By GREGORY ZELLER //
A specialized task force will assist workforce development at the Northeast’s largest industrial park.
The HIA-LI, one of Long Island’s most muscular business-advocacy organizations, has launched a Workforce Development Task Force tasked with maximizing employee-training opportunities for companies and managers throughout Long Island Innovation Park at Hauppauge.
With 1,400 companies (boasting some 50,000 employees) in the fold, the former Hauppauge Industrial Park accounts for one out of every 20 Long Island jobs and packs an annual economic output exceeding $13 billion – statistics that all but demand a well-constructed team dedicated to ensuring deep regional talent pools now and in the future, according to HIA-LI President and CEO Terri Alessi-Miceli.
“As Long Island continues to come back from COVID, business owners and organizations say that one of their biggest issues is the availability of a talent pool that’s suited to their immediate and future needs,” Alessi-Miceli said. “This task force will help align the efforts of key private-sector and public-sector players to deliver the kind of skills training that will benefit the Long Island economy well into the future.”
Terri Alessi-Miceli: Aligning interests.
The panel will be co-chaired by H2M architects & engineers CEO Rich Humann and Suffolk County Community College President Edward Bonahue, both members of the HIA-LI Board of Directors.
Humann cited a “void today between businesses who need workers with certain kinds of talent and workers who possess the right skills to fulfill these needs.”
“Fortunately, HIA-LI is an excellent position to help fill this void because of its strong relationships with business, academia, local and state government and workforce-development organizations,” the co-chairman added. “We can serve as a hub that helps to unify these key players.”
Bonahue trumpeted a winning blueprint in SCCC’s workforce-development programming, such as the recent launch of a Solar Installer Certificate Program that includes a paid “externship” with Ronkonkoma-based solar company SuNation Energy.
“We’ve taken strategic steps to shape our curriculum so that our graduates will have the skills necessary to enjoy promising careers with the businesses of the Long Island Innovation Park at Hauppauge and other employers,” Bonahue added. “Our Solar Installer Certificate Program serves as a perfect illustration of the kind of customized workforce-development programs this task force aims to create.”
Before creating anything, the Workforce Development Task Force will figure out exactly what its constituency needs in this evolving post-COVID world – and to that end is planning multiple stakeholder meetings, as well as an “In-Demand Skills Assessment” conducted throughout the vast park by New York City-based consultancy James Lima Planning + Development.
Edward Bonahue: Illustrated manual.
Those initiatives will be covered by a $15,000 grant awarded jointly to the HIA-LI and the Suffolk County Industrial Development Agency by the Albany-based Workforce Development Institute, the statewide nonprofit promoting all manners of workforce-related programming.
The results of the James Lima assessment will be shared with regional academic leaders to help them “better connect to the business sector” – key data that will hopefully spark “future programs that will best prepare graduates to thrive in the Long Island economy of tomorrow,” according to the HIA-LI.
In a statement, Suffolk County IDA Acting Executive Director Kelly Murphy called the attraction and retention of skilled workers “one of the biggest challenges facing Long Island businesses” – and doubly so for the manufacturing sector and other high-demand industries populating the Long Island Innovation Park at Hauppauge.
“Regional employers have been experiencing a brain drain because of such factors as the high cost of living and the shortage of affordable, attractive housing for young people,” Murphy added. “This task force will help us overcome these big challenges.”
