Noblesville Works, a community-wide initiative that will impact citizens and the workforce of the city, has officially kicked off as of Aug. 1.
The project is a product of the Workforce Development Council, comprised of Noblesville Schools’ administrators and counselors, the Noblesville Chamber of Commerce, Ivy Tech and Work One, the Noblesville Economic Development Department, non-profit organizations and several local businesses.
The council began in the fall of 2012 to provide strategies and a collaborative approach to improve workforce preparedness and training for individuals. One of the areas identified as critical to ensure a work-ready employee was soft skills enhancement, like communication skills, work ethic, teamwork, personal ethics, critical thinking and more.
“Soft skills are important because they are human element skills,” Mayor John Ditslear said. “Soft skills, like how you communicate or your ethics, might be the element that sets you aside from your competitor. Technical skills may get you a job interview, but soft skills will get you the job and help you retain it.”
This is also is the first time in the state that a community has created this type of emphasis on soft skills enhancement and development.
“The Noblesville Works initiative is a grassroots effort from the community saying soft skills matter to us, and we, collectively, are going to make them a priority,” said Robert Herrington, communications manager.
“What really makes the Noblesville Works initiative so powerful is that these efforts we have been focused on within the schools will now be aligned with the community at large. There’s a strong synergy that comes from focusing on the same thing at the same time as a community, and this synergy will further student capabilities in this critical area,” said Noblesville Schools Superintendent Dr. Beth Niedermeyer.
The campaign features a specific soft skill, one per month, for the academic year. The community can get participate in this initiative by following the monthly schedule for each soft skill and incorporating them as part of your daily life and vocabulary with colleagues, children, family and friends.
