State Workforce Development: Pt. 1

I have been studying state workforce systems for the past several months now. Shared challenges, to name just a few, persist across many states:

1) Serious skills mismatches in key sectors like advanced manufacturing, healthcare, bioscience, and digital;

2) Continually declining labor force participation among prime-age adults;

3) Demographic aging and out-migration of working-age residents;

4) Regional duplication of workforce functions with inconsistent outcomes.

States that have achieved sustainable workforce gains have made improvements through legislation that clarifies authority while establishing operational accountability, reporting and transparency, aligning funding to outcomes, and embedding workforce priorities across education and economic development stakeholders.

Things to note:

a) Governance matters more than programs. States with centralized, empowered workforce leadership that have authority over strategy and funding, consistently outperform fragmented systems that have "a vision" but not accountability.

b) Dedicated funding drives scale and durability. One-time grants cannot sustain workforce transformation. ARPA dollars are gone. Sustained funding for workforce is key.

c) Higher education must be structurally embedded, not occasionally partnered with. 

d) Employer-led strategies that center higher education as key partners outperform generalized training models.

e) Data systems across the state, and for key agencies, must inform funding and accountability, not just reporting.

There are many models from around the country that are working well that we all can learn from. 

#workforcedevelopment #economicdevelopment #highereducation #leadership