For my DAI 505 project, I've decided to volunteer with SFPUC, San Francisco Public Utilities Commission in support of BAYWORK. The primary issue revolves around workforce development in which the water and wastewater utilities are facing a concern that the Baby Boomer generation is retiring from the water industry workforce, and there is a rising need for preparing qualified potential candidates within the new generation, the main target being the youth group - college/high school students, to fill those roles within the industry.
The following are my problem and purpose statements which may possibily be subject to further modification later on.
Problem Statement:Water and wastewater utilities facing Baby Boomer retirements need to find ways to assure that qualified candidates are available to fill mission-critical positions. Visual resources are needed to support both candidate development efforts and effective recruitment of qualified candidates.
Purpose Statement:The purpose of this study was to research and develop effective visual resources to support water and wastewater utilities in candidate development and outreach efforts.
I met up with the department manager/head last Wednesday and they discussed four different strategies that they wish to implement in order to approach this problem as a solution, and that entails: 1) Getting the right people in mission-critical classifications, 2) providing people with the information they need to do quality work, 3) modifying work to optimize the use of staffing available, and 4) maximizing the effectiveness of workforce development efforts through collaboration.
For the purpose of this semester-long project, it was decided that due to time constraints, it would be better to focus on a particular strategy of the issue before expanding outward to the others. Hence, we've agreed upon the prospect that I would focus more so on the first strategy, which involves researching and developing methods of outreach with visual resources toward our main focus group which is the youth, educating them and preparing them for such jobs in the water industry for the near future.
