<body><div>With employees, we can’t control quantity, let’s focus on quality News Staff Wed, 06/14/2023 - 11:57 Image <ul class="slides"><li> Penny McBride </li></ul> Body At the risk of sounding like a broken record, Gillespie County needs more workers. I’m stuck on this track because it remains the most played by the Chamber’s members. And consumers are starting to sing the same tune. Not long ago, a caller to our office expressed frustrations over the length of time she was without a car because the repair shop is understaffed. Maybe you’ve tried to eat at your favorite restaurant, only to find a temporary closure sign on the door because the business didn’t have enough employees to open that day. <nbtemplate data-id="AdPlaceholder" data-content="JTdCJTdE"></nbtemplate> Gillespie County’s unemployment rate for April (most recent data) fell to 2.4 percent, the second lowest among the 13 counties of the state’s Alamo Region. Coupled with relatively flat population growth — we’ve averaged less than one percent annual growth since the 2010 Census — we simply don’t have enough bodies to meet demand. Employers need more prospective workers to move here, but the cost and availability of housing prohibits the kind of migration needed to solve our employment woes. While the single-family housing market has cooled, data reported by the Central Hill Country Board of Realtors indicates a year-to-date mean sales price of $580,000. This is down 3.3% from the end of May 2022, yet far out of reach for many workers. Aside from quantity, Chamber members also express the need for quality, or a more skilled workforce. In response to this need, the Fredericksburg Chamber of Commerce is leaning in with local education providers to increase and support existing offerings. <nbtemplate data-id="AdPlaceholder" data-content="JTdCJTdE"></nbtemplate> Fredericksburg Independent School District is a critical link in building the workforce needed. Did you know the district’s Career and Technical Education Department offers 20 programs of study for professions in 10 key-demand career clusters? The school bond passed in 2022 includes funds to expand and renovate facilities for these programs, providing workplace-like learning spaces. As part of our Program of Work, the Chamber will be calling on our members to provide hands-on support of these programs. This can mean serving as a guest speaker, demonstrating or teaching technical skills and more. Before the start of the school year, we will provide a simple way to evaluate opportunities and volunteer to support student career paths to become the trained workers we need. Work experience is an invaluable tool in exploring career pathways and the Chamber plans to offer Job Fairs at Fredericksburg High School during both the fall and summer semesters. To maximize potential for employers, plans are underway to also invite non-students to the Job Fair in a separate time block. In January 2024, a Career Exploration Fair at Fredericksburg Middle School is being planned. <nbtemplate data-id="AdPlaceholder" data-content="JTdCJTdE"></nbtemplate> We are also working with Texas Tech University at Fredericksburg to assess the needs of local employers to identify and create close-to-home training opportunities to satisfy those needs. Years ago, Texas Tech University created academic coursework and professional certificate programs that have been instrumental in supporting the Texas wine industry, such as their Viticulture Certificate Program and Texas Winemaking Certificate Program. Similarly, Texas Tech has developed a Local Government Leadership Certificate program and will soon offer a Credit Analyst Certificate program in response to the needs of region’s banking and finance industry. The Chamber will soon poll companies that employ more than 25 workers to measure the need for certificate programs related to human resources or small business bookkeeping/budgeting. <nbtemplate data-id="AdPlaceholder" data-content="JTdCJTdE"></nbtemplate> Our community is blessed to have such breadth of education providers and flexibility in responsiveness. Making more workers is a difficult lift, but creating better, more-skilled workers, is well within our reach. McBride is the president and CEO of the Fredericksburg Chamber of Commerce. <a class="a2a_button_facebook"></a><a class="a2a_button_twitter"></a></div></body>

Mountain View, CA

With employees, we can’t control quantity, let’s focus on quality
News Staff
Wed, 06/14/2023 - 11:57

  
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      Penny McBride
    


              
      

  
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              At the risk of sounding...