There’s a need for training part of the local workforce to adapt to a changing business climate, a regional planner said.

Marquitrice Mangham, chief of community planning for the Middle Peninsula Planning District Commission, said that training—or re-training—workers for existing and future jobs was a central theme of workforce development raised by several state and federal officials during the recent Virginia Association of Planning District Commissions winter conference in Richmond.

Workforce development is important in that it looks at the overall employee base and factors in local dynamics, such as number of young and older workers. As the American population ages, Mangham said, there will be fewer potential workers to fill some of today’s jobs, with individual work sector needs varying.

The American workplace is changing, Mangham said. Manufacturing jobs are on the decline, she said, while farming is mostly done by older workers with few younger farmers...