Business Engagement & Business-Led Strategies

Goal: Support sector initiatives in Manufacturing, Health Care and Education

Key Action Steps

Business engagement is critical to identifying, developing and implementing innovative solutions for our region's most pressing workforce needs. While the stated purpose for industry partnership is to meet the Governor's priorities outlined in the combined State Plan and support Career Pathway development, we know that the entrepreneurial spirit is alive and well throughout our region. Partnering with our most innovative companies and solutions-driven leaders, our regional plan aims to:

  • Identify industry champions and engage in regional strategies
  • Convene sector partnerships facilitated by champions
  • Create solutions, capture best practices, implement, evaluate
  • Explore existing Career Pathways and address gaps
  • Create opportunities for partnerships to determine additional solution-focused processes
  • Use data to determine regional need [employers validate]
  • Integrate funding to support business-led sector strategies
  • Industry validates career pathway models
  • Review current trends in employment disparity
  • Establish 3 incumbent worker training projects
  • Share business-driven plans with higher ed and other stakeholders, e.g. Career Advising projects and tribal partners

Data-Driven Process with Industry-Led Solutions

We start with the data. Using the regional labor market information complied by our regional DEED Labor Market Analyst, members of our two local boards and staff thoroughly reviewed labor market information contained in the Northwest Minnesota Regional Profile to identify workforce demographics, projections and occupations in demand.

Business leaders and stakeholders validate and add context to the numbers. While numbers tell an important part of the story, we know that we must regularly check in with local and regional business leaders to provide another layer of understanding to what is being reported by the official measures. Beginning in April 2016, local staff formally solicited feedback from key industries to support the selection of in-demand industries.

Learn more about the Key Industries and Sectors identified in the regional plan.