Shortly after Earl Buford came here in June to take over as CEO of the local workforce development board Partner4Work, one of the board members took him down to the Mon Valley.
“He took me to this public housing community. It was up on a hill, with one road in and one out, and no buses. I was stunned,” he said. “They aren’t going to come to our job center five bus rides away. We have to find a way to get to them.”
For Buford, workforce development is personal. Thanks to a workforce training program in Milwaukee, his father landed a job with Delco Electronics that led to a 30-year career in a United Autoworkers Plant.
“It isn’t just getting someone a job—it’s hitting the lottery,” he told the African American Chamber of Commerce’s Feb. 15 PowerBreakfast. “I’ve lived it, and seen it work. So, there’s no better place for me to be than here at the chamber because we’re working for the same thing.”
Before coming to Pittsburgh, Buford was the CEO of Wisconsin’s largest workforce development board, Employ Milwaukee. He explained that Partner4Work, like the 800 other workforce development boards across the country, uses mostly federal funds to fund job-training programs and to subsidize businesses to do on-the-job training.
“What we’re doing that’s new to this market is setting up industry advisory councils, getting closer to these companies—so we know what’s out there. You can’t get someone a job if you don’t know about it,” he said. “We’re setting up councils of industry in seven sectors: construction; manufacturing; healthcare; leisure and hospitality; IT; logistics; and financial services. A couple have really taken off. We have a strong relationship with building trades, now (we) need to grow our relations with contractors. And on the financial services side, we’re going to be only the 15th city to offer the ‘BankWork$’ entry-level banking program. It’s already vetted and approved, and we have 10 banks on board already.”
Buford said he is interested in working with chamber members on these councils, and in any other way that can help grow their businesses.
“You can’t just chase employers around asking them to hire people. It’s not coordinated or strategic,” he said. Through these councils, we can let industry help us decide what’s a recognizable training program—then we say, OK, if we support this program, you’ll hire from this program.”
In response to an audience question, Buford admitted the workforce development sector has missed a huge segment of the population—those with jobs who are looking to move up.
“No one is being trained for the second level—this country has failed in that regard. It’s now very transactional—we train them, place them, and we’re done. Think about that. Someone gets trained and placed and we can’t do anything more with them—that doesn’t add up,” he said. “Our board is changing our policy on that. Retail is probably the perfect place to start because if people can’t move up, they move on quickly. So, imagine retailers, instead of losing people to attrition, sending them back to us and we’ll train them for the next-level job.”
Buford said his board is also planning on a monthly “shark tank” type meeting, where one Friday a month, people can pitch their best ideas. He also committed to setting up a workshop for chamber members on how to collaborate with Partner4Work.
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