Investing

Finding — and keeping — a trained, capable, reliable workforce continues to be one of the greatest challenges business owners face today in Whatcom County and across the nation. The skilled trades and STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) fields are experiencing the greatest need. A perfect storm of barriers has resulted in worker shortages across virtually all business sectors, hindering growth.

Thankfully, a coalition of local governments, colleges and universities, trade organizations, nonprofits and businesses in Whatcom County are working harder than ever to ensure that resources, opportunities and support are in place to develop workers to meet current demand and ambitious, long-term economic goals. By bringing together community leaders, big-picture thinkers and public and private resources, locals are confident that collaborative efforts will help both youth and incumbent workers adapt and succeed in the trades and STEM careers in a constantly evolving global economic climate.

Step one: understanding the problem

Although we don’t all agree on exactly how we got here, there are a few obvious contributors.

“The pandemic put a huge pause on workforce development, because we weren’t able to align opportunities as a community — we were all working from home,” recalled Anya Milton, former executive director of the Ferndale Chamber of Commerce, now serving as Bellingham Technical

College’s director of corporate and continuing education and work-based education.

About 75,000 fewer students were enrolled in community and technical colleges in the 2021-2022 academic year compared to before the pandemic, according to the 2022 Washington Student Achievement Council Report. That is also the case for BTC, which has been training students for technical careers for more than six decades. Enrollment is down in most of its associate degree and certificate programs, as are Whatcom Community College’s community and continuing education and degree and certificate programs. A number of factors have contributed to the enrollment declines, and we don’t fully understand them all.

“People found other means of getting income during the pandemic, and maybe quality of life is another aspect,” Milton said. “For some of these young folks, the last three years of their education have been spent online. Those are pivotal years of development — especially socially — for these upcoming workers, and it will take them some time. But there is a renewed urgency to align opportunities from the K-12 system to community and technical colleges.”

Even before the pandemic, the skilled trades had struggled to maintain workforce numbers. “In the early ’90s, ‘vocational education’ became ‘career and technical education’ or ‘CTE,’” explained Deb Granger of the Working Waterfront Coalition of Whatcom County. “We worked hard to change the perception that it was, you know, lesser than or not as rigorous as the four-year system.”

The coalition, which Granger helped found in 2015, now includes 135 businesses and individuals focused on preserving the county’s working waterfronts. Their primary initiatives include connecting students with training.

Granger recalls how young people were increasingly encouraged to pursue four-year degrees with promises of higher wages, advancement and job security — promises that are not being realized for many today.

“When students hear that and think, ‘I’m not cut out for college,’ they don’t have a clear idea of what their other options are,” Milton said.

Lance Calloway, northern district manager of the Washington Chapter of the Associated General Contractors of America, agrees.

“Only about 30% of the kids that graduate high school go on to college,” he said. “But, unfortunately, too much of our time is focused on that, so we’re short-changing the other students. I’ve seen good change in some sectors, but we also really need to change the mentality of mom and dad.”

Granger agrees that educating par- ents and changing perceptions has helped the pendulum swing back toward hands-on learning. But the problem in the trades is expected to continue to grow.

“Statistically, there will be about 750,000 experienced tradespeople expand educational attainment, and align employer needs with educational programs and curriculum.” In addition to Team Whatcom, a number of other programs are attempting to find or be the solution.

Although enrollment has declined since the pandemic, Running Start has been active in Washington state high schools for three decades. The program allows high school juniors and seniors to take classes for simultaneous high school and college credit at community and technical colleges.

High schoolers interested in the construction industry can explore via the Washington state program, Core Plus Construction, administered by AGC’s Education Foundation. Students can explore construction indus- try careers through hands-on learning while earning high school credit.

“Industry professionals are coming into the classroom and working with the students directly,” Calloway said. The real-world skills and experience will help them in jobs, apprenticeships, trade school certificate programs, twoand four-year colleges and the military.

Calloway says Bellingham School District is one of 52 across the state with the Core Plus Construction program, and another is in the works for Blaine School District in fall 2023.

Lummi Nation School also has 60 students in the Core Plus Maritime program.

“In 2016, the state determined that

(continued on page 22) opment are stepping up to plan and implement actions to address the community’s needs. The Port of Bellingham’s Economic Development Division Regional Economic Partnership formed Team Whatcom, a coalition of leaders from more than 30 entities focused on economic development, including tribes, city and county governments, business and nonprofit organizations and educators. The group has met twice a month for the past several years in pursuit of the REP’s goal to attract (and retain) livable wage jobs and to help ensure the success of businesses, entrepreneurs and local organizations.

In October 2021, the group produced the Whatcom County Comprehensive Economic Development Strategy 2022-2026 report, which included a goal to “develop a skilled workforce,