By GREGORY ZELLER //
The long-term competitiveness of the greater Long Island workforce – and the Northeast’s largest industrial park – gets the royal treatment in a new study by the region’s leading business agencies.
The HIA-LI, the Suffolk County Industrial Development Agency and the Albany-based Workforce Development Institute have labored to produce “Innovating the Talent Pipeline,” a five-part report/war plan designed to envision and create Long Island’s best socioeconomic hope: a modernized, well-trained and ready-to-rock 21st Century workforce, centered around Long Island Innovation Park at Hauppauge.
Released Oct. 13 at a Workforce Development Conference and Scholarship Awards event hosted by Farmingdale State College, the 54-page report brims with statistics, graphics, industry analyses and recommended strategies for keeping the Long Island workforce in the thick of the rapidly evolving innovation economy.
Subtitled “Strategies for Workforce Development in the Long Island Innovation Park at Hauppauge,” the report includes several suggestions for training-related investments appropriate to academic, government and private institutions – and focuses heavily on the former Hauppauge Industrial Park, a 1,400-square-foot mecca encompassing 1,300 companies, 55,000 employees and an annual economic output exceeding $13 billion.
Trumpeting a “visionary study,” HIA-LI Chief Executive Officer Terri Alessi-Miceli called “Innovating the Talent Pipeline” a viable workforce-development strategy “that can underpin the long-term resilience of the Long Island business sector.”
“Now more than ever, businesses are recognizing the importance of investing in the skills, knowledge and adaptability of their workforce,” Alessi-Miceli added.
Terri Alessi-Micelli: Some adaptability required.
That’s certainly reflected in the guts of the report, which was created for the lead agencies by New York City-based business advisory James Lima Planning + Development. The planning and real estate expert surveyed 34 Long Island-based employers this summer – 60 percent of whom were located within the industrial park – to best understand their talent attraction and retention challenges.
Skill gaps, access to training resources and the need for new attraction/retention strategies topped respondents’ concerns – making them concerns for the regional economy as a whole, according to Suffolk County IDA Acting Executive Director Kelly Murphy.
“The Suffolk County IDA’s role of attracting and retaining new businesses hinges on the ability of our region to produce a workforce that is ready to meet the skill sets required by today’s growing industries,” Murphy noted.
To that end, the report presents a five-point action plan designed to align regional workforce-development efforts with real-world technological and societal demands. It also aims to generate sustainable workforce returns for Long Island businesses – that is, to prepare dynamic workers who thrive not only in today’s busiest sectors, but tomorrow’s.
Kelly Murphy: Addressing gaps.
Topping the report’s recommendations is an Island-wide “Access and Awareness” campaign, meant to engage employers, training providers and community-based organizations in an all-for-one effort to promote resource-sharing and other critical collaborations.
Strengthened industry-academia partnerships, enhanced cross-sector collaborations, expanded professional-mentoring initiatives and new, desperately needed affordable-housing options all earn special attention.
Noting the front-line feed from dozens of regional business owners, Murphy applauded a proactive and “extremely impactful” report that “helps determine where some of the knowledge and skills gaps exist, so they can be addressed.”
“A diverse and talented workforce is what sets our region apart,” the Suffolk IDA exec added. “This study will bolster our position into the future.”
