Nevada County Picayune and Gurdon Times Newspaper Archive

Workforce Council Is Named To Washington-Based Organization

Southwest Arkansas' Workforce Development Council was recently named to the membership of the prestigious Enterprise Council, based in Washington, D.C.

A division of Southwest Arkansas Planning and Development District, the Workforce Development Council joins only two other members in the state of Arkansas to hold this distinction.

According to Terry Sherwood, Southwest Planning's Executive director, based in Magnolia, "We are extremely proud of receiving this honor. I credit and congratulate the dedicated team of professionals anchoring our Workforce Development division of the district operations. They are truly committed to improving the lives of our regional citizens with sensitivity and an untethered commitment of excellence."

Vic Truzo, director of the Enterprise Support Team in Washington, notes that "your organization should be very proud of what you and your staff have accomplished. . .You join a special group of 171 other high per-formance workforce development programs that have demonstrated a real commitment to and practice of continuous improvement and cus-tomer satisfaction principles."

The enterprise is a network of workforce development organiza-tions which emphasizes high quality, customer-focused services using successful process manage-ment techniques adapted from the private sector. The Enterprise Council is a 28-member national organization created by the local, state and federal partners in the Job Training Partnership Act (JTPA) system.

The enterprise relies on external sources to determine the applicant's qualifications for membership. Data is verified with the state; a customer satisfaction survey is conducted by an independent survey research firm; and a panel of examiners composed of independent quality experts and peer from the workforce development system reviews the continuous improvement questionnaire.