November 4, 2008
Open Letter to Alaska Process Industries, the Alaska Business Community,
the Alaska Education and Workforce Development Communities,
The Alaska Process Industry Careers Consortium (APICC) has a ten
year history as an industry, education, labor, and trade leader building
partnerships for workforce development in the oil, gas, mining, power,
and other process industries in Alaska.
Alaska currently has many large scale resource development projects,
with many more on the horizon that promise job growth; hence workforce
development needs in process industries. APICC has been, and continues
to be, at the forefront in connecting the workforce development needs
of processes industries with Alaskan secondary education and post-secondary
educational institutions. We have a history of collaboration with
the Alaska Department of Education, Alaska’s public schools,
the University of Alaska system, member industries, the Alaska Department
of Labor and Workforce Development, and Alaska’s workforce development
initiatives and training programs.
APICC’s “North Slope Training Cooperative” (NSTC)
develops and maintains high quality, standardized health, safety,
and environmental training programs and instruction for your employee
and contractor work force.
APICC’s “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 working together to ensure Alaska will have a highly
skilled and globally competitive workforce that meets the current
and future needs of Alaska’s process industries. The PARW initiative
compiles industry needs and reports priority occupations for process
industry careers.
APICC’s educational initiatives have provided “Youth
Employability Skills” (YES) work readiness standards for Alaska
young people preparing to enter the job market and “Teacher
Industry Externships” (TIE) for educators working with students
in grades 7 through 12 to connect the needs of business and industry
with teachers in Alaska. Building on these career initiatives, APICC
has been a leader in developing practical career guidance materials
for Alaska’s counselors, teachers, students, and parents, and
an Alaska Process Industry Career Guide. Moreover, APICC works directly
with Alaska’s post-secondary education community to develop
needs-driven industry standards and training, thereby enhancing Alaskan
hire into current high demand occupations. APICC works with industry
members to host Career Awareness Workshops (CAW) and Science &
Technology Previews (STeP) events. The workforce development initiatives
of APICC have benefits for the entire Alaska business community.
APICC is a 501(c) 3 non-profit organization that is dependent on
memberships and benefactor funding from sponsor organizations and
individuals.
As a member of the APICC and sponsor, your ability to provide workforce
insight for your company/organization is unparallel. Your presence,
in collaboration with other Alaska process industries, education,
government, labor and trade organizations through the forum APICC
provides is invaluable to your company and to Alaska’s future
and current workforce.
I want to thank you personally and express my appreciation for your
professional and organizational support of APICC. You represent the
leadership and direction of APICC.
Sincerely,
Todd Bergman
APICC Executive Director
tbergman@apicc.org
