The Tulsa Regional Chamber’s Workforce and Talent Council Meeting on Tuesday produced a rich dialogue on critical needs facing organizations.

Rue Ramsey, the Chamber’s vice president of workforce and talent strategies, facilitated the conversation with about two dozen attendees at The Summit in Tulsa.

“The critical need I find myself most constantly engaged in is being an evangelist with employers about investing in their own people to be able to see the value of helping that economic mobility turn into real opportunity for them to have retention,” said Parrish McDaris, a coordinator at Goodwill TulsaWORKS Career Academy.

The Workforce and Talent Council is a forum for talent management professionals to meet with key leaders from area schools and organizations in the talent ecosystem. The council provides opportunities to discuss industry trends, workforce training, talent attraction, acquisition and retention, legislative issues,and economic impacts from an economic development perspective.

Tuesday’s event, the second and final Workforce and Talent Council meeting of the year, was sponsored by the Oklahoma State Chamber and CF Industries.

Dan Mabery, vice president of university relations at Northeastern State University, stressed the importance of enabling students to earn microcredentials and badges, which let employers and professional networks know that a learner has proficiency in a subject area.

“Many of us in the room, skill providers, have that nimbleness built into our institutions,” he said. “But what we need is a time at the table, where we can all sit down or be a part of an advisory board where you say this is what I’m looking for,and I need 200 employees within the next eight months with this skill set, which doesn’t necessarily mean a degree.

“We can do it in bits and pieces. And we can do it by providing the education in that skill gap.”

Dr. Pete Selden, vice president for workforce development at Tulsa Community College, said internships are excellent ways for students to learn. But only 50 of TCC’s roughly 14,000 students served internships this past year, he said.

“No offense to our four-year partners, but it’s not just for juniors and seniors,” Selden said. “We need freshmen and sophomores being able to get those experiences, too..."

Marla Robinson, director of college and career services at Union High School, said she appreciated Tuesday’s forum.

“This is truly one of our critical needs, which is face time with different companies and organizations and nonprofits that are willing to work with us,” she said.

Robinson’s wish list includes career learning experiences for even younger students.

“This isn’t just a high school need,” she said. “We need to be delving down with younger students. We really want to build pathways and show students the options they have to be college- and career-ready, and we have to start way before their senior year.”

To learn more about the Workforce and Talent Council, please contact Rue Ramsey at 918-560-0294.