Within Our Reach report released yesterday. And the Seattle Times ran this editorial calling on the Legislature to fund more seats in high-demand fields.

According to the Roundtable's news release, Washington state could see 160,000 jobs by 2017 and $720 million in new state revenue if we take the necessary steps to fill the growing skills gap.

The report found that 25,000 jobs have been unfilled in our state for three months or more due to a lack of qualified candidates and eighty percent of these jobs are in high demand fields such as health care and STEM (science, technology, engineering and math).

The report warns that the gap will grow to 50,000 jobs by 2017 unless we fix this problem, in which case, due to the multiplying effect, the scenario in 2017 would be much brighter with an additional 110,000 jobs.

The necessary steps, according to the Roundtable, to fix the problem are just five:

1. Increase computer science, engineering and healthcare capacity at colleges and universities.

2. Foster STEM interest and performance among K-12 students.

3. Improve alignment of technical degree and certificate curricula with employer demands.

4. Promote and enable in-bound migration of skilled workers from other states.

5. Support expansion of international immigration opportunities.

Following some of the Roundtable's recommendations is easier said than done, though, especially when the state is so dramatically strapped for money to satisfy the growing demands in other areas like K-12, health care and human services. How do we get there? Think you have the solution? Try this Seattle Times balancing the budget interactive tool to see how you would do it.

Read this story in Spanish.

Student-centered education legislation heading to Senate

Dropout prevention, STEM education, and closing the opportunity gap took center stage in the state House Friday as a package of education bills was approved and sent to the Senate.

“Our priorities are clearly best for all kids and our public schools,” said Rep. Marcie Maxwell, the Deputy Majority Leader for Education and Opportunity. “The House is focused on support for quality teaching and learning.  We’re working on strategic policy and budget decisions that make significant investments in education funding and ensure successful implementation of the real reforms we’ve recently enacted."

Here's the press release for the whole package, which includes these key bills:

HB 1276 creates a pilot program with school districts and community organizations, like food banks and small farms to target at-risk youth.

HB 1424aims to close the opportunity gap by providing families, schools, and communities with the tools they need to increase the number of on-time graduations. This bill will give local communities additional resources to detect early warning signs of a potential and intervene with appropriate measures.

HB 1872, creates a STEM Education Innovation Alliance made up of leaders from business and education fields. The alliance will align STEM education initiatives in early learning, K-12, and post-secondary education and is a key piece of Governor Inslee’s Working Washington agenda.

HB 1252 will create an online framework for professional development opportunities for educators in Washington.

HB 1283  will lower the age for compulsory school attendance from age eight to six. Washington is only one of two states where children are not required to be enrolled in an education program until age 8.

Read this story in Spanish.

STEM education is key to growing Washington’s economy

Two new jobs reports show that Washington’s economic recovery is accelerating and that lawmakers are smart to invest in science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) education.

One new report, from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, shows Seattle had the eighth best job growth among the top 100 metro areas in the nation over the past 12 months – posting a healthy gain of 39,100 jobs.

More good news comes from the Forbes/Praxis Strategy Group study and the Puget Sound Business Journal (PSBJ). They’re reporting that Seattle not only led the nation in high-tech and STEM job growth over the past decade, the Emerald City is still reaping the benefits of strong growth in high-tech and STEM jobs.

The Forbes study reported in the PSBJ shows that Seattle beat out rivals such as Silicon Valley to become the best city in the nation for high-tech jobs over the past decade, with a whopping 43 percent increase in high-tech employment and an 18 percent increase in STEM jobs. The study also showed Seattle’s leadership in high-tech jobs has held firm during the past couple of years. In fact, the study says, “the Seattle metro area has posted 12% tech job growth over the past two years and 7.6% STEM growth, handily beating the performance of Silicon Valley.”

And the good news in high-tech employment continues. The PSBJ points out “Forbes' findings seem to be backed up by recent announcements that Amazon is hiring 1,000 new tech workers in Seattle and that other big tech companies, such as Facebook and Google, are expanding offices in the area.”

These numbers show we’re on the right path, but we can’t let up on the gas pedal just yet. Lawmakers like Rep. Marcie Maxwell (D-Renton) continue to push for additional investments in STEM education. In the December special session, Rep. Maxwell sponsored bills that created competitive STEM grant programs and added STEM knowledge to the Professional Educators Standards Board certification process. Both bills received bi-partisan support before being signed into law.

To read this story in Spanish, please click here.

Great news for STEM, aerospace, and transportation

Sine Die (take two…) has finally come and gone. The hard work by House Democrats’ these past few months has paid off in big ways. As was discussed in this blog post, funding education was one of our primary goals for the 2012 session. A few highlights include:

• HB 2159, SB 5982, and HB 2156 - these bills will go a long way toward supporting STEM education, as well as enhancing educational programs which support Washington’s competitive aerospace industry.

• Both WSU and UW will be able to boost their fulltime FTE’s in engineering, following recommendations made by the Washington Aerospace Partnership, as well as Governor Gregoire.

Photo credit: BotMultiChillT

• Research institutions and community colleges statewide will be seeing additions of upgraded equipment in their facilities ensuring Washington’s students are trained in the most cutting edge technology and tools.

• HB 2190, SB 6445, and SB 6444 - respectively, these bills address immediate & future multimodal transportation needs, retain Washington’s eligibility to receive millions of federal dollars ($850M to be exact!) towards the Columbia Bridge Crossing, as well as ensuring users of the SR 99 tunnel will help to foot the bill for the project.

As it turns out, the Association of Washington Businesses was pretty pleased, as well – see for yourself!

Opportunities for scholarships!

How do you encourage students to not only go to college, but to enter science, technology, engineering, or math (STEM) programs? This was the question high-tech employers, such as Boeing and Microsoft, were asking themselves when faced with the reality of a rapidly shrinking potential-employee market.

So, to address the issue, Boeing and Microsoft teamed up with the Legislature in 2011 to create the Opportunity Scholarship Board in the hopes of encouraging more high school graduates to prepare for careers in certain high-tech fields.

Fast forward to this coming fall - the Opportunity Scholarship Board will be awarding a whopping 3,000 STEM scholarships worth $1,000 each!

Photo credit: BArch Bot

You’re probably thinking, “Great, but I need to write a groundbreaking essay and jump through 20 other hoops to be eligible, right?” Wrong!

In order to qualify for an opportunity scholarship, all a person needs to do is meet the following criteria:

• Meet the income-level requirement – up to $102,000/year for a family of 4
• Have at least a 2.75 GPA
• Fill out the federal student aid paperwork and the scholarship application

That’s it! And better yet – since the scholarships are renewable for up to 5 years, they could potentially be worth $5,000 toward a STEM education.


The scholarship application is available here, and the deadline is April 16th.

Click here for more information, or check out this Seattle Times article.
To read this story in Spanish, please click here.