Arizona@Work Northeastern Arizona, the region’s workforce development system, has announced a new initiative that will evaluate labor markets and establish workforce-related goals, strategies and metrics for individual communities across Northeastern Arizona. The Workforce Quality Initiative (WQI) will convene education, business and civic leaders from communities across the region to profile local economies and labor markets, establish goals for the communities, and construct mechanisms for tracking progress against those goals. Each community will develop resources for communicating their unique value propositions for economic development opportunities. The Partnership for Workforce Innovation (PWI), a leading labor market analysis and workforce policy firm, is supporting the initiative by conducting the initial labor market analyses, convening PWI Councils in each community and constructing community dashboards and collateral. CEO Trevor Stokes said, “The Workforce Quality Initiative is a first-of-its-kind project that really speaks to the innovative and trendsetting nature of Northeastern Arizona’s leadership. Our state’s labor market information system produces and publishes an amazing amount of employment and wage data for the state’s counties and regions, but some of our smaller, more rural communities have unique economies and unique labor markets with priorities that do not align well with those of the counties or the state. “This initiative will enable locally defined workforce profiles and workforce strategies. I am convinced Northeastern Arizona is developing a model that will be emulated by rural communities across the country.” Stephanie Ray, Executive Director of Arizona@Work-Northeastern Arizona said, “This initiative is plowing new ground in our region. Instead of a one-size-fits-all approach that establishes priorities and strategies for the region, we are empowering our local communities to take ownership of their own workforce issues and make Northeastern Arizona home to the single best-prepared workforce in the country.” Business leaders who are interested in serving on a local WQI council are encouraged to contact Deputy Director of Stakeholder Engagement Kathleen Smith at Kathleen.smith@navajocountyaz.gov or (928) 524-4734. The Northeastern Arizona Local Board represents a wide variety of individuals, businesses, and organizations throughout Navajo, Apache and Gila counties. Local boards are critical in ensuring that workforce training and investments are aligned with the needs of a workforce area’s economy through the design, delivery, and oversight of the local workforce development system. The Partnership for Workforce Innovation (PWI) is a specialty firm focused on labor market analysis and career-driven education. PWI helps school districts, departments of education, economic development organizations and business intermediaries across the country evaluate demand for skills, credentials and experiences and develop training and educational resources that align with the realities of regional labor markets. PWI can be reached at tstokes@careersthatwork.net or at (865) 235-9986.
