Summary of IAC’s Early Winter Meeting
Alaska Maritime Workforce Development Industry Advisory Committee (IAC)
December 1, 2014 – 3:00 - 4:30 pm
Conference Call
Purpose
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Update on agencies’ operating budget items in the Governor’s FY 16 budget
Determine if and how IAC wants to contact Governor’s Office to support any of the budget items
Update on working groups, which were advanced for action at 9/25/14 meeting
Update on other relevant maritime items
Update on agencies’ operating budget items in the Governor’s FY 16 budget
Alaska State Department of Labor and Business Partnerships (DoL&BP) (W. Ayers, Director Division of Business
Partnerships)
 Ayers reported that there are no specific items related to maritime workforce development (WFD)
in DoL/BP’s budget.
 DoL/BP’s personal services funds have been reduced by 11% over the past several years.
 DoL/BP’s commissioner, D. Blumer has resigned and the new administration has accepted her
resignation.
 Division of Business Partnerships: Youth, and career and technical education grant funds will be
important to maintain in order to advance maritime workforce development efforts.
 In addition, AVTEC’s Maritime Training Center, which is in DoL/BP’s budget.
Department of Education & Early Development (EED) (C. Clough, Director Division of Career & Technical
Education)
 Division of Career & Technical Education, it’s important to maintain funding in order to advance
C&TE efforts, including maritime.
o Curt Clough, the new division director for CT&E talked about their effort to revise the
state’s 5-year (federal) Perkins Grant plan, in order to align with the new federal reauthorization strategies, along with the state’s efforts for CT&E.
 The IAC group requested to receive Curt Clough’s contact information, which was agreed would be
provided to them through the Maritime WFD coordinator.
 CT&E’s personnel services funds have also been reduced, as DoL Business Partnerships
 It was also reported that EED Commissioner Mike Hanley has been retained as acting
commissioner for the new administration.
University of Alaska (UA) (Paula Cullenberg, Director UAF Sea Grant)
 UA identified three budget items supporting positions specific to Maritime WFD efforts
that it would appreciate support for to the Governor’s office.
 The group talked about the line items to clarify intent and how they support the
Maritime WFD.
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Determine if and how IAC wants to contact Governor’s Office to support any of the budget items
The group’s discussion about how to support budget items to the Governor’s Office resulted in a decision that
the Maritime WFD coordinator would draft letter supporting the identified items and circulate for edits.
The timeframe was identified as short, as the IAC conference call was held on Monday, and Wednesday was
targeted to get the draft letter out to the IAC for each participant’s use.
It was also agreed that each participant should submit their own letter, as supported by their organizations.
The draft letter is included at the end of this summary.
Update on working groups
Background
The IAC, at its September 25, 2014 meeting, identified three occupational specific areas and one
overall strategy to focus on for the next 12-18 months; they are:
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Marine Refrigeration
Vessel Repair and Maintenance (VRM)
Vessel Engineering and Licensing
Career Awareness
All working groups are active except Vessel Engineering and Licensing.
Marine Refrigeration – co-chairs: Eric Clock (AVTEC) and Dan Mielke (UA-Mat-Su)
Three conference calls with multiple organizational representatives participating.
Four conference calls with co-chairs only.
1. Assessment: Detailed post-secondary training providers classes, courses and programs have been
identified.
2. Draft Education Pathways V4: Identifies how current offerings meet workforce needs, along with
reflections about the context of providing refrigeration training in Alaska, systemic gaps that exist and
where additional funds may be beneficial, etc.
3. Documents are available on the new website: http://www.akmaritimejobs.com/
Vessel Repair and Maintenance – co-chairs: Eric Clock (AVTEC) and Alan Fugelberg (UA-Kodiak)
Three conference calls with multiple organizational representatives participating
1. Assessment: Detailed post-secondary training providers classes, courses and programs have been
identified
2. Documents are available on the new website: http://www.akmaritimejobs.com/
Career Awareness – Fred Villa (UA)
Outcomes and Documentation:
1. Meeting notes for all conference calls are available.
2. Three products were reviewed to identify the best information to include in our project proposal to
the IAC.
a. Hot Jobs Publication
b. APICC Priority Occupations Report
c. Bristol Bay Careers: Jobs in Seafood Processing Maritime Trades
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Based on the 3 products and additional comments from subcommittee members the following
characteristics were identified for the project scope but not limited to:
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Available on-line (web site, AKCIS);
Personal interest assessment towards an occupation;
Job titles, wages, locations, education/training requirements;
Interactive with short video clips of people doing the job;
Intuitive and with a common format for all the occupations;
Demonstrate career pathways;
The career awareness working group is looking for input from the IAC on a draft project proposal and
timeline to advance our action plan. Our next committee meet will be in early January.
Vessel Engineering & Licensing – Terry Federer (AVTEC) and Dale Miller (UA-Ketchikan)
As a starting point, the Workforce Development Plan coordinator has talked with the co-chairs.
Scheduling and using the group conference call approach likely won’t work because of the scheduling
challenges with co-chairs; their teaching schedules are typically M-F 8 – 5 pm.
T. Federer provided some input about marketing, by providing links on DoL’s website to the in-state
training programs and to the National Maritime Center, along with creating FAQ’s that will likely be
useful. T. Federer also suggested creating a 1-800 number where prospects can call to get
information about programs and licensing, as it’s a complicated process.
T. Federer also suggested there is a natural integration with Career Awareness efforts.
W. Ayers added to this that mapping what high schools are doing and scaling up existing bridging
classes, such as AVTEC’s Nautical Skills that is distance delivered would be a useful exercise and one
she’d like to be involved with.
Additional News/Announcements
Legislative Lunch and Learn
February 16-17 has been identified as the target dates – likely on 2/17 when the new UAF research
vessel the Sikuliaq will be in Juneau and hosting an “open house.”
It was suggested that an Administration Lunch and Learn should also be held.
Trainings
A Seafood Processing Quality Control 60-hour, 8-day class was held last week at the UAF Kodiak
Seafood and Marine Science Center. Twenty-one participants from seven companies completed the
class. Class costs were covered by fees of $800 per person, a donation from Icicle Seafoods and UA
TVEP funds.
Strategy 3.4 in the Alaska Maritime WFD Plan: A discussion about whether or not creating an
inventory of all existing trainings and whether or not this inventory actually exists for the Maritime
WFD Plan also occurred. W. Ayers reflected that she believes the inventory existed and that it
resides on DoL’s website. What’s needed now is for both training providers and employers to review
and provide her with any corrections that need to be made. (Need link to DoL site.)
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Next IAC Meeting and Closing
Discussion about a next meeting resulted in general agreement that the group should reconvene via
conference call in mid January.
K. Norosz thanked everyone and closed the meeting.
Participants
Alaska Maritime Workforce Development Industry Advisory Committee
December 1, 2104 Participants
Industry Participants
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Kris Norosz
Vince O’Shea
Stephanie Madsen
Doug Ward
Julie Decker
Ian Dutton
Greg Pavellas
Matt Alward
Arni Thomson
Sinclair Wilt
Joel Cladouhos
Icicle Seafoods, Inc. (IAC Chair)
Pacific Seafood Processors Association
At-Sea Processors Association
Alaska Ship & Drydock
UFA; Alaska Fisheries Development Foundation
Rasmuson Foundation
Crowley Marine
Homer Marine Trade Association
Alaska Salmon Alliance
Westward and Alyeska Seafoods
Arctic Sablefish
Agency POC
Wanetta Ayers
DOLWD-AWIB
Terry Federer
DOLWD-AVTEC
Curt Clough
EED
University of Alaska
Paula Cullenberg
Alaska Sea Grant
Fred Villa
UA Workforce Programs (IAC Co-Chair)
Alaska Maritime Workforce Development Contract Coordinator
Margaret (Meg) King
IAC/FSMI Contract Coordinator
Draft Letter to Governor re: Operating Budget Items, sent to IAC on December 3, 2014
Your Letterhead
Honorable Governor Bill Walker
P.O. Box 11001
Juneau, Alaska 99811-0001
governor@alaska.gov
RE: Alaska Maritime Workforce Development support in the
FY16 Operating Budget
Dear Governor Walker,
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The Alaska Maritime Workforce Development Plan was completed in May 2014 after nearly
two years of collaborative effort by private industry, government and nonprofit agencies, the
University of Alaska, and the Rasmuson Foundation. Your organization is an active
participant in this collaborative.
The purpose of developing and now implementing the Alaska Maritime Workforce
Development Plan is to increase the number of Alaskans filling the nearly 70,000 jobs in
Alaska’s maritime sector. The potential is huge, as only half of these jobs are currently filled
by Alaskans. As stated in the plan:
Given the remote nature of many of the jobs in the maritime sector,
our vision is to put Alaskans to work in communities where they live, by providing them
with better access to training and allowing them to qualify for and reclaim the almost
35,000 jobs currently held by out-of-state workers.
The plan was adopted by the Alaska Workforce Investment Board and the UA Board of
Regents. Numerous municipal and industry groups have passed resolutions to support
implementing the recommendations in the plan.
The plan identifies 23 high priority occupations where training and workforce development is
required to meet industry needs. In addition, five overall strategies including building career
awareness and improving job readiness are also included in the plan.
In general, we request and recommend that the following budget areas be given special
consideration in this challenging budget year.
1. Maintaining and supporting budgets for the following agencies and divisions, which are critical
partners in helping us achieve our vision.
 Department of Labor & Workforce Development
o Division of Business Partnerships: youth and career and technical education grant
funds
o AVTEC’s Maritime Training Center
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Department of Education & Early Development
o Division of Career & Technical Education
2. University of Alaska (UA) has many programs supporting workforce development. UA is
requesting new funding in the upcoming budget year for the following positions specifically for
maritime workforce development.
UAA Vessel and Maritime Industries Workforce Coordinator (Kodiak)
UAF Alaska Commercial Seafood Processing Training Demand
UAS Joint Fisheries Degree UAS with UAF
UA requests support for critical core faculty and staff who will work with industry to build the
kind of training we need to provide highly skilled Alaskans to maintain and improve our
maritime economy.
Through these investments in workforce development, education, and training, the maritime
sector will continue to be not only the largest employer in the state, but also a strong
contributor to state coffers. An effective partnership between the State of Alaska and the
maritime sector will increase the number of Alaskans in maritime jobs and enhance the long5
term economic sustainability of our coastal communities.
We encourage you to support maritime jobs for Alaskans by supporting education and
training in the budget areas outlined in this letter.
We appreciate the challenges before you and encourage your consideration of these
requests as an investment in our state’s future.
Sincerely,
Name
Organization
cc:
Ms. Pat Pitney, Director, State of Alaska OMB pat.pitney@alaska.gov
Rep. Bryce Edgmon
c/o Mr. Tim Clark tim.clark@akleg.gov
Senator Lyman Hoffman
c/o Mr. Tim Grussendorf tim_grussendorf@legis.state.ak.us
Rep. Paul Seaton representative.paul.seaton@akleg.gov
Senator Gary Stevens senator.gary.stevens@akleg.gov
Rep. Louise Stutes stutes@gci.net
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