Get a job, part 2
By LYNN WOODS

Hudson Valley Business sat down recently with Tom Sipos, agency marketing director at Emery & Webb Inc. of Poughkeepsie; Robert Normann, president of Normann Staffing of Kingston; and Todd Ravinett, vice president at AmeriBag of Kingston, for a discussion concerning the Workforce Investment Board (WIB) of Dutchess and Ulster counties. The three volunteer with the employment program. Bob Miniger, vice president of human resources at Balchem of New Hampton and chairman of the Orange County WIB, weighed in by phone addressing the same issues. Last week featured part one of the roundtable

HVB: Aren’t there significant numbers of students not completing high school? Is this a concern?

Sipos: We have a 35 percent high school dropout rate in the state right now.

Ravinett: I just got the numbers for Ulster County. Right now, if you include people who take 5 years to graduate from high school and take the GED, 88 percent of our kids graduate.

Sipos: I’ll stick with my 35 percent. It’s absolutely a cause for concern.

Miniger: There’s a group that’s not getting on the school bus. They typically end up where they have been hanging out, at the mall or Wendy’s. These can be great places to grow and learn and stop to another career. We try to be active with schools and counseling systems.

HVB: Do you see a lot of people being forced out of their jobs and having to acquire additional skills for new positions?

Ravinett: A very recent example of that happened in Ellenville, when Hydro Aluminum closed its plant. The WIB, along with other agencies, and (U.S.) Sen. (Charles) Schumer actually got some funds specifically for retraining these displaced workers.

Each individual needs to go through customized counseling to determine what he or she should be retrained for. We don’t know yet what that is. But retraining is available at least for this group of people.

Sipos: We try to come up with the concept of lifelong learning through the WIB. In a rapidly changing world-wide economy, it’s better that individuals keep their core skills up to date. If I can say I can read and write and follow directions and communicate well, then if this job is gone I am willing and able to step up to that next position that will come along.

Miniger: Everything we do is driven by the return on investment. If we go ahead and have a highly skilled population that brings value to me and other businesses, we can afford to grow, we can expand and continue to pay people well.

HVB: Employers say it’s very difficult to hire entry-level people. You can’t take the most basic skills for granted anymore.

Ravinett: Soft skills are going to be one of the first things that come up in any group of people. Teaching soft skills is a challenge worldwide. We’re started a soft-skills pilot program in Ulster County, which basically gives the participant an understanding of what types of things are necessary to get and hold on to a job. Hopefully, this will have an effect. It needs to be instilled in a very deep level and very, very early. It’s being held at one of Family of Woodstock’s centers.

Sipos: These skills include how to dress for an interview, how to write a resume, personal hygiene. These are so basic.

Ravinett: You hire someone; they stop showing up. It happens constantly.

Sipos: (Soft skills) are routinely addressed through the one stop. It’s part of the orientation and counseling. There are also programs and services for youth that address it.

HVB: Are you concerned about the preponderance of low-wage jobs in the region?

Sipos: We actually do have a lot of high-paying jobs, in insurance, financial services, health care, high-tech manufacturing. It’s an innovation economy, and there isn’t any reason we can’t home grow new businesses and technologies. Look what’s happening in Ulster County with (The Solar Energy Consortium). I have every reason to be believe that will be enormously successful, and we’ll have an organic growth in jobs.

HVB: How much of an issue is the high cost of living to the people you’re dealing with?

Sipos: It’s been a major concern for a long time. Five or six years ago, Dutchess County formed an affordable housing coalition to work with local municipalities, either to change their zoning to make it less restrictive or have bonus densities for affordable housing. It’s had limited success.

Ravinett: People commute long distances – people in Ulster commute to Dutchess, Rockland and Orange, people in Greene commute to Ulster and Dutchess and the Albany area.

HVB: What are the region’s strengths?

Sipos: The number of educational institutions. This area is very rich in educational institutions, all the way from the public school systems to our colleges. We have our community colleges, which are great for life-long learning and upgrading skills. Our BOCEs offer school age and adult ed.

Ravinett: Ulster County has the Ulster Tomorrow initiative, which looks at four different types of employment we believe are important to the region. They are agriculture, which plays into the quality of life; tourism; the creative economy, which isn’t just the arts, but also includes tech-based companies and innovative technologies; and green energy and renewables.

HVB: Some economic development people disparage tourism because many of the jobs are low paying.

Sipos: Tourism jobs are actually tremendously beneficial to the region. They are a net importer of new dollars to the region: People come here; they spend their money; and they go home. They don’t put kids in the schools or demand other services.

Ravinett: Tourism doesn’t just generate jobs in tourism. It also supports retailers and a lot of our local industries. When someone visits a region, he or she is more likely to purchase a product made in that region. So it helps support our apple growers and our crafts people. In addition, it’s the best marketing to the region you can get.

Normann: Many individuals have relocated businesses to the region because they stayed here sometime before.

 

 

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