Partnership to use $100,000 grant for job training

CALAIS – A local group concerned about education and the economic health of the area has formed a partnership in a bid to stem Washington County’s declining job opportunities and stalled economic base.

The group, calling itself the Washington County Education and Economic Development Alliance, emerged after 1998 when a group of people from across the county got together to talk about their concerns about educational opportunities for young people who are not interested in attending college.

During those discussions, one issue that emerged was the limited number of good paying jobs for job seekers of all ages.

That was three years ago.

Last year, the group was awarded a $100,000 federal school-to-work long-range planning grant.

Today, Washington County has watched as its high school graduates have continued to leave the area in search of better jobs; fish processing plants have closed in Lubec, idling nearly 25 percent of its work force; and other businesses have closed in Eastport and Calais.

As the group has continued to talk, more people have joined from the fields of education, economic development, businesses, adult education, vocational training and work development. The project also gained support from the Washington County Consortium for School Improvement, which includes leaders from area school districts, the University of Maine at Machias and the Washington County Technical College.

Out of those meetings, the alliance was formed. Its focus has grown to address the problem of an undereducated, undertrained work force throughout Washington County.

In February the alliance hired Ruth Cash-Smith of Dennysville as project facilitator.

The Washington County Education and Economic Development Alliance is committed to:

. Coming up with and recommending actions to expand and promote educational opportunities.

. Advocating creative approaches to serve unmet program and financial needs in the county.

. Fostering collaboration among businesses, educators and the communities they serve.

Jim Rier, chairman of the alliance and a former State Board of Education chairman, recently talked about the new group. He said 26 percent of Washington County residents do not have a high school diploma and only 12 percent of the population has a bachelor’s degree or higher.

Rier said the organization’s first task was to inventory and identify the educational programs that already exist in the county at the technical college and UMM. The results of that analysis will be made available on the alliance’s Web site at www.wc-alliance.org.

Last year, four of Gov. Angus King’s Cabinet members attended a symposium in Machias that focused on improving opportunities for training and economic development in Washington County. The alliance has the backing of the state’s education, labor, economic and community development and state planning organizations.

Integrating existing facilities, resources and programs is part of the alliance’s goals. “We are taking a very concentrated look at … new programs that may serve the long-term interests of Washington County,” Rier said.

In June, the alliance sponsored a forum at the Washington County Technical College to talk about the school-to-work planning grant the group received. “It was to solicit business and educator input into our planning process,” Cash-Smith said.

People attended from a broad-based field, including health occupations, biotechnology, marine sciences, entrepreneurship, as well as business and finance. It was clear during the break sessions that the respective groups shared common problems, including educating the public about the job and educational opportunities that are available and getting a disciplined and trained work force into those fields.

And it’s also about changing attitudes.

When prospective employers see that only about 12 percent of the county’s residents have a college education, they tend to look elsewhere to locate their business. “We have to do something to change that,” Cash-Smith said. “This is not all about making everyone in Washington County college educated, because a lot of people don’t go that route. But we have to pay attention to the research that is out that is saying that workers today and tomorrow must have increased skills.”

Rier and Cash-Smith say they are realistic about the problems the alliance faces.

Groups concerned about the declining work force, the exodus of high school graduates looking for employment and the reluctance of businesses to relocate to the county, have come and gone. But Rier said he believes this group is different. He said members of the alliance are aware of employers’ concerns about the county’s untrained work force and that the alliance will focus on that. “We realize there is no quick fix,” Cash-Smith added. “But to do nothing is worse because it leaves us in the downward spiral that we are in.”