The National Fund awarded four partner communities—Cincinnati, OH; Baltimore, MD; Wisconsin Rapids, WI; and Wichita, KS — with $50,000 grants to work with local employers on incorporating job quality elements into their business strategies. National Fund collaboratives will focus on incorporating new hiring and training strategies that will enhance productivity and growth while providing better jobs for workers—including, for example, new skills, higher wages, better benefits, improved supervision, opportunities for advancement, and incentive bonuses.
- Partners for a Competitive Workforce, Cincinnati, OH, will work with three local manufacturers to analyze and address job quality challenges that create recruiting and retention challenges.
Baltimore Workforce Funders Collaborative, Baltimore, MD, is using customer demand to create a “race to the top.” With a focus on green and solar industries, BWFC is working to drive business to socially responsible companies.
Workforce Alliance of South Central Kansas, Wichita, KS: The PACES project is building on strong relationships with local advanced manufacturing employers to elevate living-wage jobs with cross training and financial literacy tools for frontline employers and supervisor training for managers.
Workforce Central, Wisconsin Rapids, WI, will launch a technical assistance program for local employers, which will focus on increasing companies’ competitiveness by implementing processes and policies that ensure a strong and engaged workforce.
