Missoulian, Sunday, November 19, 2017 — A1
WESTERN MONTANA
BUSINESS FALL 2017
Higher education and the economy
2 — Missoulian, Sunday, November 19, 2017
WESTERN MONTANA INBUSINESS
UM is area’s largest employer DAVID ERICKSON david.erickson@missoulian.com
It is no secret that the University of Montana is a major driver of Missoula’s economy. Not only is it the largest single employer in western Montana, but the students and visitors it attracts spend money on everything from housing to craft beer every year. The Bureau of Business and Economic Research at the University of Montana took a look at the specific ways that UM boosts the local economy. It found the presence of the university creates 9,700 jobs statewide, $1 billion in after-tax income, $200 million in state tax revenues and $352 million in annual investment spending. The average compensation per job in Montana is $1,346 per year higher because of UM. All of the findings take into account the tax support and tuition dollars the university receives from Montanans as a public education institution. “The operations and the output of the University of Montana in Missoula result in a larger, more prosperous and more populous Montana economy,” Patrick Barkey, an economist and the director of the BBER, stated in the report. “The additional earnings power of its graduates, the contributions of its research, patents and inventions and the millions of dollars of business it conducts with Montana vendors of products and services extend its ultimate economic footprint to all corners of the state.” Barkey and economist Jennifer Hepp wrote the report. They also looked at how UM attracts visitors to the city, whether they are parents attending a graduation ceremony or researchers attending a lecture. Hepp and Barkey found that the 3,456 nonresident students at UM in 2010 generated about 9,600 visits by friends and relatives from out of state, with the average person staying an average of about 3.5 days. “From the statewide perspective, it is only the spending by out-of-state visitors that can be said to add to the Montana economy,” Barkey said. He and Hepp estimated that the nonresident trips generated about $5.2 million worth of spending in the state, with most of the money going to food services, accommodations and travel.
TOM BAUER, Missoulian
Brianna Rowe hands a box to her father Alex as they and Brianna’s mother Shannon unload a U-Haul trailer to move Brianna into the University of Montana’s Miller Hall in fall 2016. “Spending by nonresidents visiting or passing through Montana constitutes an important component of the state economy,” Hepp said. “The University of Montana-Missoula generates significant visitor traffic, including visits by friends and families of its students and faculty and by those attending academic, cultural and athletic events hosted at or because of the university. Were it not for the presence of the university, these visits, as well as the spending and the jobs that spending supports, would not exist.” The spending by students off-campus plays a significant role as well. Nonresident students spend about $49 million in Montana for each academic year they live
in Montana, with retail sales accounting for $20.8 million of that. Because UM is such an important player in the economy of Missoula, it comes as no surprise that there has been significant consternation and despair following a huge enrollment drop, almost a quarter of full-time equivalent students, since 2010. With a drop in students and the money they bring to the economy comes a push by officials at UM to reduce payroll expenditures. The university has taken steps to boost enrollment, starting by hiring a new vice president for enrollment and student affairs, Tom Crady. Research is a huge component at UM. A different 2014 study found research
supports 1,075 permanent, high-paying jobs in the state, 521 of which are at UM. Those jobs translate into $64.3 million in payroll and a total economic output of $134.9 million in the state. There are examples of businesses that have spun off from research and intellectual property developed at UM, such as Sunburst Sensors, a thriving company that manufactures and sells autonomous chemical sensors.“As Montana faces the challenges of finding ways to grow income, job opportunities and prosperity in the years ahead, it is well served by a university that plays a key role in helping to achieve those same goals,” Barkey concluded.
Missoulian, Sunday, November 19, 2017 — 3
WESTERN MONTANA INBUSINESS MISSOULA JOB SERVICE’S PATHWAYS
Program offers employers incentive to hire
WESTERN MONTANA
BUSINESS
FALL 2017, Vo. 5, No. 4 Western Montana InBusiness is a publication of the Missoulian
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separate Job Service offices in Missoula, Savage said. The walk-in office at 539 S. Third St. W is well-known because it has computer terminals. Savage’s office at 2677 Palmer St. Suite 222 is less wellknown because it is referral only and doesn’t have walk-in services. However, she encourages people who qualify to call 406-329-1293 to make an appointment or stop by the office to make an appointment. She’s still looking for employers who would be interested, too. “We have a lot of employers that are willing to sign up,” she said. “We just have to have the people to match them. We are intentionally trying to target both sides of the arena.” Savage said her office also has a program called Education Pays that can help people gain job skills.
“We have the ability to assist individuals in gaining the education they need for employment,” she said. “We cannot pay for a four-year degree. However, we do have the ability to pay for most certification programs, (for example) the Chair Side Dental Assistant Program through Lifelong Learning Center.” The list of occupations that job-seekers could potentially find is long, Savage said. “If they want to do HVAC (heating, ventilation and air-conditioning), for example, we can do some legwork behind the scenes and send them out with a letter of introduction, and in the meantime we’re cold-calling different agencies and saying we have a person interested in doing HVAC work,” Savage said. “It takes some personal buy-in. But it’s a great program for job seekers.”
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Savage said most people in Missoula meet the criteria of living at or below 200 percent of the federal poverty guidelines, which for a household of one person A little-known program in Missoula is $27,720 per year and for two people gives employers a big financial incentive is $37,240. to hire people who may not have all the What Savage is trying to do is get job skills they’re looking for but who are willing to learn a new career for stability. employers to hire people who they ordinarily wouldn’t consider because it would The Missoula Job Service’s Pathways Program uses federal money to reimburse be expensive to train them. With the reimbursement, the cost of spending sevemployers for the first 600 hours of eral months training a person is negated. employment for hiring Missoula-area “This is designed to assist the job job seekers as long as they pay at least seeker who may not have all of the train$10 an hour. The employees must have ing or skills that an employer may prefer,” at least one minor child in the home at Savage said. least 51 percent of the time and be living Savage has about a dozen people she is at or below 200 percent of the federal trying to match up with employers right poverty level. now, but she is trying to get the word out. “We are trying to help people go from “It wasn’t really until this past March working ‘just a job’ to a career path which will enable them to be self-sufficient and that we got the fine print delineated,” she support their families,” said Kristtyn Sav- said. “It takes a little bit to get the fine print ready to launch. And we can’t pay age, the Job Service’s Pathways Program money for advertising. We want to get the client advocate. “It’s a true definition of info out to the public, but we can’t pay to a subsidized or supported employment do it.” program, helping both job seekers and Most people don’t realize there are two employers.” DAVID ERICKSON david.erickson@missoulian.com
(406) 541-2020 os2inc.com
WESTERN MONTA
4 — Missoulian, Sunday, November 19, 2017
School fits programs to local industries Missoula College boosts economy by making sure graduates are positioned for jobs on labor market outcomes at Missoula College. The study found that roughly 79 percent of Missoula College graduates find employment after one year. Of those here is a strong demand for certain kinds of workers in Missoula, who were employed, 67 percent were and local educational leaders are working in Missoula County a year after trying hard to keep up the pace of graduation and another 7 percent were working in Ravalli County. The number the supply. Officials at Missoula College have been of Missoula College grads working in the tailoring their educational programs to fit local area falls to 58 percent within five years, but the western portion of the state the local industries and businesses that still retains a large gathering of graduates. are struggling to find enough workers. “The large number of graduates The result is that local employers can employed in the local area suggest that tap into a source of talent they otherwise might not have, which gives a boost to the Missoula College is filling an important role in the regional economy,” said one local economy. “We are not doing students any service of the study’s authors, Amy Watson, an by recruiting them and encouraging them economist for the state. The report also found that graduates to go into programs that have minimal job placement and no need in the workforce,” earn more than the Missoula average entry-level wage within a year after gradsaid Shannon O’Brien, the dean of Misuation and earn more than the median soula College. “If we’re good stewards of taxpayer dollars in public education, then income within five years. Registered nursing graduates have the we are helping match students based on their interests to our programs that have a best wage and employment outcomes and high need in the workforce. And the goal, are in demand in the local labor market. Watson and her co-authors found 95 the ultimate goal in a robust economy, is percent of graduates in the registered prosperity and dinner on the table and nursing program are employed within one roofs over their heads.” year and are earning more than $41,000 Missoula College, which just built a per year. Other medical fields also have shiny new river campus building on East better-than-average workforce outcomes. Broadway, is a two-year educational In layman’s terms, that means they find facility that offers a variety of technical good-paying jobs easily. and vocational training in health care, “However, because health care is both a business technology, industrial technollarge employer and growing at an aboveogy, applied computing and engineering technology, and applied arts and sciences. average pace, Missoula College graduates In 2016, two economists with the Mon- are only filling 22 percent of expected demand from the health care industry tana Department of Labor and Industry, the director of a the state’s apprenticeship in the Northwest region,” Watson said. “Health care is expected to need over 430 program and a data analyst with the workers per year just to fill new positions, Montana Office of the Commissioner although some of this worker demand will of Higher Education compiled a report
T
DAVID ERICKSON david.erickson@missoulian.com
require education levels higher than an associate’s degree.” O’Brien said she uses the report to show students who are undecided on a major. “When students are looking at what their major should be, that document helps them understand the likelihood of getting a job and the need in the workforce,” she said. “It’s a great recruitment tool and retention tool, and it shows that working hard in class will pay off because they’ll have a job because there’s a need.” The study also helped O’Brien realize
there are areas of high need that she wasn’t aware of, such as accounting technology. “I knew nursing and culinary arts and hospitality and customer relations were high needs because of the tourism industry, but I started talking to CEOs and human resources directors about that report, and they said yes we do need payroll personnel and bookkeepers,” O’Brien recalled. “The study was very helpful in that regard.” Missoula College also has a variety of
ANA INBUSINESS
Missoulian, Sunday, November 19, 2017 — 5
The new Missoula College building. TOMMY MARTINO, Missoulian
apprenticeship programs, where students get paid to train and work at local employers such as Allegiance, a health insurance program benefits management company in Missoula that employs hundreds of people and is always looking for more workers. “We have an emphasis on work-based learning in general,” O’Brien continued. “We’re at a point with our economy as it is, we’re well below 4 percent unemployment, so students aren’t coming to Missoula College in the traditional manner. They’re going to work. The brilliant model with Allegiance has been such a great solution to the problem. If the applicant pool works with Missoula College to do training while they’re on the job, they’re getting the work done and getting an education at the same time.” All in all, O’Brien said the report recognizes the impact Missoula College has on the region’s economy. “The report is both empowering and it brings on quite a sense of responsibility to continue that work,” she said. “All of the programs have a 100 percent return on investment in one year, and their earning potential after graduation is increased such that they will pay the cost of tuition within one year. So getting the word out is important to us. We’re just starting to get there, which is very exciting. We’re certainly at a point with the enrollment situation where it helps us think outside the box and make changes in a more timely matter.” To view the full report visit online at http://mc.umt.edu/about/MTDLIMUS_Missoula_College_Report_A1.pdf. BELOW: The a la carte kitchen at the new Missoula College is set up like most commercial kitchens, allowing students to learn in the type of environment where they might work. TOM BAUER, Missoulian
RIGHT: Professor Tom Gallagher, center, shows Mark Williams some of the new technology that Missoula College boasts for students during the open house that followed the grand opening of the school’s new building in September. TOMMY MARTINO, Missoulian
6 — Missoulian, Sunday, November 19, 2017
WESTERN MONTANA INBUSINESS
Launching local business UM’s Blackstone LaunchPad helps entrepreneurs DAVID ERICKSON david.erickson@missoulian.com
Several well-known Missoula businesses like The Dram Shop, a popular beer, wine and cider taproom downtown, owe part of their success to the Blackstone LaunchPad at the University of Montana. Other businesses, like Chilton Skis, are trying to become successful and are using the LaunchPad for resources. LaunchPad is a program that’s designed to teach entrepreneurial skills to people with an idea for a new business through individualized coaching and venture creation support. The program provides idea exploration, startup consultation, mentorship, community connections and workshops. Recently, LaunchPad’s funding paid for two Missoula entrepreneurs to pitch their ideas at a tech startup incubator and investment entity called Tech Stars in New York City. George Gaines, the founder of Chilton Skis in Missoula, was selected as one of seven out of 40 businesses to pitch on the final night to compete for cash prizes. “It’s a high-intensity, highpaced two-day long workshop,” Gaines said. “I didn’t win, even though it seemed to me I got the biggest rise out of the crowd by far. But Blackstone LaunchPad has been very positive for me, and this week-long trip to Manhattan was just one example of that.” Gaines crafts hand-made skis out of pine beetle-killed wood that’s salvaged from forests around western Montana, including some areas that burned in wildfires this past summer. He
non-traditional materials supply chains that tap both urban tree canopies and the forests of western Montana. “It’s a time and labor intensive way to source wood for anything, ski building included. But we are committed to this material acquisition philosophy.” To get assistance from LaunchPad, you need to either be a student, faculty, alumni or staff member at UM. Gladen, the director of the program, said the funding comes from the Blackstone Charitable Foundation and there are now almost 20 versions of the program in the U.S. and Ireland. Gaines, in fact, had not yet come up with the idea for a Kickstarter campaign before he spoke with Gladen. “It’s something that come up in our conversations together,” Gladen said. “A Kickstarter campaign can be useful, depending on the nature of the business. For TOMMY MARTINO, Missoulian a lot of potential startups with The Blackstone LaunchPad program is open to all majors and helps thrust business ideas like George consumer-ish products, it’s a Gaines’ into reality. good way to get strangers to buy products and become validated to other customers. It’s by no means the only path, but it’s a path.” Gaines is working hard to get his Bitterroot Buttersticks skis George Gaines available for pre-order, and he has big plans for his company thanks to the mentorship he’s meet them halfway.” of importance to entrepreneurs has a partnership with a woodgotten from the Blackstone In spring 2016, Gaines won in the state. So programs like chipping business in Bonner LaunchPad program. Gaines calls third place in a statewide busithis and people like Paul Gladen called Willis Enterprises to get ness startup challenge, won Best his business model an “unprecwho directs that program, are access to the wood, and he also edented level of environmental Manufactured Good and tied indispensable, important and uses other composite materials. sustainability” in the ski industry, for first for Best Elevator Pitch. As a Ph.D. student at the Uni- instrumental to the continued and he’s focused on getting the He successfully raised $28,000 development to entrepreneurial versity of Montana, Gaines had through a Kickstarter campaign. word out about his products. access to the resources provided activity in western Montana.” “I don’t want to give anybody “We spent the following six Gaines said he worked closely by the LaunchPad program. the impression that LaunchPad months spending money as with Gladen since he founded “LaunchPad has been absohis business in August 2015. The strategically as we could to fulfill is going to build a business for lutely critical to the success of a you,” he said. “I would caution program provides legal consulta- those pre-orders for skis,” he lot of small businesses,” he said. anybody who is thinking entresaid. “We need to enhance our “I wonder how many spectacular tion, market development, preneurship is a way to avoid production to build skis more accounting advice and insurideas never came to fruition in having a job. You are going to efficiently and confidently so western Montana because entre- ance expertise. do the work of five people. But we can take a higher volume of “You get out what you put preneurs never had access to the orders. We are committed to pre- it’s incredibly rewarding if you into it,” he said. “You still have kind of resources I had access serving high standards of crafts- actually do the work to see results to work hard. But they will recto. We are entering an era where come to life.” manship and are committed to the state is ascribing a high level ognize you are dedicated if you
“You get out what you put into it. You still have to work hard. But they will recognize you are dedicated if you meet them halfway.”
Missoulian, Sunday, November 19, 2017 — 7
WESTERN MONTANA INBUSINESS LIFELONG LEARNING CENTER
‘Best-kept secret in Missoula’ Local center provides workforce training, classes and more
so individuals of all socioeconomic classes can participate,” Fortmann said. The Lifelong Learning Center has a special program for English-as-a-second-language where many of the recent DAVID ERICKSON resettled refugees from other david.erickson@missoulian.com countries are learning how to communicate here. Fortmann Inside a nondescript said the Learning Center is converted elementary school constantly adapting to combuilding at 310 S. Curtis St. in munity demand. central Missoula, more than “So as we’re trying to figure 500 people a day take classes out what classes to offer, we on everything from phlebotomy look at what’s hot in the comto welding to bookkeeping to munity,” she said. “We listen Korean cooking as part of a to our students. They fill out massive effort to provide adult evaluations and we read every education in a much different one of those and one of the form than the standard colquestions we ask is ‘what else lege structure. would you like to see offered?’ The Lifelong Learning CenWe are an institution that is ter, which is a part of Missoula constantly changing because County Public Schools, offers whatever the demands are is a huge variety in the 2,000 what we are trying to meet.” different classes offered by 200 In the highly technical classes different instructors every year such as the dental program for extremely affordable fees. and the welding program, The mission, according to adult KIRA VERCRUYSSEN, Missoulian experts from the community education division director Adult education division director for the Lifelong Learning Center, Monique Fortmann, said she is are brought in to give presentaMonique Fortmann, is to protions. In fact, many students in vide a low-cost opportunity for almost brought to tears when she looks at the school’s “Hall of Fame” where pictures and letters of former students who’ve gone on to success explain how the Learning Center helped them. The the Learning Center’s welding people of all ages — as long as program also has an official graduation every May. program have gone on to get they are 16 or older — to learn jobs at local employers like both informal arts and crafts folks ready where they can start Alcom, a company that manuclass — are usually comand potential job skills, no mat- spot — every one of the classfactures trailers in Bonner. getting into positions to fill pletely full. rooms is full,” Fortmann said. ter their station in life. Fortmann said she is almost in, that’s what we take a look “I’m pretty tied in with the Fortmann acknowledges that “You look in the classrooms brought to tears when she looks at doing.” Missoula Job Service and we although the program is hugely and you might have a group of at the school’s “Hall of Fame” Theoretically, one could take a look at unemployment in students who are prepping to popular, it is still relatively where pictures and letters of take a pickleball lesson in the take the ACT, right next to that different areas and we look at unknown to most people in former students who’ve gone state initiatives where they say morning, learn the software you might have students that Missoula County. on to success explain how the ‘these are areas where we know skills necessary to be an office are taking sign language and “It’s probably the best-kept administrative specialist in the Learning Center helped them. there are vacancies going to be you have anybody from early secret in Missoula,” Fortmann The program also has an official afternoons and then discover 20s to late 60s in there. It’s just coming up’ so we make sure said. “We have great word how to can fruits and vegetables graduation every May. we’re trying to get a trained all over the place.” of mouth, but it’s a constant “Not everyone had a positive workforce,” she said. “Our state at night, all for about $600 The program began in 1957 battle. We don’t want to be a experience with the education total. The workforce training statistics right now, when you and is funded by fees, grants secret. We want everybody to classes are longer and more in- system,” she said. “Here, our and a small millage from MCPS. take a look at the number of be able to come here and enjoy baby boomers that are going to depth and therefore cost more, mission is to try to make learnand utilize. I really look at us as Fortmann said the workforce but other life-skills classes cost ing fun for everyone.” be retiring out, our labor pool training classes — which a community service.” as little as $17. is short. include a certified nursing Still, the place is For more information visit “Really part of our goal and “And so anything and assistant training, a chairside extremely popular. missoulaclasses.com or call 406mission is to keep the cost of everything we can do to help dental assistant program and a “I was here last night at 549-8765. our classes as low as possible kind of backfill, or at least get 8 p.m. and there’s not a parking low pressure boiler operation
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