Sun. Oct 17, 2021 - by Josh Studl
We love all things big, bold and creative.
We especially love when big, bold and creative things from the (local) public sector. While much of the time such “plans” rely on perfect world scenarios, represent wishful thinking, or are just pander in PowerPoint, the contents are usually goal-setting and push our thinking in a progressive direction.
We enjoyed reading the Pittsburgh 2070 Mobility Vision Plan that was revealed by the city’s Department of Mobility and Infrastructure (DOMI). DOMI presents well-thought out set of guiding principles, metrics of success, policy frameworks and projects to be implemented. We immediately saw DOMI’s presentation as a pretty good, relatively actionable skills development plan for those in the city and regional workforce ecosystem (i.e., everyone). DOMI does us a really great public service by articulating here - in respectable detail and documentation- the policies and projects that are to deliver the Mobility Vision Plan.
The 2070 Mobility Vision Plan is an opportunity for bold and proactive thinking about the future of Pittsburgh to identify the connections and policies we need to ensure that, in a growing city, all residents will have the physical mobility they need to reach the economic mobility they seek.
We were particularly interested in skills that they identified as skills to develop today for jobs and careers of the future. While not a skills and workforce development plan per se, we read it with an eye to decoding the skills that city and county employees, industry, community colleges and community leaders will need to deliver so that workforces are able to implement this Plan - if even only 10% of the Plan - in next few years, over the next decade, and through to 2070.
These principles and projects frame the need for developing and deploying new types of skills development to see that all workers and young people are sufficiently skilled and at the ready. The foundation for Pittsburgh’s economic future rests on our workforce being able to adapt quickly to global demands for product or service and innovations - either exporting it or implementing it into our region. And to be clear - there are other cities out there salivating at the chance at attracting these projects and talent away.
We hear a lot today about a worker skills gap. A radically different approach to skills development is likely needed if the 2070 Vision Mobility Plan is to be implemented and impact realized. We think Turbine is one of those big, bold and creative techs that does skills development better.
We’d love to run a course program that that developed skills needed to make Vision Mobility 2070 a reality. And we’re kicking around ideas on how to run a pre-apprenticeship around the plan. We welcome collaborators and have some ideas on a pre-apprenticeship framework and to involve a consortium of businesses and organizations.
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