The Shenandoah Valley Partnership recently announced the launch of the new Shenandoah Valley Education and Training Database. The database will provide both employers and citizens with one convenient tool to learn about the wealth of training programs available throughout the region.

The database is located at http://www.svp-va.org/database.aspx and is searchable by keyword, field of study and degree level. It was created to solve the problem of employers not being aware of the broad offering of educational programs available, particularly in the region’s high growth areas, which include advanced manufacturing, agriculture, energy, life sciences and IT.

Located between the Blue Ridge and Allegheny Mountains, the Shenandoah Valley Partnership includes the counties of Augusta, Bath, Highland, Page, Rockbridge, Rockingham and Shenandoah, as well as the cities of Buena Vista, Harrisonburg, Lexington, Staunton and Waynesboro.

The region is home to a number of prestigious higher education institutions, including James Madison University, Mary Baldwin College, Virginia Military Institute, and Washington and Lee University, as well as numerous community and technical colleges.

With 94 percent of the region’s 2012 corporate investment coming from expansion projects, the high quality of the local workforce is often cited as a compelling reason for a company’s decision to remain in the Shenandoah Valley. 

Take McKee Foods, maker of Little Debbie® snack foods and one of the area’s major employers, as an example. President and CEO Mike McKee stated, “We have found our Virginia workforce to be some of the most loyal and highly-skilled employees in the industry—and about 85 members of our Virginia workforce have been at the plant since it opened. Our Virginia employees, now over 700 strong, are highly-motivated and have helped us boost plant productivity by 24 percent over the last two years.”

Jointly developed by the Shenandoah Valley Partnership and Blue Ridge Community College, the Shenandoah Valley Education and Training Database is another positive example of cooperation among the public, private and educational sectors in Virginia. To learn more about the Commonwealth’s highly-skilled workforce and premier educational programs, click here.

Continuing our series on University-Based Economic Development, we will look at how James Madison University’s (JMU) Virginia Center for Wind Energy (VCWE) keeps industry professionals educated on wind power developments in Virginia.

Located in a 4,000-square-foot commercial lab space near JMU’s main campus, the center has been active since 2001. VCWE provides measurements, economic modeling, education, energy policy analysis and GIS reports on wind energy in the Commonwealth.

VCWE recently hosted the 2012 Statewide Wind Energy Symposium, which included panel discussions and workshops ranging from Wind 101 to Regulatory and Permitting Options. The 150 attendees included government officials, wind industry decision-makers, business owners and Virginia residents.

During the symposium VCWE launched its Small Wind Training & Testing Facility, which will be used primarily for workforce training in the small wind industry. Small wind is traditionally defined as turbines below 100 kilowatts (kW) with most residential turbines under 20 kW. Through the center students will have access to three wind turbines, a WeatherBug weather station, a solar array system and additional measurement equipment.

Uncertainty still surrounds the national production tax credit, and locally, many cities do not have wind ordinances in place, making education the critical mandate for VCWE.

“The Small Wind Training and Testing Facility was designed to address a lack of available resources in the region to support the training of a small wind workforce throughout Virginia and beyond. This resource will support teaching of undergraduates at JMU and other educational institutions throughout the Commonwealth, as well as the training of residents and business owners who seek to learn more about how to apply wind energy in Virginia,” said Dr. Jonathan Miles, VCWE Director.

Fortunately Virginia has a compelling wind story with its shallow waters, strong Class 6 winds, high voltage transmission grid, and maritime workforce. To learn more JMU’s Virginia Center for Wind Energy, click here.

Dr. Jonathan Miles, VCWE Director, addresses the crowd at the JMU Small Wind Training & Testing Facility ribbon-cutting ceremony.