Job training programs respond to ‘Help Wanted’ signs

It seems like only yesterday that people were having trouble finding jobs.

But as Colorado’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate slipped below 4 percent this month, the news broke that even prospective cleaners in Black Hawk and Regional Transportation District drivers were being offered as much as $2,000 in signing bonuses.

But is everyone in Colorado being treated like a top draft choice?

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Not necessarily, but it doesn’t hurt to be a software engineer in Boulder County, where Google’s imminent arrival means somewhere in the range of 1,000 new jobs. Clearly, engineering and coders are at the top of the employment list, noted Boulder Chamber of Commerce president John Tayer.

“These jobs are at a premium now, and businesses are doing more to make those jobs attractive both locally and nationally,” Tayer said. In today’s market, wages matter greatly but so does the working environment, so creating a positive corporate culture also becomes a priority.

While a lack of software experts has become a priority, training programs have stepped up to fill the void, Tayer said. Tech trainer Galvanize soon will be moving into downtown Boulder, and Code Craft, a boot camp for programming, already is getting people hired right out of their doors.

“They are taking people who have no coding experience and turning them into coders,” Tayer said. “It’s a pretty exciting evolution for people who never thought they would work in these fields.”

State and local agencies also have been playing an important role, especially Workforce Colorado. There are programs to pay up to 50 percent of the cost of training new employees or retraining existing employees, and an intern program run by the agency has seen placements all over Boulder County, including the Boulder Chamber, Tayer said.

Adam Crowe, a business services manager with the Larimer County Workforce Center in Fort Collins, said the tech industry definitely is having trouble keeping and recruiting employees up and down the Front Range. Businesses have responded in a number of ways, including helping employees extend student visas or secure H-1B visas.

“More businesses asking us for info on prevailing wage and more business are starting to talk about their culture,” Crowe said. That becomes important in Larimer County, he said, as employees consider whether it is worth a big commute to travel to the Boulder/Longmont area, where unemployment slipped below the 3 percent mark in October, to get a raise in pay.

“That’s one of the issues that’s out there,” he said. “How do we keep our employees?

“Businesses are looking beyond ‘how do we become the company of choice for our clients?’ and into ‘how do we become the company of choice for our employees?’ ”

While this question has long been a priority for tech giants such as Google and Facebook, with their legendary catered campuses, keeping valued employees has also become a focus of businesses with more blue and “light-blue” employees, as well.

Crowe, who estimated Larimer County’s unemployment rate would stay between 3 percent and 4 percent through the year, said while software and engineering experts are needed, software testing experts also are hard to find. A much overlooked gap that is almost becoming critical, he said, is mid-skill occupations in trades and manufacturing .

Employees with advanced skills as machinists, heavy-equipment operators, pipelayers and welders are hard to find and becoming more scarce by the day, Crowe said.

“There’s more and more trouble finding those folks. A lot of companies have been relying on skilled people who are retiring now, and there just isn’t anybody to replace those great skills and experience.”

CDL drivers are in short stock across the Front Range, Crowe said, as well as technical skills in health and insurance fields.

Trade skills in fields such as welding and machining are being addressed in two-year programs at Front Range Community College, said Matt Jamison, dean of instruction at the Boulder County campus. The school also has a boot camp for web programming.

A recent roundtable with area employers also has led to a new discipline at the college to train a workforce in electro-mechanical energy technology, which should help a number of the beer brewers in the area.

“There was a huge desire from Budweiser to have that program started,” said Jamison, noting that the training helps brewers with their automated processes.

Training can start early, as well, with Pathways in Technology, a program partnered by IBM, FRCC and the St. Vrain Valley School District. Theoretically, high school students can finish a degree in computer information systems in four years, while attending a mentor program with IBM in summer and getting first crack at interviews for IBM jobs.

Even in Weld County dealing with layoffs in the oil fields, employment is running high and those skilled labor positions have delayed construction projects, including the Laprino Food development. Still, the balance of the economy here is an important aspect, said Sarah MacQuiddy, president of the Greeley Chamber of Commerce.

“We’re in a pretty remarkable place here in Weld County, where we displaced workers in one place or another, but employees are finding jobs and employers are finding employees,” she said. Even with the displaced oilfield workers, she said, skilled trade employees remain at a premium, and the lack of CDL-licensed drivers is noticeable.

“There is a great need for skilled people, such as welders,” she said. “The construction industry is just screaming for people.”

By and large, MacQuiddy said, the balance in the economy helps even things out in Weld County. She also said that two-year colleges, especially Aims Community College, are addressing some of the major employment concerns – singling out a program in health insurance coding at the college.

With finding quality employees at a premium now, MacQuiddy said, a recent roundtable of business leaders found considerable concern that high school students realize the choices they make today could have a great impact on their future. Failed drug tests and DUIs are still enough to disqualify people from getting good employment, she said.