PARW Events and Important Dates!

The stakes are high and the evidence is overwhelming.

► Alaska has an ongoing shortage of skilled workers
► Alaskans can have generations of career opportunities in the Oil, Gas and Mining industries.

The “Putting Alaska’s Resources to Work” (PARW) initiative consists of an industry-led, evolving and broad based alliance of Oil, Gas and Mining industries and workforce development organizations or entities working together to ensure Alaska will have a highly skilled and globally competitive workforce that meets the current and future needs of the Oil, Gas and Mining industries.

MILESTONES
Alaska’s Oil, Gas and Mining industries have achieved monumental milestones in their “Putting Alaska’s Resources to Work” (PARW) efforts:

► The April 2005 PARW conference convened major stakeholders who identified priority needs to develop Alaska’s Oil, Gas and Mining workforce. While proposed major projects were the headlines at that conference, the burning issue was the ongoing need for a skilled workforce. The first priority identified was to create a strategic plan for developing the Alaska workforce for the Oil, Gas and Mining industries for decades to come.

► The March 2006 PARW conference presented and validated a strategic plan developed by the planning committee identified at the April PARW conference. The response from 100-plus attendees from a broad base of industry, education and training providers was to adopt and commit to the PARW Plan.

► As called for in the PARW Plan, the PARW Coalition was successfully kicked off at an October 12, 2006, meeting. Broad based key leaders representing Alaska's "single point of contact" organizations and entities that substantially impact the workforce development system embraced the PARW Plan and have entered into a Memorandum of Understanding to Put Alaska's Resources to Work.

► Many of the elements of the plan have and will continue to receive broad based industry investment with key stakeholders. The plan is devised to ensure those initiatives and investments align and leverage each other.

STRUCTURE
Understanding the form and function of the following PARW elements provides context for understanding PARW.

1. PARW Plan
2. PARW Coalition
3. PARW Committees

ORGANIZATION
Alaska’s Process Industry Careers Consortium (APICC) is serving as the lead organization in the PARW effort.

► APICC is an industry-driven consortium of process industries, education and training providers and state agencies that has a tried and true history of success in developing the process technology workforce for the Oil and Gas industries. APICC targeted both urban and rural youth opportunities through its Youth Employability Skills and Career ExPrep projects and serves as a leader in workforce development.

► The Mining industry members have concurred with the APICC model as a successful industry consortium and have agreed to partner with APICC in the implementation of the PARW Plan. APICC embraces the Mining constituency along with its unique challenges.

► APICC’s organization and its structure will enable it to provide the leadership to implement the four strategies of the PARW Plan: 1. Engage the stakeholders, 2. Train the workforce, 3. Employ the skilled Alaskans, 4. Adaptively Sustain the system.

OUTCOMES
We can immediately support “Putting Alaska’s Resources to Work” with the long reaching effects of Alaskans getting Alaskan jobs and Alaskan jobs being filled by skilled Alaskans. The PARW Plan is a way to get the right people with the right skills at the right time to fill some of the best jobs in Alaska. The investment by the stakeholders will result in an immeasurably favorable return to the state of Alaska.