Seven States Highlighted as Leaders in Preparing Next Generation Workforce

Alabama, Georgia, Minnesota, New Mexico, Pennsylvania, Tennessee and Virginia were recently highlighted by Business Facilities as homes for some of the nation’s leading workforce development programs. The article focuses on the connections between business and education institutions to create job-specific vocational learning in high schools, community colleges and universities. Highlighted programs include:

• Accelerate Alabama, a strategic plan to bring economic development and education interests together to accelerate workforce training across the state.
• WorkSource Georgia, the High Demand Career Initiative (HDCI) and Georgia WorkSmart, which collectively help to improve the quality of job training and marketability of Georgia’s workforce for the economic growth of the state.
• The Minnesota Job Skills Partnership and the Job Training Incentive Program operated by the state’s Department of Employment and Economic Development.
• New Mexico’s Job Training Incentive Program (JTIP), that provides up to six months of  classroom and on-the-job training for new jobs in expanding businesses.
• The Pennsylvania Combined Workforce Innovation and Opportunity State Plan, which goes hand in hand with cross-department collaboration at the state level.
• Tennessee’s Drive to 55 Alliance, which brings together public and private sector partners who want to see 55 percent of Tennesseans achieve a college degree or certification by 2025.
• Virginia Jobs Investment Program (VJIP), a 50-year-old program that provides consulting and funds to companies that are creating new jobs or adapting to new technologies.

Programs like these are critical, says the article, to supply the necessary workforce as new companies emerge and existing companies reshore their operations in the US. But the challenge of a qualified workforce is a global one, so competition for skilled workers will be global as well. Read more about these programs and others here.

The needs, priorities, and value workforce development training programs provide to the economy are workforce development training is familiar work for Advocacy & Communication Solutions, LLC (ACS).   ACS has partnered with Corporation for a Skilled Workforce (CSW), which catalyzes nationwide transformative change in education, economic, and workforce development through research and action.  To learn more about how ACS works with clients like CSW and ACS’ expertise in workforce development, click here.