The Five-Point Plan for Workforce Development

South Dakota’s four technical institutes serve as the “canaries in the coal mine” for South Dakota’s workforce needs. Our program advisory boards, the employers of our graduates, and our extensive industry contacts are telling us the same thing: a crisis is coming.

The Problem

South Dakota already faces worker shortages in key labor areas such as nursing, manufacturing, nuclear medicine and engineering technicians, electronics, welding, transportation, and many others.

Those shortages will soon be compounded by the impending Baby Boomer retirement that will create up to a projected 50% worker demand in many core industries during the next 10 years. 

These trends also will impact the state’s ability to adequately staff new and expanding industries.

It's time to act.

The Response

The State’s four technical institutes propose a five point plan that will help meet existing and projected labor shortages. This plan includes the following elements:

1. Give working adults more opportunities

2. Innovate to serve

3. Target the greatest needs

4. Build excitement about S.D. careers

5. Create national career training centers

Give Working Adults More Opportunities

Technical institutes have traditionally targeted recent high school graduates.

As a result, the proportion of older adult students is smaller in South Dakota than in other states. We will provide these adults with new career opportunities by:

1. Placing a renewed emphasis on the 24 to 44 age group

2. Reaching these students where they are – at work and in the community

3. Creating innovative educational methods that appeal to working adults 

Back to the Plan

Innovate To Serve

A significant percentage of programs offered by the technical institutes are campus-based, largely because of lab and shop-oriented instruction methods. We will provide more convenient learning alternatives for potential students of all ages who live long distances from a technical institute campus or possess a schedule that keeps them from coming to campus during regular hours. We will accomplish this through:

• Providing additional educational opportunities during evenings and weekends

• Creating more online courses

• Making more use of the Digital Dakota Network

• Opening additional off-campus learning centers

• Taking advantage of new learning technologies such as podcasts, vodcasts, and others.

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Target Greatest Needs

The technical institutes will work with South Dakota business and industry to ensure that new and existing programs focus on developing student skills in areas of greatest workforce need. 

Additionally, we will work in partnership to create new ways of attracting students to these careers, including enhanced workplace internships, cooperative education, scholarships, and forgivable loans supported by industry.

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Build Excitement About South Dakota Careers

We will spread the message to students of all ages that dreams can come true in South Dakota. We will work in partnership with business and industry and K-12 school systems to:

• Increase dual enrollment opportunities for high school students

• Target students who have no postsecondary education plans

• Create career academies and summer institutes for middle school and early high school students in priority career fields

• Promote South Dakota careers in elementary and middle schools in interesting, age-appropriate ways

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Create National Career Training Centers

Regardless of the success of all other strategies, South Dakota must also focus on creating a net in-migration of workers.

Technical institutes, along with business and industry partners and the Regental system, should focus on creating national training centers focused on careers and skills in greatest demand.

These national training centers will bring to South Dakota students from across the country who are interested in these career fields. Once they are here, we will attempt to retain them by promoting South Dakota’s exceptional quality of life and by educating them about the state’s career opportunities.

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