Welcome to LEED – Linking Education and Economic Development.

In the past, if you were on a journey and wanted to know which path to take, you would refer to a map to provide you with guidance and direction.  Today, thanks to technology, many people utilize GPS systems– Global Positioning Satellites – to guide their steps.  Unlike maps, GPS systems can be updated in real time and can link with other resources that you can use to navigate your journey and maximize your experience.

Today, in the Sacramento region, we have developed an electronic tool to define which direction the demands of our region’s workforce will take us – as employers, educators, economic developers and, ultimately, students and jobseekers.

On Friday, June 6, 2008, at our quarterly Convergence event, LEED, along with a host of partners, including SETA – Sacramento Works, Valley Vision and the Sacramento Regional Research Institute, launched CareerGPS.com, a website that defines the direction our region’s workforce.

This unique, powerful and interactive tool will help guide the decisions of educators, training providers and economic developers to shape the curriculum and programs that will prepare students and jobseekers for jobs and careers critical to our region’s economic future.

At LEED, our job is to work with employers, educators, training providers and economic developers to “align education to meet regional workforce needs.”  We begin our work with three basic understandings:

• Regions are the units of economic competition, not cities, counties or states, certainly not school districts.
• A qualified, prepared workforce is critical to regional economic prosperity.
• In an innovation, information-based economy, the regions that effectively and efficiently align education and training to meet workforce needs will obtain a competitive advantage in a competitive global economy.

Over a year ago, working within Partnership for Prosperity, a regional economic strategy developed by over 30 civic and economic development organizations, LEED commissioned SRRI and Valley Vision to conduct a Regional Workforce Forecast.  The Forecast identifies the future occupational demand within the six-county Sacramento region by industry, career, educational and training levels, skills and competencies and salary levels.  The Sacramento Regional Workforce Forecast estimates that over 337,000 individual jobs will be created by 2015 – a medium sized American city in itself.  Of these jobs, 180,000 will be created through growth and 160,000 through replacement of retiring workers or workers leaving their jobs to promotions, etc.  Approximately 30% of these jobs will require some form of post-secondary education – from an Associates degree to a PhD – a slightly greater percentage than national and state averages.  Approximately 50% of these jobs will require moderate to little training, ranging from on the job training to apprenticeships.

Rather than simply publish a report, Valley Vision and SRRI convinced us that we should “democratize” this wealth of information, in order to help inform the decisions of institutions and help individuals navigate their educational and career paths.  The result is CareerGPS.com which merges the workforce “demand” captured in the regional workforce forecast with the “supply” of the Sacramento region’s education and training resources currently managed and maintained by SETA.  CareerGPS.com is a searchable, web based platform that allows individuals to identify which occupations are in demand in our region, in what industry, average earning, the skills and education necessary for success and, most importantly, allows that individual to link directly to the education or training provider where they can begin preparing for their future.

This information has significant implications for our educators and training providers as it outlines the high demand occupations in our region in addition to educational and training requirements as well as skills and competencies are necessary for success.  Beyond the numerical demand, the Sacramento region is now strategically identifying which jobs and occupations should drive economic expansion to grow priority industries, like technology, health care and financial services.  This process will also examine how should we create pipelines and develop pathways for students and job seekers to inform them of and prepare them for occupations that will pay higher wages and are consistent with their interests and skills.

LEED, our board of directors and our partners – comprised of employers, educators, business, labor, economic development and workforce organizations – now have the tool we need to effectively and efficiently align education and training to meet regional workforce needs and provide employers and our residents with a competitive advantage in a very competitive economic marketplace.

We invite you to log on and navigate CareerGPS.com today and provide us with your feedback so we can improve the web site and the information we have developed.  When you do, let us know what you think and how you plan to use CareerGPS.  We also would welcome the opportunity to demonstrate the value and utility of CareerGPS.com to you and your organization.  Please contact us at 916.231.5333 to schedule a presentation.

Sincerely,

David N. Butler
Chief Executive Officer