SW MN Private Industry Council

About Us

Building Tomorrow's Workforce through Training, Leadership, and Economic Development.

The Southwest Minnesota Private Industry Council, Inc. (SW MN PIC) is a private, non-profit organization which provides employment and training services to residents and businesses across Southwestern Minnesota.

With a highly qualified, professional staff and office locations in Montevideo, Marshall, and Worthington, the SW MN PIC provides job training, assessments, and various employment services to hundreds of residents and many businesses across our fourteen county workforce service area every year.

Our Mission

Building Tomorrow's Workforce through Training, Leadership, and Economic Development. The SW MN PIC provides job training, assessments, and various employment services to hundreds of residents and many businesses across our fourteen county workforce service area (Big Stone, Chippewa, Cottonwood, Jackson, Lac qui Parle, Lincoln, Lyon, Murray, Nobles, Pipestone, Redwood, Rock, Swift, and Yellow Medicine Counties) every year.

SW MN PIC operates programs under the Workforce Investment Act (WIA), Adult and Youth services, State and Federal Dislocated Worker Programs, the Minnesota Family Investment Program (MFIP), Employment and Training services, the Food Support Employment and Training (FSET) program, the Minnesota Youth Program, the Youth Intervention Program, as well as various other projects.

The goal of the SW MN PIC is to be a leader in the development of a world class workforce in the communities we serve.

Why We Need a New Website

In a technology-driven world, it is important for us to have a customer-friendly, useful website that is not only informative but interactive. Tomorrow's workforce rests on technology, and, as an organization, we are not setting a strong example through our current website. A new website will provide our clients with greater access to the services we provide, the paperwork necessary to participate in our programs, and the ability to progress through our programs more quickly. Our goal is to create a communication system that allows greater access and usability for our clients and to provide direct access to our adult and youth job counselors. We believe this will encourage a faster response to our clients and increase the rate in which we assist them to become re-employed or placed in a sustainable living situation.

As we service a broad area (14 counties in SW Minnesota), we also have multiple employees who travel to multiple locations to meet with clients or to cross-train with other employees. Having a more interactive website will allow our employees to distribute information to clients and share information with other employees.

A new website will also allow us to market our information to a wider audience, while being able to provide one website - ours - that will have multiple links for our clients to access all the information they need in their job, training or educational searches. The clients we currently serve are encouraged to go to multiple websites to search for jobs; we teach clients to submit job applications online, yet they must submit applications for our services on paper. We would like our website to serve as a one-stop-shopping experience for career counseling, youth services, and job searching.

We also work with local businesses who provide on-the-job training or additional support services for our clients. A new website will allow us to distribute information to more businesses, serve as a marketing tool for greater local and regional support of our programs, and direct businesses who would like to become involved with our efforts an avenue to communicate and collaborate with us.

How Our New Site Will Help Make the World Greener

Currently, our clients apply for services on paper forms. Having the ability to reduce paper usage would not only allow for less waste, but will also allow a reduction in budget for these items. Our application process requires eligible participants to drive to the Workforce Center to pick up and fill out the application. Having these applications accessible online with the ability to submit online or via email not only eliminates the transportation costs to the client; it also reduces the paper waste and vehicle emissions expended to obtain the paperwork. With only three sites in a 14-county area, online forms are necessary for the progression of the programs and the accessibility for clients. In addition to paper applications, our current processes for distribution of client surveys is via U.S. Mail. This often requires an addition of an SASE to encourage our clients, who may not return the survey if they have to purchase their own stamps. Currently the response rate for return of paper surveys is very low. By allowing clients to fill out the survey online, we not only reduce waste and costs, but we increase the rate and ease of response.

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Messages From Supporters

When the judges choose which non-profits will be selected to participate in this year's Challenge they will take into account testimonials from beneficiaries, donors, volunteers, board members and other

I am employee of the SW MN PIC, and I work off site in a county. I would really like our website to be up to date so that I could have access to a number of forms, applications and other information that would be beneficial to the customers that I serve. So many times when I am meeting with them, I don't always have what I need at my finger tips (I end up having to mail things back out to them, when I get back to the office which can delay things by over a week) and by having a website that is up to date this would help with my ability to serve our customer in the rural area in a more timely and efficient manner.

Anonymous

As an NGO, I work with the SW PIC and they run a tight ship -- great dedicated people who know their stuff and who are committed to service and the regional community. You can't ask for more. But truth be told -- their current web site is kind of boring. They need more pictures! They need to move away from the staid institutional feel of the current web site and have a site that reflects the vitality of their agency! They work with students and they serve the community -- but where is the visual evidence of that on their web site? Please help them with a web site makeover! By the way, if you are looking for a web site that students designed with the help of SW PIC youth employment programs, check out www.hillgroceryhouse.org

Sincerely,

Patrick J. Moore www.cureriver.org

Patrick Moore CURE is an NGO partner that supervises youth employees through SW PIC program

I do think the PIC could benefit greatly from a new website. Based on my experience with other websites it can provide 4 fundamental benefits: 1) Shows your customers and other organizations that your agency is progressive and well organized 2) Reduces the need for staff to answer routine phone calls and emails by providing necessary forms and information on the site 3) Provides better service to customers and employers by providing up-to-date customer and employer forms on-line 4) Can enhance your ability to conduct on-line registration or data collection.

Your website helps define who you are!

Tom Hoff, SW/WC Service Cooperative, Board Member

I am an employee of SW MN PIC. As part of my job I routinely work off-site. It would be awesome to have an updated website which would allow for access to forms that are needed for day-to-day business. Our current website does not offer much for staff use, so I do not access it nor do I remember to refer others to it.

Anonymous

"When people are born they are supple, and when they die they are stiff. When trees are born they are tender, and when they die they are brittle. Stiffness is thus a cohort of death, flexibility is a cohort of life" - Tao Te Ching - We need your help to make our website more flexible and responsive to our clients needs, which will give them timely access to services and a better life!

I am a member of the workforce council representing public assistant applicants who need employment and training to obtain jobs. The economy is tough now and our clients on public assistance need help, but this website does not have the capacity for them to apply on-line. Instead applicants have to drive to the nearest workforce center to complete a paper application. Clients often lack transportation or funds to pay others to drive them to the workforce center. In addition, some clients must travel great distances since there are only 3 regional sites to serve 14 counties. We would greatly appreciate your help in making services more accessible to our clients with an enhanced website.

Joel Churness, Public Assistance Representative, SW MN Workforce Council

Anonymous

As an agency that trains our future workforce, the Private Industry Council must show that they themselves are progressive, pro-active, and efficient. An updated website will better serve the needs of current and future customers by keeping information current, minimizing costs, providing links to other important resources, and giving a 24/7 presence for students, employers, and partnering agencies.

A website can define who you are, what you do, and how well you do it. By indicating an interest in improving their website, this agency continues to show they want to provide quality service to their customers. A new and improved website will help them do what they already do well, even better.

Gail Polejewski, Career Development Coordinator, Minnesota West Community and Technical College

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