It has been several weeks since I separated from Greenspun Media Group and Recruiting Nevada.  It is always satisfying to see a company you personally built continue on and serve its’ mission.  Or at least part of it.  RecruitingNevada.com was intended to be exclusive to Nevada based employers to retain our talent.  The economy has changed substantially since we developed that mission.

I saw a job posting for the “Superintendent of the Hawaii Board of Education” on the job board yesterday.  That is an impressive job to be advertising.  Why Hawaii would be recruiting in Las Vegas bother me.  I guess it is because we are considered the ninth island.  Or the Hawaii Dept. of Ed hired a smart ad firm that knows Clark County is going through a search and decided to piggyback. 

Anyway, nice to see such quality jobs on RecruitingNevada.com:

Fred Maryanksi, president of Nevada State College passed away on Friday, July 2, 2010.  Dr. Maryanski was a true champion for education, and more importantly, Nevada State College.  He took the reins of NSC in early 2005 and guided the college through the accreditation process and more impressively, the political mine field in Nevada education.  I was fortunate enough to serve for Dr. Maryanksi on the Diversity Council of Nevada State College.  It was amazing to watch his leadership skills and passion behind doing what was in the best interests of Nevada.  Here are the local newspaper stories on Fred:

• Las Vegas Review Journal
• Las Vegas Sun

Rest in Peace Dr. Maryanski.  We will miss you.

University of Nevada Reno, Orvis School of Nursing, has reached capacity again and is looking to double their enrollment.  When this is completed, it is expected that the new UNR facility will ease the nursing shortfall.  Northern Nevada is not unique in this capacity problem.  Southern Nevada faces the same issue.  And pretty much every nursing program in the State of Nevada is at capacity as we lack sufficient clinical space.

“Growing our own” is surely the best route to go for Nevada.  We have lacked in our production of registered nurses over the year.  To put some perspective to this….back in the late 1990s when we first started focusing on the nursing shortage, Nevada was graduating some 332 registered nurses each year.  The problem was we needed over 800 to fulfill our needs.  So we had to go out-of-market to attract nurses to relocate.  This is how Recruiting Nevada came about.

However, we knew that we needed to increase Nevada’s home-grown supply of registered nurses.  So we lobbied the Nevada Legislature to double the nursing program.  That happened 3 sessions later and between the public nursing schools and the privates, Nevada now graduates around 1,000 registered nurses each year.

We are well on our way to a sustainable recruiting solution for registered nurses in Nevada.  There still are some changes that need to happen in clinical scheduling to increase (and optimize) overall capacity.  Several groups are working on that problem as we speak.  Kudos to UNR for their expected growth and contribution to the overall wealth and health of Nevada.

As the Nevada economy bounces along the bottom, economists and futurists continue to state that Nevada needs to change from being a consumer to becoming and exporter.  I ask, “What can Nevada export?”

Nevada has done an excellent job of exporting ‘a great experience’ for years.  Travelers from across the globe have visited our great city and we have delivered and exported a once in a lifetime experience.  It is important that we do not forget (or neglect) this. This is our most valuable export.

But what else can we export?  Considering most manufacturing takes an abundance of energy, we are limited until we become the renewable energy capital of the World.  Then we can utilize the energy we produce and hopefully we can export our excess energy to other energy hungry states.  But reality is that is at least 10 years away.

So what else can we export?  Well, many of our professional firms such as engineers and architects have learned that they can export their services.  As other regions and countries look at the expansion of gaming, they look at Las Vegas as the model to take from.  So they engage our local design firms to produce drawings and engineer these new casinos. 

I would argue that we are an exporter of gaming talent as well.  I know some people may immediately jump to the conclusion of ‘this is brain drain.’  But is is not.  And if we do it right, it does not have to be. 

Let’s dive a little deeper – UNLV is known for as being one of the best ‘hotel and hospitality’ colleges in the World.  Most of the talent stays right here in Las Vegas.  Some are ‘exported’ to work in hotels across the country, or even the World.  But I would venture to say that Las Vegas retains the best.  So in essence, we are an exporter of gaming talent.  Yet, we benefit from the ability to source directly from the best college for this profession. 

So can we do this with other professions if done right?  I think so.  We would clearly need to fix our state budgets.  Or at least how we fund higher education.  But imagine if we increased our production of health care professionals from higher education.  And not only production, but quality.  And our local health care employers benefited from the deeper applicant pool.  We could retain the best and become an exporter of health care talent. 

We are a long ways away from being able to accomplish this.  But it is a concept that has merit.  I encourage you to look to Henderson, which has done an amazing job of attracting private higher education institutions that do not rely on Nevada state funding.  These colleges (some 10+ of them), are training professionals from other states and many of them become employed right here in Southern Nevada.  And each of these colleges employ dozens, if not hundreds of highly skilled professionals themselves who live in our communities.  They own homes, shop and eat in our local restaurants.  In essence – they contribute to our economy and diversification efforts.

I suggest we look at Education as a business.  One that will initially provide us with the workforce that we need, but a business where we can eventually export our excess talent.  What a great position we will be in then.

If you want to read a very information article on Nevada being Down and Out:  Salary and job outlook for Nevadans goes from bad to worse with little relief in sight….take the time to read the article written by Jennifer Robison from the Las Vegas Review Journal.  Basically, only two industries saw job growth in the past two years.  Others took massive hits.  Check out the below:

• Natural Resources and Mining:  +400
• Construction:  -36,400
• Manufacturing:  -4,400
• Trade, Transportation and Utilities:  -18,200
• Information:  -1,200
• Financial Activities:  -5,200
• Professional and Business Services:  -15,600
• Education and Health Services:  4,900
• Leisure and Hospitality:  -28,600
• Government:  -5,300

All I have to say is…..Eds & Meds, Eds & Meds, Eds & Meds.

Its obvious that Nevada is at a cross roads again in terms of economic diversification.  We need it.  And everyone agrees.  We have been here several times before.  The question is  – “Will we do anything different this time?”

As many know, I believe that if we focus on the growth of “Eds & Meds” we will achieve economic diversification.  Look at Pittsburgh’s success with this program.  Not only did Pittsburgh find growth in education and healthcare, they attracted other leading industries to enter the marketplace.  Frankly, this is what turned Pittsburgh, PA around.  Unless an initiative had something to do with education or medical, the economic diversification leadership of Pittsburgh did not pay as much attention. And now Pittsburgh is an admired turn-around city.  Today, Pittsburgh has one of the lowest unemployment levels in the country and is not feeling the recession like other markets.

By following this best practice, we would improve upon the two biggest weaknesses of Nevada that stop companies from relocating here.  Nevada offers one of the best business climates in the World, but we lack in what is most important to many companies.  And that is offering families of workers a great education and quality health care. 

I remember all too well when Las Vegas and Nevada arrived at the cross roads last time, right after the September 11, 2001 tragedy.  The Las Vegas, and therefore the Nevada, economy was crushed.  Occupancy rates dropped immediately, and quickly following were room rates.  Revenues plummeted.  Projects were halted.  And the people of Nevada cried “Why did we allow ourselves to become some dependent on gaming?”  And we committed to change our dependence. 

But as soon as the gaming engine began to roar again four months later all of those cries fell on silent ears.  Nevada was back!!  And projects were now behind schedule after being put on hold for four months.  So engineering and construction companies doubled their hiring capacity to make up for lost time.  And a few looked at this job creation as diversification, because of course they were construction and professional jobs, not gaming.  But what we neglected to acknowledge was that they were tied to gaming. 

Well, here we are again.  And this time is different.  Much different.  With many projects being moth-balled for at least five years.  So those construction, engineering and architecture jobs will not be returning any time soon.  And those jobs make up our second largest industry.  Nevada DETER states that 28.7 percent of these jobs have gone away during the recession. 

So, let’s start valuing education and healthcare.  It will not only create new jobs in Las Vegas in both of these industries…..it will attract other great companies to relocate here.

I found a real cool website that offers a library of vintage recruitment ads.  I plan on sharing one per week.  If you are impatient and want to check them all out sooner, go to: http://www.vintageadbrowser.com/ 

This one is from 1903.  Much different than how we advertise teaching jobs in Las Vegas. And teachers made a whopping (up to) $4,000 back then. 

Kathleen Schaeffer was recently recognized Nevada Teacher of the Year by the Nevada Department of Education. She was honored with the title during a surprise assembly last week. Schaeffer has been with the middle school since it opened in 2000. 

As we know, Clark County School District has challenges filling teacher jobs in Las Vegas.  It is awesome news to learn that teachers like Kathleen are being recognized for their hard work and dedication.

In the past Nevada has not valued education.  Although in the past few years several leaders have emerged to move education to the forefront.  It has been, and will continue to be, a struggle as we try to overcome our past ignorance.  When we are able to “grow our own” we will begin to thrive as a community.  Until then, we continue to import talent from other markets to fill nursing jobs in Nevada, teaching jobs in Nevada and engineer jobs in Nevada.

The U.S. Department of Education created a unique program called “Race to the Top.”  Here is a brief description of the program:

Awards in Race to the Top will go to States that are leading the way with ambitious yet achievable plans for implementing coherent, compelling, and comprehensive education reform. Race to the Top winners will help trail-blaze effective reforms and provide examples for States and local school districts throughout the country to follow as they too are hard at work on reforms that can transform our schools for decades to come.”

Unfortunately, Nevada cannot even compete for the $4.35 billion in funding for this initiative because of a bill introduced in the 2003 legislative special session. 

If Nevada wants to become a leader we need more of an emphasis on education.  It is the foundation of a self-sufficient state.  And a smart one!!

Whether you liked or disliked Jim Rogers, there was no better advocate for education.  Jim’s honest approach and willingness to have healthy discussion on any subject matter, advanced education’s agenda more than any chancellor has done in the past.  Without his leadership during this past legislative session, higher education budgets would have been slaughtered, pushing Nevada further into the stone-age. 

Jim always did what was in the best interests of education. And as he put it, “there is no substitute for directness and clear concise honesty.”  Because of his efforts, We are more successful in ‘growing our own’ for jobs in Nevada.

lasvegassun.com did an awesome article on the Legacy of Chancellor Jim Rogers.  It is well worth the read.