An exerpt from TheHub | Stories of the Innovation Quarter

Goler Community Development Corporation: Making Winston-Salem’s Workforce More Inclusive

Accessing Winston-Salem’s New Economy

As the city of arts and innovation has been transforming itself, the kinds of jobs available in the community have been changing as well.

“Between tobacco and textiles, Winston-Salem has been a manufacturing economy for a long time,” says Suggs. “Those used to be sure-fire jobs for people in the community, but now there’s a misalignment of the skill sets of many people in our community with the jobs that are emerging with the new innovation economy.”

As the Innovation Quarter and the city as a whole continue to attract jobs to the community that are technology-focused, there’s a growing need to provide a workforce to fill these types of jobs. And for an innovation economy to impact the whole of Winston-Salem, people need opportunities to develop the skills necessary to participate in the changing workforce.

“In some parts of our city, the unemployment rate is much higher than the national average, so we asked why people in these areas are not working,” Suggs says. “One reason is that some do not have the skill sets necessary for these new jobs that are changing our economy.”

To remedy that mismatch, Goler CDC determined to find ways to help people overcome the barriers that prevent them from acquiring the skills needed to enter technology careers, whether those obstacles are transportation, child care or simply not knowing where to begin.

Participating in Technology Careers

And so was born Goler CDC’s latest project, TechCareers 2020. The program, which launched in March 2018, provides personalized pathways for people in the community who want to enter technology careers, but who have had little to no training in those areas.

“Sometimes, all a person needs to get a tech job is a certification. Other times, more schooling is needed,” says Suggs.

TechCareers 2020 helps applicants prepare for jobs in a variety of technology careers, from call center representatives and medical coders, to web developers and cybersecurity. For many of the applicants, there are factors outside of competency that make getting the right training difficult.

“What’s different about this program is that we will look at each individual and develop a pathway for them based on where they are at, their current skill level and the barriers they have to acquiring the necessary skills,” says Suggs.

The TechCareers staff—which consists of a program director, case manager and student support coach—provides each participant accepted into the program with funding and an educational plan tailored to his or her specific barriers and goals.

While there’s no cost to the program for participants and financial help is provided on a case-by-case basis, participants have skin in the game.

“We ask participants to show a level of commitment to the program,” says Suggs. “They might not have the resources to get a degree from Forsyth Tech, but everyone has 24 hours in a day, and we want our participants to use that resource.”

The technology careers in the program are not chosen at random. Goler CDC made a point of connecting with local employers on the front end of the program to gauge their employment needs and the issues that they’ve had in finding qualified employees.

“We want there to be jobs for people when they finish the program,” says Suggs. “We are developing a pipeline: starting with the employer and ending with the employer.”

But before they can think about employment, people need the skills, and for that piece of the puzzle Goler reached beyond its own walls. The community development group created partnerships with other organizations that can offer training and education in relevant technology areas, including Forsyth Technical Community College and HUSTLE Winston-Salem.

Other partners provide funding, resources, expertise and advice for the nascent TechCareers program, including NC Works, Flywheel Coworking, Goodwill and the Golden LEAF Foundation.

By helping people overcome the obstacles in their paths and receive the training they need to participate in the new economy, the TechCareers 2020 program is the next step in Goler CDC’s vision for a more inclusive community in Winston-Salem.

“If we’re going to be the city that we say we want to be, we have to be interested in what’s happening in the entire city,” says Suggs. “We are just trying to play a role in making sure that more people get a chance to participate in the innovation economy that’s coming.”

GROWTH ON THE STATE LEVEL

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Employees in North Carolina’s tech sector made up 5.8% of the state’s total employee base in 2015. For comparison, health care and construction industries made up 12% and 5% of the state’s employment, respectively.

There were 18,224 technology establishments operating in North Carolina in 2015, up about 1,000 from the year before. The report found jobs in the local tech industry have grown by 20.6% over the past five years, which is the third-highest growth rate in the country and above the national average of 10.9%.

The state ranks No. 1 for IT employment growth, a sub-category of the technology industry. North Carolina saw IT employment growth of 28.4% between 2010 and 2015 — two times faster than the national average. [...]

The industry report also found North Carolina ranks under the national average for the percentage of minority tech workers compared to the state’s minority population. Only one state had a diversity index above 1 in the report, which means the minority population in that tech sector is greater than the state’s overall minority population.

North Carolina had a diversity index of 0.72, ranking 21 st across the states.

-- Charlotte Business Journal, N.C. Technology Association’s 2017 State of Technology Industry Report

THE RIGHT PLACE TO INNOVATE

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The Innovation Quarter is a vibrant community of business and academia – developing products and services that hold hope of improving quality of life through discoveries and innovations.

As a mixed-use development on the eastern side of downtown Winston-Salem, the Innovation Quarter is working with neighbors such as the Goler Community Development Corp., to revitalize an area that had been home to manufacturers long departed.

The location in the Piedmont Triad gives businesses access to some of the brightest minds in North Carolina, a place that has earned national recognition for its high-tech success and low cost of living. Within easy reach of North Carolina’s pristine beaches and majestic mountains, not to mention the rapidly expanding entertainment and artistic choices within walking distance, the Innovation Quarter is a great place to Work, Live, Learn and Play.

-- The Innovation Quarter, President Eric Tomlinson