THE FUTURE of SMART WORK in CENTRAL OHIO 20202020 Table of Contents
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FAST FORWARD: THE FUTURE OF SMART WORK IN CENTRAL OHIO 20202020 Table of Contents Disruption: Past, Present, Future 3 Workforce Resilience: Continuous Learning. Maximum Flexibility. 22 Introduction: A Smart City A Smart City Leaves No One Behind 24 Needs a Smart Workforce 4 Connecting Every Central Ohio Community To New Opportunities 25 USDOT Smart City Challenge Win 4 Understanding the Needs of a Preparing Central Ohio’s Workforce for Smart Workforce 4 Disruption: Policy Recommendations 27 Future-Proofing Columbus 5 In Conclusion: Disruption Smart Cities 5 Never Concludes 28 Key Smart City Initiatives in the U.S. 7 How Technology and Connectivity Definitions 29 Power a Smart City 8 What It Means for Tomorrow’s The Methods and Resources Workforce 8 Behind This Report 30 Making Disruption Work for Appendix A — Report Authors 30 Central Ohio Workers 9 Appendix B — Research Methods 31 Workers in a Data-Driven World 10 Economic Assumptions and Industry No Job Title is Out of Disruption’s Reach 11 Employment Projections 31 Workplace Implications of Artificial Literature Review Approach 32 Intelligence 12 Stakeholder Engagement 32 Intelligent Transportation: Changing Appendix C — Future of Smart Work: How We Work, Where We Work and How We Get to Work 13 Review of Literature 34 Modernizing and Decarbonizing the Grid 14 Appendix D — Economic and Workforce Forecasting Results 34 Central Ohio Workforce Trends: Baseline Projections 15 Appendix E — Stakeholder Industries That Will Drive Central Engagement Protocols 34 Ohio Workforce Demand 16 Focus Group Protocol 34 What Central Ohio Stakeholders Post Focus Group Surveys 36 Have to Say 19 Appendix F — Workforce Development Insights from Visionaries and System Gap Analysis 37 Frontline Workers 19 A Strong Sense of Regional Identity 20 Citations 39 Disruption Demands New Career Pathways 21 2 | THE FUTURE OF SMART WORK IN CENTRAL OHIO Disruption: Past, Present, Future A foreword by Smart Columbus and the Workforce Development Board of Central Ohio In 2015, the U.S. Department of Transportation (USDOT) issued the first-ever Smart City Challenge to accelerate the American smart cities movement. By challenging mid-size cities to use emerging transportation technologies to address their most pressing problems, the USDOT aimed to spread innovation through a mixture of competition, collaboration, and experimentation. Propelled by an application that committed to collaborating across the public and private sectors to improve resident quality of life through access to mobility, Columbus beat out 77 other cities to be named the winner of the Challenge. The win earned Columbus $50 million in the form of two grants, $40 million from the USDOT and $10 million from the Paul residents. To do so, we must question the challenges G. Allen Family Foundation, and the designation as and opportunities this new era of smart cities will America’s Smart City. The win also presented the bring. What disruptions do we see on the horizon? opportunity to understand and demonstrate what How will those disruptions change the needs of it means to become a smart city in a time when business and industry? How will these disruptions technology disruption is transforming the ways affect our workers? What skills will our workers need residents move, work, and connect with one another as our city becomes ‘smart’? How do our workers and the urban environment around them. obtain those skills to be ready and competitive in our future job market? These are all questions that we are Columbus has seen technology disruption of this working to answer in “Fast Forward: The Future of magnitude before. The Columbus Buggy Company Smart Work in Central Ohio.” was founded in 1875 and, at its height, employed 1,200 people and manufactured 100 buggies a day. This study is both an assessment of the driver At one time, 1 in 4 buggies manufactured in America industries that fuel the central Ohio economy in six were made by Columbus workers. But disruption key areas applicable to smart cities — electrification, came quickly for the buggy and for Columbus. Henry intelligent transportation, IoT, data, healthcare Ford introduced the Model T in 1908, and the buggy and financial services — and an evaluation of our disappeared within a decade. By 1913, the Columbus training and education programs, all in order to make Buggy Company was in bankruptcy. recommendations about how those training and education programs may need to evolve in order to A century later, connectivity, connect our workers to the jobs of the future as we data, the Internet of Things grow as a smart city. (IoT), and sensing and computing technologies While this research was conducted prior to the stand to create an even outbreak of COVID-19, we would be remiss not to larger disruption. Disruption include mention of an event that has impacted our to the ways we live and workforce unlike any other in history. Due to the move. Disruption to the way impacts of tactics used to combat COVID-19, many cities make decisions and do businesses have been shuttered and we have seen a business. Disruption to the ways we work. Disruption contraction in the labor market, specifically in areas to the jobs we work in — just like those 1,200 jobs at like the service industry where so many workers could the Columbus Buggy Company. benefit from new skills that will position them for jobs in a recovering economy. As of 2019, we expected to attract another million people to the Columbus Region by 2050. In that As we learn from the impacts of COVID-19 and past context, we have an even greater responsibility to examples, we have the opportunity to look forward build a workforce that supports a thriving community, and bring everyone along so they may grow through building ladders of opportunity for new and current disruption and live their best lives. 3 | THE FUTURE OF SMART WORK IN CENTRAL OHIO Introduction: A Smart City Needs a Smart Workforce USDOT Smart City Challenge Win Understanding the Needs of a Smart By issuing the Smart City Challenge in 2015, the Workforce USDOT called on communities to do more than In the spring of 2019, the Ohio Education Research merely introduce new technologies onto city streets. Center (OERC) at The Ohio State University was It called on them to boldly envision new solutions that selected by Smart Columbus and its partners at the would change the face of transportation in cities by Workforce Development Board of Central Ohio and the closing the gap between rich and poor, capturing the United Way of Central Ohio to conduct a study of the needs of both young and old, and bridging the digital Future of Smart Work in Central Ohio. divide through smart design so that the future of transportation meets the needs of all city residents. The study was conducted in two phases. In the spring, the OERC conducted a literature review and In total, 78 cities applied, including Columbus and benchmarking exercise, placing the Smart Columbus finalists Austin, Denver, Portland, Pittsburgh, Kansas initiative within context and identifying emerging City, and San Francisco. As the winner, Columbus best practices among other cities undertaking smart received a total of $50 million in the form of two initiatives. Next, the OERC engaged with Regionomics, grants: $40 million from the USDOT and $10 million a well-known local economic consulting firm, to from the Paul G. Allen Family Foundation. These dollars conduct an analysis of regional workforce trends. provided the seed funding for Smart Columbus — a Using the results of the literature review, benchmarking region-wide smart city initiative co-led by the City of exercise, and workforce analysis, the OERC developed Columbus and the Columbus Partnership. Columbus a set of interview and focus group protocols to earned the designation as America’s Smart City, but collect feedback from a variety of stakeholder groups, this was no award or trophy, but a job to do — to including employers, community leaders, and local understand and demonstrate what it means to become residents, through the summer and early fall of 2019. ‘smart.’ Critical to Columbus’ success is understanding the impact of smart city innovation on the workforce This report presents the results of that study. It is both of the future. an assessment of the driver industries that fuel the central Ohio economy, the future jobs in six key areas — electrification, intelligent transportation, the Internet of Things (IoT), data, healthcare and financial services — and an evaluation of our training and education programs. These analyses inform recommendations about how those training and education programs may need to evolve in order to connect our workers to the jobs of the future. 4 | THE FUTURE OF SMART WORK IN CENTRAL OHIO Future-Proofing Columbus Cities and industries are facing accelerated technological disruption. This represents a significant opportunity for the Columbus Region, the 11-county region as defined by One Columbus, to secure a prosperous economic future. Today, the Region is home to a population of 2.1 million, and a potential workforce of one million, one of the youngest and most-educated populations in the country. At the center of the Smart Columbus initiative is a commitment to embrace innovation in a way that builds a future with all, not for some. Today, Columbus is both the fastest growing city in the Midwest and the second-most economically segregated city in the nation. According to projections from the Mid-Ohio Regional Planning Commission’s Insight 2050 study, the region will grow by about 1 million people and 300,000 jobs between 2010 and 2050. This presents an opportunity to not only “future-proof” the economy but also be intentional when building up new systems and norms in the wake of disruption.