3rd Annual Virginia Works Conference

The 3rd Annual Virginia Works Conference, entitled Workforce Development – A Shared Responsibility, was held on October 30, 1997 at John Tyler Community College. The event attracted nearly 200 attendees who heard remarks from keynote speaker Dr. John Tobin, Director of Applied Technology Training of Siemens. Dr. Robert Templin, President of CIT, opened the conference with his entertaining and provocative comments on technology and future workforce issues.

A unique feature of the conference was the presentation of special projects that were developed through the afternoon break out sessions of last year’s conference. Volunteers from the 2nd annual conference coordinated workforce preparation projects in their communities and presented an overview of the results during the morning session of the conference. The Jobs of Tomorrow – Employers Speak Out forum was one of the four special projects and is described in an article elsewhere in this newsletter. The other projects were apprenticeship/shadowing, welfare reform and WorkKeys.

Robert Ranson, president-elect of the Greater Richmond Technology Council, also made a presentation during this session, and Mac MacIlroy of the Virginia Manufacturers Association provided the luncheon address. Following his remarks, attendees participated in break out sessions that were facilitated by the special project volunteers. Each of the special projects were described in detail so that the conference attendees could use the projects as models to recreate these programs within their own communities, schools and businesses.