By GLENN WOJCIAK

The Post staff writer

Unemployment in Medina County dropped to 7.5 percent in October, one of the lowest rates in Ohio, but not nearly low enough to ease the concerns of the staff at the county's Workforce Development Center.

Bill Hannigan, director of the center, reports his office has had more than 3,400 visits from job seekers since July. The center, also known as MedinaWorks, offers a variety of job placement and training programs to job seekers and job posting and employee screening services to employers.

Hannigan said two recent programs by MedinaWorks have shown exceptional promise in meeting the needs of area employers and employees. One involves a series of training programs to fill shortages of qualified nurses and the other is the creation of a new manufacturing training consortium to connect employers and qualified employees.

Hannigan said 35 students recently graduated from a nurse executive certification program established through grants made to the workforce development program. Another grant program is helping five nurses receive master's degrees in order to become preceptors who can train additional nurses at area hospitals. Still another program being developed is an online certification in gerontology for new nurses taking jobs at assisted living facilities and nursing homes.

The Bureau of Labor Statistics has predicted that of the 30 fastest growing occupations in the next eight years, 17 will be in health care or medical research. Employment in health care is projected to increase by 1.6 million.

"I found it rewarding that some of the programs we've developed over the last year or two are right in line with some of the recommendations that came out of the recent Northeast Ohio Regional Allied Health Workforce Summit," Hannigan said. The summit is held annually by health professionals, educators and policy leaders to address the workforce needs and opportunities in health care.

There is also a growing demand in the area for manufacturing workers. Hannigan said a recent survey of Medina County manufacturing companies indicated that they intend to hire about 200 people in the coming year. However, Hannigan said employers often have trouble finding qualified workers, even with the high unemployment rates.

The new manufacturing training consortium is designed to help place qualified workers with area employers. Hannigan said the process will begin with an assessment of employees at 25 manufacturing companies in the county. The assessment process will be used to devise a set of criteria for measuring the skills of applicants applying for similar jobs.

"One employer recently told me that he had 30 applicants for three open positions," Hannigan said. "They interviewed nine of the applicants and hired three, but they had to let two go within a couple of months because they couldn't do the work. That's a lot of wasted effort by the employer to hire one worker."

The goal of the manufacturing training consortium is to build a pool of qualified workers from which manufacturers can draw. Hannigan said job seekers will be tested and rated for their skill level on the new criteria being developed with employers. Job seekers who don't have the needed qualifications will be referred to training programs at either the Medina County Career Center of the Medina County University Center to raise their skills.

"There are no losers in this plan," Hannigan said. "The employers will get workers with the skills they need and the job seekers will get the skills they need to qualify for the job."