Initiate a workforce training program dedicated to promoting the nation’s safety and resilience
The Challenge
Challenges in the composition of the workforce require a shift in workforce training. A study by Pew research suggests that there is a “tectonic” shift happening as the American economy moves into a “knowledge focused age”. Opportunities are rising faster in jobs that require more training and skills, and the American workforce needs to keep pace with these changes to survive. The need to bolster and strengthen the built infrastructure, safeguard vulnerable housing, bolster tech industries and develop innovative ways of growing city economies presents a market opportunity for U.S. cities. The resilience economy presents an opportunity to expand the pool of jobs and foster American entrepreneurship, innovation and business expansion, while providing more Americans with training in resilience-related skills and industries.
The New Orleans Network for Economic Opportunity (the Network) focuses on connecting disadvantaged job seekers and businesses to opportunities. Since launching in 2014, the Network’s key initiatives have included, among other things, sector specific job training, case management and supportive services, and creating opportunity centers.
The Opportunity
Cities across the nation are hubs of innovation and development in technology, design, construction and services. Resilience opens many new areas of growth for the economy, from preventing cyber-attacks to increasing public health measures for vector-borne disease prevention, to retrofitting, building, and maintaining more resilient infrastructure.
The nation has an opportunity to create more American jobs in the resilience economy by increasing workforce training. Public-private partnerships between industry and the Federal Government will elucidate demand for specific skills and sectors, and help ensure that agency efforts to modernize workforce training result in workers being paired with jobs. Cities are making this a priority. The city of Norfolk’s Resilience strategy includes a goal to “create economic opportunity by advancing efforts to grow existing industries and new sectors.”
Action Steps
Executive
The White House and the Department of Labor should convene experts to solicit training needs for jobs left unfilled, or being filled disproportionately by foreign workers, and then offer guidance on training and growing the nation’s workforce to support the resilience economy. A training curriculum would foster idea-exchange across U.S. geographies, and incorporate strong private sector partnerships.
Agency
Department of Labor should support local integration within the Workforce Investment Board structure at the community level.
HUD should strengthen its commitment to ensuring that low and moderate-income residents get the benefit of all federal contracts through Section 3 hiring, including work within national unions, to further support training and apprentice programs related to the resilience economy.
Department of Education should collaborate with industry to determine workforce needs for the future, translating those needs into community college and technical education curricula.
