LOVELAND - A major work training project of the Northern Colorado Economic Development Corp. has been turned over to the Larimer County Workforce Center, which is vowing to push it forward.

NCEDC launched the Northern Colorado Workforce Initiative in 2007 under the leadership of former CEO Maury Dobbie, who left the organization on May 29 as part of a restructuring.

But the workforce initiative, as it existed under NCEDC's leadership, actually ended in March, according to Kathy Gilliland, who had served as the initiative's primary contact person and coordinator. Gilliland said a "revamped" Larimer County Workforce Investment Board - which oversees the Workforce Center - was better suited to continue the project designed to bring together employers, educators and others to create a strong local workforce.

"We felt that helping them (WIB) was a better way to go," said Gilliland, who noted that keeping the NCEDC project going at the same time "would be diluting the effort" of the initiative's mission.

Yvonne Myers, WIB chair, said she credits the NCEDC for getting the workforce initiative up and running and that it ended its effort at the right time.

"They did what the WIB should have been doing and they closed it at the right time," she said. "The workforce initiative laid the groundwork for where the WIB is going."

Dobbie, who has been a member of the WIB as a representative of the NCEDC and hopes to continue to serve as a private business owner, agrees with Myers' assessment.

"I'm pretty pragmatic about all of this, because we don't need the duplication," she said. "I pushed the envelope to where they grabbed it. I'm delighted that they're doing it."



WIB refocusing

Joni Friedman, Larimer County Workforce director, said the WIB is in the process of "refocusing" to include a stronger emphasis on meeting the job training needs of local employers - a key feature of the NCEDC initiative.

Friedman said that effort is still very much alive. "I don't think the initiative is dead," she said. "I think we're refocusing and moving it ahead. NCEDC is going through a transition and we're waiting to see what happens. But no one has left the table."

Friedman said she believes the WIB is better suited now to carry the initiative forward because it gets funding from the state and NCEDC is struggling with funding as the recession continues.

Meanwhile, NCEDC has not formally abandoned the Northern Colorado Workforce Initiative. "We've not made any decisions not to continue the workforce initiative," said Paul Brinkman, NCEDC board chair. "Right now we need to look at our core mission and do it in the most economical way."

Gilliland said she's proud of the accomplishments of the Northern Colorado Workforce Initiative, which included the creation of a clean energy technology program at Front Range Community College beginning this fall. It also helped launch a Four-School Joint Venture last September aimed at getting the region's four institutions of higher learning to work closer in meeting business needs.

Gilliland said it was never NCEDC's intent to "own" the initiative. "The workforce initiative was never intending to take anything over," she said. "It was there to help create the environment to bring everybody together."

Myers is quick to acknowledge that fact and praise Dobbie and NCEDC for championing the initiative. "The work they did was instrumental in changing the focus of the WIB," she said. "So I think they accomplished what they were trying to do."