Survey: Technical firms are short of qualified workers

Necessary skills have been eluding students raised in state's schools

James Paton, Rocky Mountain News

Tuesday, June 26, 2007

SpaceDev, a maker of micro satellites, rocket motors and other sophisticated products, hopes to hire 20 additional employees in the next year, but finding qualified candidates won't be easy.

Companies in the aerospace sector, like those in bioscience, energy and technology, report an increasing need for skilled workers.

The challenge, according to a study released Monday, is coping with a decreasing pool of people with math, science, engineering and technical backgrounds.

The survey is part of a program aimed at keeping the Denver region economically competitive by identifying the needs of employers in key sectors and training Coloradans to fill the jobs.

The Workforce Innovation in Regional Economic Development initiative is being financed with a $15 million grant from the U.S. Department of Labor.

State officials also worry about what has been known as the "Colorado paradox." While the state attracts a lot of people from out of state with college degrees, it fares poorly in enrolling its own high school grads at universities.

Businesses in Colorado's fast-growing industries must often look beyond the state's borders to find workers who fit the bill, according to the WIRED research, which is being carried out under the roof of the Metro Denver Economic Development Corp.

"Attracting the best and brightest from out of state is always a good strategy," WIRED Executive Director Ledy Garcia-Eckstein said in a telephone interview. "But it shouldn't be the only strategy. How fair is that to people who live here and have grown up here? We want our people to have a chance at these good jobs."

Companies seeking to relocate or to expand also want to know that the state has a steady supply of available workers with the right skills, she said. Employers in some cases must ramp up quickly. If they fail to find those conditions, they might go elsewhere.

At the moment, "the pipeline from the school systems to the work force is not turning out the number and quality of students to meet industry demand now and in the future," according to the report, which was prepared by Development Research Partners.

Scott Tibbitts, managing director of SpaceDev, noted that Colorado is one of the hottest aerospace hubs in the nation.

"If we had the ability to draw more talent in the area, I would expect we'd see an even greater growth rate," said Tibbitts, whose company employs 150 in Louisville but has its headquarters in California. "We could be substantially more successful if we had a large supply of employees."

Many of the aerospace workers in Colorado come from Southern California and the East Coast, he said.

SpaceDev has 50 people in North Carolina and San Diego.

The other problem is the work force is aging. That makes training Colorado's youth even more important, the report states.

A number of companies, including Lockheed Martin and Xcel Energy, are taking steps to address the issue.

Xcel has a program allowing students to shadow workers, said spokesman Mark Stutz.

The more than 200 companies polled in those four industries said they also want technical workers who have strong writing, marketing or sales skills, an unexpected finding, the authors said.

Earlier this year, the WIRED effort awarded grants of $3.7 million to finance existing programs. In late 2007, the group hopes to grant $4 million to seed new and innovative solutions, Garcia-Eckstein said. Ideally, those funds would be matched by foundations and companies, she said.

"This isn't just about future jobs, in 10 or 15 years," she said. "Some of these jobs are open now, and we need to begin to get workers out into these industries."

WIRED for the future

A few of the findings from the WIRED survey of aerospace, energy, technology and bioscience companies in the Denver region:

• More than two-thirds (67.6 percent) of the companies' current jobs require a bachelor's degree or higher.

• Nearly 71 percent surveyed expect they'll need more employees in the next three years.

• High demand: Scientists, sales and marketing, operations and information technology.

• The Denver area's aerospace industry employs nearly 18,000 in 100-plus companies.

• The region's bioscience sector has more than 14,000 people and almost 500 companies.

• The energy industry in the Denver area employs about 26,600 people and has about 2,200 companies.

patonj@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-2544