Abstract

New Mexico Trains, the New Mexico Telecommunications and Call Center Training Consortium, was formalized in November, 2000, to develop and coordinate training initiatives for the call center, telecommunications and technology industries. Its vision is to provide new workforce skills, career advancement opportunities, and a stronger economy in rural New Mexico.

Consistent with that vision is the realization that where current career path development tends to provide skills for entry level jobs and limited growth opportunities for the individual, the ideal path will provide additional training, career counseling, and long term mentoring to equip the individual for high skilled jobs with better wages and benefits. Those high skilled jobs have been identified by New Mexico Trains as currently existing or projected in 4 key job categories:

  • Telecommunications: call center reps, telecom technicians, and network technicians.
  • Technology: information services technicians and network engineers.
  • Multi media: technical artists and specialized developers.
  • E-commerce: programmers, designers, and project managers.

New Mexico Trains has identified specific gaps in the current training continuum in New Mexico in both content and delivery. Opportunities to address gaps in content have been identified through employer needs assessments for more accurate skills assessment and development of minimum employability skills and core competencies. Opportunities have been identified in delivery by developing 3 venues: community based, instructor led training; online assessment and learning modules; and a highly skilled mobile implementation team. Key to the success of all 3 venues is access to long term mentoring and job coaching designed to insure the individual's success.

New Mexico Trains is organized as a 501 .c.3 educational non-profit corporation. The Board of Directors includes representatives from telecommunications, education, and the call center industry. The Board has identified the following organizational objectives: 80% rural focus, with 60% of its resources directed toward call center activities and 40% toward more technical training. Special emphasis is on innovative training through online training modules, distance learning, and community based workshops. The consortium will utilize a staff of three: executive director, field director, and administrative manager. Staff will be complemented by contractors with expertise in training and job coaching. Timeline for the project is February, 2002, through February, 2004.

The consortium has established the following objectives: Training and placement of 3,000 skilled rural New Mexicans; a continuous flow of skilled workers for available jobs; new applications of technology for ongoing learning opportunities; and a new system of long term career counseling and mentoring.

Initial steps in deploying this initiative, to be achieved in the project's first 6 months, include:

  1. Create a jobs / available worker overlay map to assist in identifying targeted communities.
  2. Develop a jobs forecast by industry in targeted communities and regions.
  3. Review available generic and industry specific assessment tools.
  4. Create minimum employability standards through employer specific needs analyses.
  5. Identify necessary training components.
  6. Identify career counseling and mentoring resources.
  7. Develop a plan for deployment of services in statewide and targeted one-stop shops.

New Mexico Trains is assembling a strong statewide coordinated effort and is developing memorandums of agreement with regional workforce development resources (boards and one-stop shops), educational providers, and employers. Our Executive has had extensive experience with the JTPA program. He spent nine years on the Albuquerque/Bernalillo County private Industry Council, with three of them as its chairman. A MOA with the New Mexico Department of Labor has already been signed for work on a related project. Coordination and leveraging of existing resources will enable New Mexico Trains to share critical data and resources necessary for joint success, eliminate duplication of effort, and insure the initiative's ability to get potential workers on a meaningful career track.