CARIBOU — Outmigration has been a problem in the county for five decades, but officials are hoping that the launch of a new program highlighting future Aroostook-based jobs will help keep young people in The County while also connecting former residents with the job incentives they need to move back home.
The Aroostook Partnership for Progress (APP) is initiating a new project entitled “Aroostook County Jobs Projection.”
According to APP President Bob Dorsey, the purpose of this effort is to help stem student out-migration by informing junior high and high school students of upcoming job opportunities in Aroostook County and to aid Aroostook businesses with aging workforces by providing them with potential prospects to help them maintain or grow their ventures.
The project is slated to kick off in the near future; Dorsey will be contacting a number of the 50 largest businesses and employers in the region, asking them for their projected workforce needs and required skills over the next five years. The information APP obtains from businesses will be used to create the County Jobs Projection (CJP) database.
Initial information Dorsey will be looking for includes:
• the total number of current employees,
• the anticipated number of needed positions over the next five years,
• the desired skill sets needed to fulfill these positions successfully,
• the projected income and/or salary range, and
• whether the company provides insurance benefits.
Gathered information will be input into the CJP database accessible for all Aroostook County high schools and colleges; results will also be posted on APP’s website.
Continuing the data compilation, APP officials plan to engage college business students to continue calling the remaining top businesses and uploading that information into the CJP database.
“Once the largest 50 companies’ data has been collected, APP, with the help of business students, will continue to contact smaller businesses as well as municipalities to collect their anticipated employment needs in order to get a more complete picture of the total upcoming Aroostook County job opportunities,” Dorsey explained.
As a secondary measure, APP officials will ask the Aroostook County high schools how many students are projected to graduate, how many seniors intend to further their education and the direction they intend to focus their studies (if known) to provide local companies with information on upcoming graduate potential — data that will also be posted on APP’s website.
According to Dorsey, this project will be beneficial from several aspects:
• first and foremost, it can be used by Aroostook County schools’ guidance departments to inform students of the job potential here in Aroostook County. While it is inevitable that some students will leave the county to pursue certain careers, APP would like to tackle head-on the impression that “you have to leave the county or the state to get a good job.”
• Second with the aging workforce situation, it is APP’s hope that this effort will get county businesses thinking more about their future anticipated needs so that those positions can be hopefully fulfilled by people from within or formerly from Aroostook County.
• Third, to help the economy grow, it is important to collectively reverse the 50-year downward population trend and retain more residents who will stay in the Aroostook County and raise their families, thus providing existing businesses with a stable business base to remain in or grow their businesses.
• fourth, this posted information will also be beneficial to former Aroostook County residents who have left the area, attained employment experience and would like to return if they could find employment.
“It is very common to hear at Aroostook County high school class reunions the comment that ‘we would like to come back home.’” Dorsey said. “That comment is usually followed by one or two stipulations: a) ‘if we could get a good job here,’ or b) ‘after we retire.’ That is also an impression APP would like to change with this effort,” Dorsey added.
The Aroostook Partnership for Progress sees this effort as an important step both in helping Aroostook County students gain a better understanding for the upcoming job potential and an essential element to Aroostook’s future economic growth. Officials expressed their advanced thanks to Aroostook County businesses, high schools and colleges for participating in the important data-collecting effort.
Questions, comments or associated ideas that would benefit this effort can be addressed to Dorsey at 493-5769.
