Elaine Young pilots State Workforce Development.

It’s not just all about money. Thank goodness. It’s what you do with what you’re allotted. If you’re part of a government agency having to work with considerably less than what it has been used to, that’s where smarts play a big role. And, of course, attitude – not crying over spilt milk, but even having fun scheming to get the most out of almost nothing. That’s the approach the state’s Workforce Development Division has followed with varied success since its staff of nearly 300 in pre-recession years dwindled to under 100, with many now assigned multiple functions in the Department of Labor and Industrial Relations. “We’re hurting,” admits Elaine Young, the division’s chief administrator, referring to the diminished staffing provided for the 19 Federally-funded Workforce programs. “By the same token, we have, however, enjoyed collaborative effort with our Federal counterpart and other

partners keeping programs going and, importantly, drawing the interest of other vocational interests to look to apprenticeship as the best route for skill development under a combined work/study process,” she adds.

DOLIR has applied for Federal stimulus funds as well as for grants to carry out specific Workforce-administered programs. Targeted in particular are the ones in select high-growth industries such as health care, Young notes.

She said Division program manager Carol Kanayama was at a recent conference of peers to ensure that all state components transitioning to changes in their respective apprenticeship programs conform with those made at the Federal level.

The latter includes a computerized apprentice registration system that would complete forms to as many as six new indentures in an hour, a sharp increase from former processing.

Young attributes much of the advances gained to Al Valles (director of the local Fed office of apprenticeship). “He monitors our Neighbor Isle programs and has truly been a strategic partner for the state on many other joint undertakings, including marketing and liaison with the various Unions and businesses,” Young says.

Its vastly reduced operating budget hasn’t hampered the Division in keeping an observant eye on other new opportunities the Fed offers the state and counties, especially in the energy and “green” realms. “We were always on the lookout for grants that will expand existing or create new programs,” the Division head points out.

She sees the involvement of the building trades at job fairs throughout the state a major positive for youngsters at the brink of considering career options. “The Plumbers Union’s mobile trailer has been like a magnet for them,” she observes.

The Division is completing work on a website that should give viewers a comprehensive picture of the status and changes of the apprenticeship programs it oversees. That itself should spark renewed interest in a job source area that islanders stunned by periodic business closures would joyously welcome.