Do we have a workforce system or parts that resemble a whole? Part 2 of the double episode.

As I clearly got excited about the topic mid stream, I decided to break the last conversation up into two. So, join me as I detail what I believe a true workforce development system accomplishes. Fun fact-it's more than moving money. 

Transcript

Courtney 0:00

All right. Welcome back to Scratching the Surface of Workforce Development with Courtney Taylor, and I am Courtney Taylor, and this is the double episode I promised you a minute ago if you came from the Protect Yourself episode. I... That one probably ended weirdly, but I'm not apologetic for it because I didn't want to make a two-hour episode, so I was like, "Okay we got... This is gonna talk for a minute," and it's on my heart, and it's on my brain, so I gotta talk about it while it's there. But basically, I came into this concept of when working with Amazon and so I'll tell this story real quick. But when we were recruiting Amazon and walked into a meeting with them... And I probably shouldn't tell this. What I should probably say as a workforce developer is, "Oh, they came here because of our workforce." Data centers aren't going anywhere because of their workforce, okay? They're gonna solve for that problem after the fact. They're going where they need the natural resources, which, by the way, is what every industry so don't treat data centers as this like some special thing, like, 'cause they're really not if you're truly looking at it from a workforce lens. They are in every other way, but from a workforce perspective they're normal, except that they're not, because actually the biggest thing they need is craft people is construction people. And so I learned that working with Amazon early on, like literally the very first time I ever met with them, and we're sitting there talking about we're gonna get you, electrical engineers, and software engineers, and all these engineers, and all these high-end occupations, and they're like, "Yeah, we're not worried about that. We need a construction workforce." I'm like, "Excuse me? You need what? That's not at all what I thought you were gonna say." And then when you learn more about, these facilities and what happens, you're like, "Oh, you do need a construction workforce." And it's actually the or perfect storm case, for rural America, especially if you have a workforce that hasn't, you haven't been able to engage for whatever reason. And so the reality is if you're learning about that in the moment, it's already two years too late. The workforce that they needed to be started two years ago for them to genuinely capitalize on it. So what I have found working with AWS has specifically been that they're a partner, and they're s- sitting right next to us doing this. Is it perfect? No. Do we have, things back and forth? Absolutely. And I love that, if you know me. But what I also know is I'm able to use their brand to get people interested. I'm able to use the efforts that they are making both, for the data centers and for the energy required to get a population of people who either haven't had opportunity or can see the opportunity or maybe had opportunity and squandered it away, but get them working in some entry-level roles that just did not exist before. Newsflash, there's not a whole lot of entry-level jobs out there right now. They-- And there are... And maybe there's not thousands of entry-level jobs, don't get me wrong, but I just need dozens at a time. And so what I have found, what I have found over the last few years working with them and this came to me early on, but it's taken me a couple of years to ponder it and think about it and, learn more about the, quote, "workforce system," and o- one thing I hear all the time is like, "Oh, DOL is workforce." No, it's not. DOL is labor. Labor and workforce may be the same thing in certain situations, but they're not always the same thing, okay? We don't actually have-- Until Workforce Pell came along, we didn't actually have a true funding for workforce because it was funding for special populations and people with barriers is what WIOA really is. It's helping people who need, support to get into the workforce, which ironically is more important now than it's ever been because now you actually have jobs for literally everybody in most cases. But I'm gonna say and I had a, had somebody, and I cannot remember who it was, and I'm gonna have to credit them in the notes when I go back and find it. But they, the way they said it to me was, "We have soldiers, not an army." The way I have said it, and I like the way they say it more, the way I have said it is, we have a funding stream, not a system And if that upsets you, good. Because if we had a true aligned workforce development system in this, in my state, in your state, in the nation, okay? Now, that includes K12, community college, and universities. That includes the public workforce system, okay? System. If we had that, when a state, discovered that there were 6,000 electricians short, not in my state, 'cause I'm a very small state, but in a very large state, that they were 6,000 electricians short of what they needed to build the infrastructure for what they were building, and it had national implications, the system should have been flooded with money to solve the problem that was identified, and it should have been metriced, resourced, said, "Hey, here's what you gotta do." The entire system, okay? Not just WIOA, not just whatever. The entire system should have been given a charge to go do that. Now, unfortunately, at that time, we were chasing EV whatever, as a whole. But we ignored the trades. We have ignored the trades as a nation for decades because it'll just somehow solve itself, which is not true. And so as I started thinking about this, I get more and more offensive in my language and in my speak with people because they're not listening. And so as I talk about protecting yourself in the last episode, and now here I am, like, you're just not listening, i'm just gonna say the thing because we need to say the thing. And I would... I'm fine to argue about it. I'm fine with all this. But, like, when I look at it, what should happen if we as a nation determine there's an occupational deficiency of humans, either quality or quantity, in one region, if we have a system, we should truly be able to take that information, plug it in over here, and get to work. And if we're talking about a national system, the feds should fund it because I'm not, in my state, going to fund all of these people to leave my state on purpose. But the feds can do that. I can't. Now, what I can do in my state, and we are doing, is we have what we call priority occupations. And so we say, "Here's the things that matter," and then we are pushing as much money as we can to those areas for the people who are actually producing it. Not the people checking the boxes, who are actually producing it. I have tried to be very intentional with my language and try to remove the pressure to train thousands and thousands of people, okay? What we have identified is we need 2,000 additional seats a year into the priority occupations in Mississippi. 2,000, okay? Not... the total number is 19,000 over 10 years, right? But at the end of the day, it's about 2,000 seats a year. That's what we need to produce in quality things, in things like plumbing and electrical and industrial maintenance. Now, they don't just need to be random seats. They need to be Teaching quality things. So at the same time, we're working with Lumina and Strada and Opportunity at Work and NAM and FAME and AWS and, like, all of these other people that we can bring in what they know and help us do it faster. There is a sense of urgency here that I don't see it reflected in, in, in many of our partners at times, right? But I have it, and I'm just gonna keep living up here, and they can either join me or not. I don't really care because that's where the demand is, and we have an opportunity in this moment, like we talk about the Mississippi momentum sometimes, but we have the opportunity in this moment to get people jobs who literally would not have an opportunity otherwise, and yes, I'm getting in your ear on purpose, okay? They may not have the opportunity otherwise because the jobs don't exist. So you know what? If we get a guy or a gal a job in a construction space and they have to move 50 miles away from their home, then so be it, because then they're also getting per diem every day, and these are some conversations I've had lately, right? They are being able to take care of your family. I'm gonna tell a story. So we're working with this company, Kiewit. We're working with the subsidiary or whatever, the industrial company. They're building out energy construction infrastructure in Arkansas, Mississippi, Louisiana, and Texas specifically for one company. And when we started working with them the, the guy that I work with is Ron, and Ron's amazing, and Ron and I can sit down across from the table from each other and just absolutely disagree with each other and then come full circle around to the things that, that we agree on. It's usually more agreement than not agreement, but we can, and he just calls the system like he sees it, he calls what's happening like he sees it, and so do I, and there's not a thing personal about it, and it is so much freaking fun. And but, but what he's doing is special. What his company is doing is special because... And I'm gonna bring it into the local level before I bring it back up. So he's working in Mississippi's Delta with the local workforce development area that Mitzi Woods runs. And with local nonprofits and with the local community college, and not one thing about this has been easy. But what we are producing is eight to 12 people at a time with a basic level of skill who the local workforce development area spent a lot of time getting the right people for the class, the right motivation, the right time in their lives because everything else can be handled, and that's how they're treating it, and it's so beautiful. And so when we say we need thousands of extra seats a year, what they are producing at the end of the day for this program ends up being about 100 seats a year, okay? That's what they can produce 'cause that's what the company needs, period. So the economy broadly needs a number, and that's where things like Lightcast and just general data are helpful you have this broad picture, and that's what we have from a statewide perspective. Statewide perspective is we need 19,000 more people. That's different in every area. Okay, and this goes across lots of different industries, lots of different occupations. And so in this particular region, it's entry-level laborers who can then expand and grow with their company and it's working. And they've-- I think we've had 70 people go through this program. And I would bet probably 56 of them, 57 of them are still working today. And that's a huge positive for for those people, but also for us as a state when we're sitting here saying "We don't wanna do training, short-term training unless there's a job, period. Don't do it unless there's a job." And this company's "Got it. We got a job." We're still working on that with other construction companies to try to get them into that space, and it's hard because unless you have a big growing job, you only need a couple at a time. This is a difficult space to serve. But as I told you in the last episode, I didn't come here to manage growth. I came here to manage development. So it's a lot of fun for a systems thinker to be thinking about the system and "Ooh, we can do this here. We can do this here." And then to have quality locals that can just make it happen. And it's just amazing. And really I get a little bit emotional about it at times because they had a graduation this week and Ron was telling me this story yesterday, and he's like the guy came back from from the job site and told everybody," he said "My family ain't gotta wo-worry for nothing anymore." And his family is taken care of, and they've got money that they can buy things with. And he, I don't remember where he was working. I don't know if he was one of the ones that was working in a different site, but he got this career. Will he be in this career forever? I don't know. I hope that he is, and I hope that he advances, and I hope he makes more money than he ever dreamed of, and I hope his family is successful forever. And and that's all because these humans came together and said, "We're gonna do it this way." And it's really freaking expensive to do it this way. I'm not gonna do workforce the cheap way, the way that the normal world wants me to. It's going to be expensive. But if we spend the money right- then maybe it works out, and maybe the people that you invest in can then go invest in themselves, and then maybe they produce something in your economy and, all the things. So I think there is this world of just figuring it out. So as I think about, the system and we have, we don't have a workforce system. If we did, when we say we're, 6,000 electricians short, then the, nation says, "Hey, we need 6,000 electricians produced in the next two years. Additional, on top of what you're already doing. We need another 6,000. Who wants to do it?" And then you go do it. You get the funding to go do it, but you do it the way you need to do it, right? And that's what we're trying to do here. But I didn't really recognize it as that until all this. I was like that's kinda what we're doing here," 'cause we're saying like, "I don't care where they live in Mississippi. If the state's funding it they can live anywhere in Mississippi. Just go to work and produce back into the economy." We're just not doing enough of it yet. And so m- my hope is that we can do that, that we can expand on that, that program where we have companies who are actually hiring to be a genuine opportunity instead of just a place where we throw people to go into training so that it's not an expense on the companies if they don't show up or if they fail out. Actually, the goal is to pick people who are ready for the training, not just to let... 'Cause if you tell me there's a free training, I may walk into it tomorrow because one of the benefits I'm receiving says I have to. That doesn't actually help you out. Doesn't help the system out either. So doing more to select the people, and in this case, they're using career coaches, they're using their WIN Job Centers, they're using, all of the resources in their community to identify people, and that is hard because you are specifically saying "Nope." But what happens is people get into the opportunity, and then they say, "Oh- This is great, and they stick with it because, oh, wait, I was selected. I am special. Because they are, and so it's like, it's no harm in making people feel special, and it's okay if you need something right now, and you're not a fit for this program. We'll put you somewhere else. But it is a masterclass, in my opinion, in what, what can happen when a company truly comes alongside an entity and more than their brand, right? Their brand is great, but genuinely, here is what we are trying to produce. Here is our numbers of entry-level people. Now, I'm not talking right now about two-year degrees, even though those are entry level in a different way. I'm not talking about four-year degrees. I am talking about these rapidly short-term training classes, okay? And these guys are making 20, $21 an hour in Mississippi, which our living wage is $20.75 an hour for a single individual, okay? 200% of the poverty level is about about $31,000 a year, okay? These people are starting out at more than 200% of the poverty wage, more than that. They're starting out above the living wage, and they will get raises. They will continue to grow as they work, as they advance, as they do whatever. So that's the starting point. So many times in workforce, we say, "Oh we just want the jobs to average that." We, we do when they have to, but if we can get people into these really high-paying jobs right now that they want, let's do it. So as I think about the system aspect of all of this, which is increasingly becoming more and more important to me mentally, because what we have done as a system is we have said the system is... And all systems are local at the end of the day, right? But the locals should drive the system, and to a point, I agree with the locals should just d- drive how it happens. I really disagree with the what. If you're talking about local money, then 100%, but I think if you're talking about state and federal money, the state and the feds have to figure out what impact they need to make, and that's what we have done. That's where, I would say the, the key way I frustrate people, among other special areas, is that "Nope, this is what we have to accomplish. You can take this and combine it with what you want to do with your local money and accomplish the other things. This is what we have to accomplish is with this money. If you do things above this with this amount of money, fantastic. But this is the minimum, okay? So when I invest in a program and you've told me you're gonna train 100 people, then train 100 people 'cause that's what I bought." But also, we've already said we're gonna limit it to these occupations These are the things that are more important to us because we need more of them, because they drive our economy, because they fuel, and I call them critical occupations, right? These are things that, that we have to have. So we have water and wastewater operators is on there. Okay? Now, those don't start off as high-paying jobs, but they're critical to our ability to move things. And people quickly wanna get into the humanitarian things, and I'm like, "I'm not there right now." Okay? I'm talking about the things that keep our economy afloat, okay? So if you're an Ayn Rand fan, think the things that made all of the story happen in Atlas Shrugged, right? Like the, the mechanics and the maintenance and the the people who move the infrastructure are super, super important. The people that move the people are equally as important. They just have a different scale in this whole situation. What I want long term is for us to have a system where a signal can go out at a state level or a federal level that, hey, we need more of this. So there's this base level of activity that just happens, right? There's a natural turnover that you have to absorb, that you have to produce and reproduce for. That just keeps happening just like much like the reproduction rate, right? Like you... There's a re- there's a production rate that you have to have of humans to go into just the normal jobs. Then when there's a shortage somewhere, and so I think about it from an economic development perspective, right? We have companies announcing in the north part of the state. Those people are gonna have to come from somewhere. Okay? So I need to train them wherever they are, and if they wanna move up there, I wanna train them for those jobs. If they wanna move into Mississippi for those jobs, I want them 'cause I don't have enough people. I want more people. I need more people. So okay, hey, look, we're gonna train the people we have, and then when new people come in, we're gonna make sure they can do the job so that the company is successful so that more companies come here so we can do more of this, right? I'd love to get into a point where we're talking about growth, and then I can do something different, but this is development. So at the same token, we have this federal system that should be signaling to us when there is this need, and this is years old, okay? This conversation about the 6,000 electricians is almost three years ago, and we still as a nation aren't doing enough to produce more electricians. Now, you've got Meta and Google have invested a bunch of money, and they've got this big announcement and all that stuff, and that's all great. But we're still three years away from having that talent, and it's green talent. Applaud everyone doing this work, including the work that's happening in Mississippi, but we're still behind, we need the private investments, but we don't need the private investments to then bolt on to the public sector investments if it slows it down So companies have gotta get a lot more specific about exactly what they need and so do states, but my labor market data doesn't necessarily get specific enough unless I use a light cast. Because if I use my own data, we don't have enhanced wage records, so I don't have accurate data. So I literally have to use data that comes from outside the state to be able to get to this to say, how many are we producing? How many do we have? How many do we need? Whatever. And then we have to mobilize the resources to produce those people wherever they are. Shipbuilders have been doing this for years, trying to train people wherever they live so they can come down and take a job. But that also likely means we're going to have to embrace a transitory economy, even for manufacturing potentially, definitely for construction, and that's okay, but I think that's where federal investments can truly make a difference, not just in apprenticeships and not just in workforce, but in genuinely training people where they live for jobs so that they can move. Now, if they train for a job that they can move for and they get a job locally, like hallelujah, that is amazing. That is what we want. For all the, the folks that we're training in the Delta and in Vicksburg, we being the community college partners there, for all of those folks that we're training, I want them to stay in Mississippi. And if they transition to a, a manufacturing job or a healthcare job, I don't care. I just want them to have a good job. But I also am equally as happy for that individuals if they go on the road with a construction company, because then they start getting per diem, and then they're increasing their value as an employee and earning higher wages. It's fine. But anyway so I think as I've thought about this, the whole we're soldiers not an army, it's oh my goodness We need to do something about that. And so that's where I am today, is like trying to think through this system and saying, how do I, how do I have, a, a process and, a process set up to where when we have a signal, which is what we're doing literally as an office, where we have a signal. The thing that we're doing is like we're taking training to these people working in partnership with community colleges and with others to increase short-term. Okay, we got a three-year increase here to solve, mitigate. We need to do that. We're gonna mitigate this need, then we're gonna move on to the next need, and we're gonna leave the system behind to do what the system does, what its base level is. That's where I need the federal system to get, and I need every agency working in that capacity. I see the feds doing the same thing that, that I had done in the beginning, which was we just put out a grant and say, "How do you wanna solve this problem? Here's some money." Because that is what they have been empowered to do by Congress and for me, by the legislature, but it's not- So what you have to be able to do is put out contracts to say, I need 2,000 people trained in this community to do these things, and I need it in two years." Who's going to do that? You don't get to tell me it's gonna take you four years to do that. You... It's going to take, if you accept this contract, this is the time it's going to take. That's what I need more of out of my system. So here's an idea I'm giving away to the world, right? This is not hard. This is the way companies run themselves at some level, is we're going to put the production where we can put the production, where the resources exist to produ- put it, to produce the thing that we're trying to produce at the capacity and the rate we're trying to produce it, right? That's all they're doing. So that's what I need in the workforce sector is, what are the tools and resources we need, and we have come up with some really spectacular ones. Not ours, like things that we're bringing in to do this stuff, and it is so freaking cool. But we've gotta do it at scale now, and then the nation needs to do that version. And maybe it's happening in places and we're just not talking about it, but what are we doing if we're not talking about it as workforce professionals? If all we're talking about is how great our little state is or how great our little program is, and we're not talking about how that impacts the nat- what the nation is trying to do, okay? And I'll give you an example before I stop talking So when I came to Mississippi, I noticed that the way we were doing funding actually excluded in- unintentionally the defense manufacturing space outside of th- the largest shipbuilder. They had figured it out. But it's, it... when you're talking about a lot of these things, they didn't need dozens or hundreds at a time. They just needed a couple. And so we started working on trying to solve that, mitigate that, to say, "Okay, they need these people. Let's get some funding in place. Let's get some, some training providers in place to go do these things." And we've done that successfully in a couple of places, universities, community colleges, even some K-12 work going on there. And that was really critical in my brain as we worked through that because it, these are jobs that they ebb and flow, right? And that's one of the hard things about the government is the government, ebbs and flows a little differently than normal manufacturing does. But for the moment, there's jobs there, so we need to go after them. So we doubled down on funding. We were really intentional about conversations with them and doing all this, and setting up training programs wherever they thought they could pull from. So the common workforce development thing is if we need to double the numbers, we go to a new school, when that's not actually the way it works. One thing I learned from Dennis Parker at Fame with Toyota, was, like, actually, we have more success recruiting from places and doubling down on places that we're already pulling people from than we do new places. So it's like, okay, so when you start thinking about it in this space is it's like actually, if I have a community college or training partner that's already producing a lot of these they got something figured out, so why don't I just double down on them and say, "What do you need? Build Mississippi." When we learned all this from Amazon, my first call was to Build Mississippi to say, "Hey, if I asked you to double your training, what would you tell me you needed?" And they told me, and we were fortunate enough to be able to give it to them, and they did. They started a day program. They got high schools in there, like, all this kind of stuff happening. Is this perfect? No. Do people have to deal with paperwork and BS and stuff from our office? Yes. But they're doing- And so I think we need more of that as a system. I think I need workforce development professionals and practitioners who are thinking about this and, let's have the conversation. But like, how do we do this faster and more? And we're probably gonna do it by leaning in to willing people in communities that have already shown a willingness to do this work. You know what I've found in the Delta? There are thousands of people up there that wanna do this work. They just need the opportunity. Okay, I'm gonna dig in. They've got something special happening there for people who want to work if it's a good job. Don't bring me some BS $9, $10 an hour job. That is not the motivator, okay? But you give me a living wage job, my bet is they can get it filled. Now, we can't do a thousand at a time, okay? Let's be honest. Let's be realistic. We can do dozens at a time, and we can get to the hundreds, and then we can get to the thousands. It's gonna take some time. It's gonna take as much time as it needs to take, but could they take that thing that they're doing right now and twoX it? Yes. 3X it? Yes. 10X it? Probably, if the resources were all there. And the resources go beyond just training. You've got to have the humans to shepherd the other humans through. They've got to care. Caring is like the number one thing. You gotta have the nonprofits in to help close the gaps that you couldn't possibly with state or federal money, and you've got to have the company at a table in the real way. Hey, company, you're gonna have to investigate... Or invest in FTE, probably a few FTEs, your own trainers. You're gonna have to bring them to the table, even associated with the local trainer. It's going to cost money, but it's money. We spend money every day. Why are we not spending it on things that actually produce a difference and some value? Okay, and then you get comfortable with it. You figure out what you're comfortable with, and you grow, and you expand, and you figure it out. And so that's what they're doing up there, and we're trying this in other pockets of the state as well, and it literally is, we will do it where there's a job. And we're not saying you have to hire every person You need to interview them all. And if it really is working, then the interviews on the front end for the program solve most of the interview potential questions, right? So anyway but how fun is that when you could get a signal potentially... Like right now the signal is for apprenticeships, and so we're working to expand apprenticeships. But it's also like what other things are we missing out there? What occupations in shipbuild- And I know the answer to this 'cause I'm working with our shipbuilders. But what occupations in shipbuilding specifically? Not just we need to help the shipbuilders. What occupations specifically? Is it entry-level? Is it mid-level? Are we talking about very specific electricians? 'Cause that's a conversation we have. Are we talking about logistics? So we worked with one of our other shipbuilders on some logistics stuff that they were getting just hammered on and our university worked with them, one of our universities, and they built a program and now they're training people. And so it's like, this is not hard. But you know what we didn't have to do in that process is check boxes that didn't matter, okay? They give me the data that I need to show that this is making a difference. I try really hard to only ask the questions that I need answers to. We're not perfect, so some of that has some challenges. They produce the curriculum, and now they're just rinse, wash, and repeat, right? They're training people. The company is with them every step of the way because it was a critical issue for the company. If workforce is a critical issue for your company, you will assign a genuine FTE and not a fricking grant writer, okay? That is just somebody that's trying to lower your bottom line, which is fine. That's not who I wanna work with. Now, I love my grant writers. I work with some national grant writers, and New Growth, they do a fantastic job for us. I love grant writers. But what I am talking about is a decision-maker within your company that can come spend 20 to 40% of their time, and in waves, making sure the program is successful and being an honest and direct communicator with the company that they're in, okay? If you are a construction company and you are not having these conversations, don't complain to me about your workforce, okay? Don't complain to me about how much you're having to pay your workforce to come in from other places, because this is the model, and it's a model that you're not gonna get me off of anytime soon because I have watched it work, okay? I've also watched Nissan work. Nissan is doing some centers of excellence, what they call centers of excellence. We've partnered with them to send their their trainers, their humans, skilled humans into schools, So they're gonna start teaching schools. Instead of teachers having to find people from industry to come in and do all this stuff, they're going right into the schools. So we're gonna see what the difference is for that. Toyota, there's a 4T Academy. I don't know that I've talked about it on this podcast, but we've posted a lot about it. They have an academy where they're going into high schools and they're teaching kids and they get exposure to production work, and then they can grow and they can do lots of things. These programs are my favorite because the industry is directly involved with them, and that makes it both harder and easier, okay? And so if you go back to my original comment about having a system, in these places, I would tell you we have a workforce system, okay? In the Mississippi Delta, we have a workforce system. The need was signaled, the community came together. There was a person, Ms. Mitzi, we call her the Queen of the Delta for a reason. She said, "What will you pay for?" And then when I told her the only things I would pay for, she came back, based on what my laws allow me to do, she came back and was like, "But what about these things?" And in some cases, the answer was yes, in some cases, the answer was no. Hey, let's go get a nonprofit partner to the table. Let's bring your WIOA dollars to bear, which we have... We're losing 10, 11% a year as a state because we've got too many people working, so we apparently don't need any money anymore, even though the people we're trying to serve now are the hardest to serve. So infuriating. But so they have a system there, and they've all learned how to work together, and it wasn't easy, and it wasn't pretty, and it wasn't perfect. But it is producing, and it's because of the humans, okay? There's still other pockets of the state that we need to do more of this, and we are working on that, but that's what we need nationally, okay? I don't need more people studying this crap, although the studies are helpful. Those can be useful tools, right? But what I need is to find where the system is actually a system, and I need to double down there. That's what I'm doing in my state anyway. Where they are already helping themselves, that's where we're dump- doubling down. Hattiesburg, Pearl River Community College, they are doubling down. They have invested in themselves, and we are pulling out every single stop we can to try to help invest in them as well. It takes time, though. But that community is working together. Doesn't mean other people aren't, right? But these are just the ones that we're working on. In Meridian Compass has invested in the program that they're doing. We put a small investment in. Compass is putting an investment in, including showing them like, "Oh, here's somebody that's already doing this well. Why don't you go see them?" So they did. So there's a lot of really good things happening. And and so that system has to mature, right? And so I know that in the future, I would have no problem going to one of these places, going to the Delta and saying, "Hey, Mitzi, it's about an hour and a half away from you. It's outside your quote area. They are gonna need X skill. Can you help me train them? What do you need to do it?" And then I know for a fact that Mitzi will help me figure that out And that's what I need. And that's who we're spending our time with, and that's who we should spend our time with. So I'm not wasting my time with people who aren't interested in that. I'm not faulting it either at this point. I've learned. I'm not faulting it either. I'm just not engaging with it 'cause I've got stuff to do. So I'm gonna spend my time with the producers, with the people who are truly trying to operate as a system, and then everybody else can just do whatever it is they're doing. And and so that probably has been one of the best lessons that industry has taught me. My industry board is like, "Just lean in to the people who are producing and the rest are just gonna do what they're gonna do." And so if that offends you, then cool because I don't have time for it. And that's what I'd love to see, frankly, at a federal level, too, as, as we learn more about... And this, the economy has changed like, why are we still living with WIOA when it was built under a very different world, right? Like, why aren't we thinking about having this new system this new way of acting as a true system to utilize the really intelligent people to send those signals instead of just sending money? What if we sent the signal along with the money that said, "We will pay X amount for you to produce this for us," just like industry does, "but we need it in 90 days. How much would it take to produce this in 90 days?". And then you're only bringing interested people to the table. So anyway, I have more thoughts on this But I've been talking for a long time this morning, and I got stuff to do. I hope that you don't protect yourself so much that you end up wrapped up in a blanket somewhere and not producing. And I hope that if you are a workforce development professional that is engaged and interested in this whole system conversation, that you'll have it with me. And if you're one of those people who is just absolutely busting it I hope we can find ways to work together. So anyway, this is Courtney Taylor scratching the surface of workforce development, and I will see y'all next time.