Five CareerTech centers in the Oklahoma City metro announced the launch of the Onward OKC compact, a collaborative partnership to improve and streamline services offered to businesses and students in their collective service area.
Canadian Valley Technology Center is included. The compact leverages the combined resources of the five technology centers and better provides custom workforce training solutions to metro businesses.
Oklahoma CareerTech is a system made up of 29 technology centers across the state that offers education and skills training to Oklahomans, providing companies with the required workforce to compete globally. Each technology center works closely with advisers from local industries to ensure students learn the skills needed to be valuable members of the workforce.
“Onward OKC has given the centers the ability to identify and share more resources, highlight the strengths of each center, prioritize demands and requests, provide better training, offer more benefits and get a clearer picture of what companies want and need and then provide it for them,” said CV Tech Superintendent Dr. Gayla Lutts. “By pooling resources, Onward OKC streamlines access to training for business owners, HR managers, and job seekers, eliminating the guesswork for our customers while ensuring they are getting quality training designed to meet their specific needs.”
Strict district boundaries and difficulty identifying centers with expertise in specific industry sectors made the system cumbersome to navigate for businesses seeking skills training for their employees. A business’s request to use services at a tech center outside of their designated district could take up to a month to be resolved.
“Onward OKC is going to be a game-changer, both for the businesses served and for our capacity to grow the regional economy,” said Roy Williams, president and CEO of the Greater Oklahoma City Chamber. “We commend the leadership of these technology centers for their vision, and their teams for creating such an innovative and effective partnership.”
The compact has been in development for several years, and the centers are already seeing a significant improvement. Each center provides a unique set of services, courses and expertise in various industries. The Onward OKC agreement allows the centers to collaborate on a solution and direct businesses to the proper channels for the best service for their needs – not just their location within the Metro.
Businesses interested in more information about CareerTech business services in the Oklahoma City metro area can visit the compact website at onwardokc.com.
