The Workforce Collaborative in Washington D.C. is proud to partner with its newest member, JPMorgan Chase & Co., to launch Greater Washington Works to support new investments in regional industry sector partnerships in IT/Cybersecurity and Healthcare. The Collaborative plans to invest up to $1 million in these partnerships and related work over the next two years. This exciting initiative was launched earlier this month at an event, where National Fund President and CEO Fred Dedrick discussed how industry partnerships have positively changed workforce and labor policies in its 32 partner communities.
The Workforce Collaborative seeks to support regional workforce partnerships to address specific employer talent pipeline needs. This Industry Sector Partnership model has been pioneered by the National Fund for Workforce Solutions which defines the model as—a dynamic collaboration of a regional group of employers typically from a particular industry sector, but sometimes from multiple sectors or based around a set of occupations –who convene regularly with the assistance of a workforce intermediary. Employer members discuss their shared human resource issues, exchange information about industry practices, and take specific actions to address workforce challenges. Many partnerships include representatives from organized labor groups, trade associations, workforce investment boards, community-based organizations and educational institutions.
To ensure these investments are informed by data on true labor market conditions, The Workforce Collaborative has sponsored new regional IT and Health-focused labor market research that included in-depth discussions with employers on their hiring challenges as well as training providers and post-secondary institutions on their training offerings and how they align to local needs. For more information on our findings, read the complete report: Greater Washington Works: IT and Health Careers with Promise.
This research has informed the development of a new Request for Proposals seeking regional IT and Health sector partnerships for funding. Multi-year grants are available through Greater Washington Works—the application deadline is March 6, 2017.
