Powering Regional Education and Workforce Development for New Economies

Challenge

Across the U.S., economies focused on new technologies, energy security, disaster prevention and mitigation, industrial efficiency, and other innovations are emerging. To help these industries grow, there is a strong demand for workers with new sets of technical and occupational skills. While regions of the U.S. are making strides in preparing workers, their efforts occur in isolation. There is a need to connect efforts and share knowledge about effective strategies to accelerate progress.

EDC’s Powering Regional Education and Workforce Development for New Economies initiative is advancing the work of four regional U.S. hubs that are on the forefront of building new economies. Our team is supporting the hubs in testing, exchanging, and widely sharing best practices to strengthen K–16 education and workforce development systems to meet the needs of their emerging economies.

Key Activities

The project team is carrying out the following activities:

  • Establishing a four-hub community of practice that includes Headwaters Tech Hub Consortium in Montana, the NSF Futures Engine in the Southwest (Arizona, Nevada, and Utah), the Greater Boston Coastal Resilience Jobs Alliance (Massachusetts and New Hampshire), and the Mississippi Energy Resilience Workforce Consortium
  • Helping connect K–16 education and workforce development systems
  • Working with the hubs to identify shared K–16 education and workforce development challenges and co-design solutions
  • Facilitating and coordinating the collaborative learning of the hubs
  • Providing technical support to advance hubs’ work to strengthen and implement strategic plans
  • Leading the publication of best practices and resources to benefit the broader field
  • Exploring opportunities to engage more hubs to further enrich learning and fuel progress

Impact

This project will:

  • Widely disseminate all initiative findings, tools, and resources to advance other regions’ efforts to prepare and upskill workforces for emerging economies.

Our Purpose

We work with partners worldwide to advance every person’s journey to learn, work, and be well.

Learn

Ignite curiosity to explore, question, and unlock innovation

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Work

Develop economic opportunities that drive progress

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Be Well

Build foundations for resilient, thriving communities

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