PRESQUE ISLE - A new Career Pathways group in central and southern Aroostook has met for the first time and is gearing up to create career pathways for the benefit of Aroostook County workers and employers.

   Career Pathways is a framework for educational and workforce development aimed at addressing the need for a skilled workforce primarily in high-growth, high-demand and/or high-wage occupations through coordinated planning, programming and activity. 

The newly formed Career Pathways "team" for central and southern Aroostook met for the first time on Jan. 17 at the University of Maine Presque Isle. A Career Pathways group has been active in the St. John Valley for about two years.

   About 20 representatives from education, economic development, health and human services and the business community gathered at the University of Maine Presque Isle Jan. 17 to discuss how the group will function and grow.

   "The initiative is important to strengthen the various efforts to create career paths for Aroostook County workforce and to meet the immediate and future needs of area employers, said meeting facilitator Leane Page of Northern Maine Development Commission. "This is the model that is universal and promotes the much needed collaboration between economic & workforce development professionals and employers."

   Successful Career Pathways projects prepare participants to attain or retain employment in specific industries within targeted employment sectors or career clusters; advance over time to successively higher levels of education, work and compensation in those industries; and maintain viability in a competitive local, regional and state workforce.

   "Career Pathways strives not only to provide a much needed education and training boost to citizens in underemployment or low wage jobs, but also to meet the local and regional need for a technically skilled workforce in high-demand occupations," said Torry Eaton, Aroostook County Action Program Career Center Services Director.

   University of Maine Presque Isle Admissions Director Erin Benson also participated in the first meeting.

   "Ultimately, I would like for people to understand that education is more than training people for jobs," she said. "While that is an important component, it is not the only one. We don't even know what the jobs are going to be 10-20 years down the road. We are educating people to become lifelong learners, so they can prepare themselves for a new economy long after they have earned their diplomas."

   One sector that wasn't well represented at this initial meeting was employers, but Page said that will be addressed and asked the members to recommend leads in that area.

   "It would be very exciting to see this team become the model for regional collaboration that achieves results of creating a workforce that is very attractive to employers," added Page. "Down the road this will lead to the rise in median household income and an improved quality of life for everyone in the region. There are some very proactive people that have joined the effort already, but there are still many more who will be called upon to participate and are crucial to the cause - namely our area employers."

   "It's important to bring all the relevant stakeholders to the table, said Otis Smith, SAD 29 Director of Adult Education. "We want to bring business and industry into this process and ultimately start to reverse negative demographic trends that Aroostook Partnership for Progress and LEADers Encouraging Aroostook Development are addressing."

   The group will next meet in March.

   In northern Aroostook, the St. John Valley Career Pathways Initiative includes more than 20 members.

Since its first meeting in Aug. 2011,that group has surveyed local employers regarding their employee education and training needs, and has identified the following priority sectors to address in its work: law enforcement; education; social services; the logging, construction and transportation trades and industries; healthcare; and manufacturing.