NGA CENTER REPORT INDICATES COLLABORATION IS KEY FOR READYING THE WORKFORCE FOR A GLOBAL ECONOMY
Provides Example of How to Better Educate and Train Technical Workers for a Economically Secure Future
WASHINGTON—A new report released today by the National Governors Association Center for Best Practices (NGA Center), A Sharper Focus on Technical Workers: How to Educate and Train for a Global Economy, provides a model for how states can work collaboratively with industry, community colleges and each other to provide opportunities for workers to build their skills and ensure America’s future economic security and prosperity.
The report outlines actions governors can take to shape a new future for job training in a way that will nurture the largest and fastest-growing industries, including:
- Champion the importance of technical education and technical work to economic competitiveness and worker prosperity;
- Focus first on the industrial sectors with the greatest economic impact;
- Use state spending to encourage community colleges to engage in collaboration and innovation;
- Develop multi-state partnerships focused on providing consistent, high-quality, industry-valued training; and
- Require comprehensive outcome data to assess students’ skills and credentials gained, hold educational institutions accountable and inform policymakers.
A Sharper Focus on Technical Workers: How to Educate and Train for a Global Economy
is based on lessons learned from the Automotive Manufacturing Technical Education Collaborative (AMTEC) – a partnership of 30 community colleges and 34 auto-related plants in 12 states that worked to identify and implement wide-ranging improvements in technical education for workers in advanced automotive manufacturing environments.
“The global economy demands highly skilled workers, and states are in a position to help foster the types of education and training partnerships that can fill jobs in economic sectors that are growing at a rapid pace,” said John Thomasian, director of the NGA Center. “The AMTEC example shows that collaboration – across government, industry and higher education – may be the key that enables states to train workers and build the highly skilled workforces they need to compete.”
For more information about NGA Center Economic, Human Services and Workforce Division efforts, visit www.nga.org/center/ehsw.
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Founded in 1908, the National Governors Association (NGA) is the collective voice of the nation’s governors and one of Washington, D.C.’s most respected public policy organizations. Its members are the governors of the 50 states, three territories and two commonwealths. NGA provides governors and their senior staff members with services that range from representing states on Capitol Hill and before the Administration on key federal issues to developing and implementing innovative solutions to public policy challenges through the NGA Center for Best Practices. For more information, go to
www.nga.org
.