Regional Economic and Workforce Development Initiatives in Minnesota

October 2008

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As Minnesota’s baby boom population ages toward retirement, the number of young people is projected to be too few to replace them one for one. This means that in order to maintain economic growth, the workforce of tomorrow will need to produce more goods and services per person than is currently produced. This is possible with the use of more and better technology and an overall increase in the skills and productivity of the workforce.

Regional economic and workforce development strategies are in place to help move toward a more productive environment for Minnesota’s businesses. The following is a list of these strategies.  This map (pdf-large) shows in which regional economy each strategy is being pursued.

FIRST Grants – Framework for Integrated Regional Strategies
DEED has awarded nine FIRST Grants that require K-12 education, post-secondary education, economic development, workforce development and business to define their regional economies and develop strategies that will align each agency’s resources to accomplish the vision for the region. The essential piece of the strategy is that they must be business led.

Sector Initiatives
DEED, Minnesota State Colleges and Universities, and the Department of Education’s Adult Basic Education (ABE) have co-invested in sector initiatives to develop skills that are identified by industry sectors. Grants have been given to localities for this work.

RIG – Regional Innovation Grants
Minnesota has received two of these grants from the Department of Labor to align education, economic development and workforce systems around regional business workforce issues.

WIRED – Workforce Innovation in Regional Economic Development
Minnesota has received a $5 million grant to transform south central, southwest, central and northwest Minnesota from an agricultural commodity economy to an alternative energy economy.

Job Skills Partnership Program
This DEED program is pursuing industry cluster strategies by awarding multiple grants within regional industries to maximize investment in training within an industry sector. The program has also focused on grants that assist low-income workers to receive industry-led training with career ladder opportunities.

ETC – Employment Training Collaboration Grants
These grants are awarded by DEED and the Department of Education ABE to local providers to enhance the alignment with WorkForce Centers and ABE in providing remedial education to low-income workers.