Area Organizations Push Innovation Under Program

The 101 Corridor is home to many internationally known technology companies creating innovative products. But those companies don’t interest Bill Baratto as he leads the Ventura County Economic Development Association in finding tech companies to include in a state-wide database. The association instead digs deeper to find the small- to medium-sized entrepreneurial companies hidden in industrial parks in the west San Fernando Valley. “That’s where significant amounts of innovation in technology are happening that doesn’t get recognized and is flying below the radar screen,” said Baratto, president and chief executive officer of the Ventura County EDA. The database of technology companies is among the projects funded by a $15 million federal grant to the California Space Authority, a not for profit agency finding ways to keep the state’s aerospace industry competitive in the global marketplace. The database fits that goal in that it will stimulate relationships among businesses to create new technologies. “The starting point is you have to know where everybody is and what everybody is doing,” Baratto said. The Ventura County EDA is among the more than 60 partnering organizations chosen by the authority to take part in the Workforce Innovation in Regional Economic Development, or WIRED, program. The partners were chosen from a 13-county area dubbed the California Innovation Corridor stretching from Alameda County in the north to San Diego County in the south. Among the partners from the Los Angeles area are the Ventura County Workforce Investment Board, the Greater Antelope Valley Economic Alliance, the Antelope Valley Board of Trade, the City of Lancaster Redevelopment Agency, Antelope Valley College, and College of the Canyons. The WIRED program promotes innovation in technology, creating workforce training and education programs for the manufacturing sector, and rejuvenating aerospace manufacturing through better supply chains. All that adds up to helping California companies maintain their competitive edge in the face of foreign countries taking away business. “We have to be responsive and be able to produce a workforce that will be competitive and maintain an economy that will be competitive,” said Les Uhazy, dean of mathematics, science and engineering at Antelope Valley College. The college’s part in the program is helping to survey 1,000 companies in the California Innovation Corridor on their needs to prepare their workforce to create and maintain efficient supply chains. The follow up to the survey is creating a training program for employees made available through the state’s community college system. Taking part in the WIRED program is an opportunity for the college to provide workforce training responsive to what manufacturers need, Uhazy said. Staying competitive, whether in local or global markets, requires a skilled workforce and ability by companies to adapt to changes in the market, Uhazy added. “If there is a particular need for a particular component that goes into CD players or a satellite dish or involved in the production of aircraft or spacecraft, and if people are going to be doing this in the most cost effective way with great efficiency we have to be prepared for that,” Uhazy said. The Antelope Valley Board of Trade, the Greater Antelope Valley Economic Alliance along with the Kern County Economic Development Corp. are compiling a list of innovation companies and federally-funded research labs in the area to include in a database. Providing information on the companies, research labs, and universities doing research makes it easier for capital investors to find them so work stays in California, said board of trade Executive Director Cathy Hart. The board is also involved with forming a supply chain advisory council to learn the needs of manufacturing suppliers in terms of workforce and equipment. “We need to find out what is holding our suppliers back from competing in a globally competitive way,” Hart said. College of the Canyons is addressing the workforce shortage in high-tech manufacturing by developing programs for middle school students, said Dena Maloney, the school’s dean of the economic development division. The focus on middle school students parallels things the school is already doing to start planting seeds early to spark an interest in technical education programs that students pursue into college, Maloney said. LOCAL PARTICIPANTS IN WIRED Antelope Valley Board of Trade. Antelope Valley College City of Lancaster Redevelopment Agency College of the Canyons Greater Antelope Valley Economic Alliance Ventura County Economic Development Association Ventura County Workforce Investment Board