Sector Partnership to Engage Students
Tasha Werry, Executive Director
Have you heard of AOMC? It stands for Appalachian Ohio Manufacturers’ Coalition. They are a new membership-based, non-profit organization, which actively recruits manufacturers and service providers to join. Their work is as an industry sector partnership, which brings multiple employers within a sector together to collaborate on common issues. They support manufacturers in a six county region: Meigs, Athens, Morgan, Noble, Monroe, and Washington. Right now, their work focuses on three different areas:
Engaging high school students and the future workforce
Gathering accurate data on the workforce needs of manufacturers
Sifting through the vast topic of industry-recognized credentials
One thing that sector partnerships have in common is having a convener or an intermediary. The intermediary helps the employers make connections to resources that will help them. BB2C serves as the intermediary for AOMC. Why? AOMC is building career pathways to local employers that our students need to know about. This is a great example of two organizations working together toward a common goal, which is the kind of collaboration that BB2C is based on. Recently, with the support of BB2C, AOMC received an Industry Sector Partnership Award from the Ohio Governor’s Office. According to Ohio Lt. Governor Jon Husted,
“These awards will jumpstart and expand workforce partnerships across Ohio that are helping more individuals earn the skills needed to successfully find employment. This is real-world skill development where educators and businesses work together to help people gain the skills they need to get hired for jobs that pay well and have a future. Enhancing meaningful partnerships between the business and education community is key to growing Ohio’s workforce and filling in-demand jobs at a time when many people are looking for opportunities, but not sure where to start.”
In our beautiful, rural, southeast Ohio, we have to coordinate our efforts toward youth and community development, not duplicate them. Partnerships and collaboration make for the best use of available resources and allow us to provide career awareness and development to as many students as we possibly can. Learn more about AOMC by attending their upcoming virtual Quarterly Gathering on Tuesday, February 2 from 9 - 10:30 a.m. Register to attend the gathering here.