Thursday, August 28, 2008

Pittsburgh Regional Compact

I've been delinquent in welcoming TECHburgher to the blogosphere. If Pop City were a blog, it would be TECHburgher. There are already a few posts up of interest to me, with the Allegheny Conference talking about talent standing out:

The Allegheny Conference has identified [talent attraction] as one of the central issues to be addressed within our next three year strategic plan. I am sure that you know about the Pittsburgh Compact. In the fall we will launch a new initiative to support our employers and those engaged in talent attraction efforts. We wanted to have the opportunity to brief you on this new effort and to discuss ways in which we might work together for our collective benefit.

As it stands now, the Pittsburgh Compact is operating on an outdated model, training local students to fill local jobs. So, I'm excited to read that the Allegheny Conference is updating its workforce strategy. The Talent Attraction Forum was last Monday (25th) and I haven't seen anything indicating what happened. I guess we wait for the official unveiling.

As far as I can tell, implementing a plan for talent attraction is at least 5 years in the making. Better late than never? Here is the claim:

Because of our region’s demographic profile, we believe have the opportunity to become a model for the nation as for many years to come other regions will face similar challenges as baby boomers exit the work force.

Pittsburgh may be out front of the looming demographic challenges associated with retirement brain drain, but I think the window of first-mover advantage has already sailed. Two years of blogging about the Burgh Diaspora has taught me that there are a variety of talent attraction strategies already in play. A number of them provide good models for Pittsburgh to emulate. Does the Allegheny Conference have a novel approach up its sleeve?

No comments: