DED appoints work force development director

Busick, who had served as the division’s deputy director since 2005, said the division has 42 career centers throughout the state.

She said she hopes to capitalize on the successes of the Springfield and Branson career centers and spread the word about the Share Network, an outreach of informal access points at faith-based organizations and community action agencies.

“One good lesson that we learned through Hurricane Katrina is that a lot of evacuees, the 10,000 who came to our state, didn’t come to a government career center per se,” Busick said. “A lot of them, we found, were at faith-based organizations seeking other types of assistance, so … we’ve partnered with those organizations so they have access (to career center services) through computers or kiosks at those organizations.”

The No. 1 challenge in southwest Missouri, she said, is staying on pace as one of the state’s most innovative work force regions, particularly because the labor pool is shared with other areas of the four-state region.

“Southwest Missouri’s also involved in some regional transformation team participation and work force innovation and regional economic development in the quad-state region, encompassing Missouri, Oklahoma, Arkansas and parts of Kansas,” Busick said.

The shared work force among those regions will be particularly challenging for southwest Missouri in 2008, Busick said, noting that southwest Missouri will have to keep up in everything from local collaborations and educational entities to business and marketing outreach strategies.

“I just want to strongly emphasize our continued commitment (to) assisting Missourians and improving their quality of life through quality jobs for quality citizens,” Busick said.

Among her plans for 2008 are continuing to roll out Missouri Career Readiness certificates, and launching in April a new case management system. A new state work force board also will be announced within the next three months, she said.

Prior to her work with the Missouri DED, Busick spent more than 24 years working at various levels of Illinois government.