Talking

Points prepared for DuPage County Chairman Dan Cronin

DuPage United Meeting
Faith Evangelical Lutheran Church
Glen Ellyn
Tuesday July 16, 2013

Introduction
Thank you for the opportunity to be here. We enjoy our relationship with you, Amy Lawless, as well as
Tom Wendorf and Debbie Fulks and all of your members. Its great to see all of you here tonight.

It takes all of us working together. I appreciate members of our team being here tonight as well. Mary
Beth Marshall is the Director of our Work Force Investment Board, Greg Bedalov, president of Choose
DuPage and Sue Clark, director of WorkNet DuPage, who unfortunately had a prior commitment and
couldnt join us tonight.

There is a lot to look forward to in DuPage County in the area of workforce development. The
strong direction of the Northern Business and Industrial Council or (NORBIC), under the expert
management of Pam McDonough, will be enormously helpful to all of us. Its nice to see Pam
tonight. Thank you again, for all that you do.

On a regional basis, we are grateful for the partnership we have with College of DuPage in work
force development and for our collaboration with Workforce Investment Boards in Will, Kane,
Lake and McHenry counties.

Worknet DuPage
Residents receive a voucher to pay for occupational and vocational training programs.
Worknet DuPage works directly with manufacturers to provide on-the-job training.
Matches are coordinated between individuals and employers.
Please learn more by going to the web site WorkNetDupage.org or follow them on Twitter- the
handle is @workNetDuPage.

Current Efforts
In addition to our normal programs, we are happy to receive a $350,000 grant from the State of
Illinois from the Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity which allows us to hire a
case management counselor, create internships, and provide gas cards to be used by participants
for travel to and from on-the-job-training.

There is a Request For Proposals or (RFP) out right now for the training portion of the program.

Manufacturing Leadership Council
Going forward I think there is value in re-visiting a Manufacturing Leadership Council that would
serve under the DuPage Workforce Investment Board. This public-private partnership would
include all stakeholders and would work together to develop plans, policies, and programs. I
hope to talk more with you about this possibility and making it a reality.

Thank you again for inviting me. I always enjoy working with DuPage United and employers in DuPage
County to continue building upon the work force development that is so critical to the future of our
county.