COMMUNITY BASED INITIATIVES
Louisiana's workforce landscape has changed dramatically. Now more than ever businesses are finding it difficult to attract, recruit, and hire qualified, skilled employees. Whether it is emerging technologies, an aging workforce, or a public school system that is in desperate need of an overhaul, Louisiana's workforce development challenges are significant. In addition, our state's social challenges, which are primarily associated with perpetual poverty, add a dynamic that brings further complexity to the problem. Social challenges that undermine our workforce development efforts include:
. Apathy
. Residents are not resourceful as it relates to community mapping
. Teen pregnancy
. Drug addiction
. High rates of incarceration
. Domestic abuse
. High truancy and drop out rates
. High unemployment rates
As a result, Louisiana experiences a tremendous amount of loss of human capital as it relates to the availability of a skilled and trained workforce. Consequently, Louisiana businesses are suffering. This means that many openings in high paying, high demand careers are going unfilled here in Louisiana. As a result, it is hard for Louisiana to attract or retain businesses.
Our approach to workforce development has evolved into the preferred model for sector-based initiatives in Louisiana in terms of well-coordinated efforts between education, government, private industry, and communities. Along the road ahead lies a prime opportunity to develop an untapped labor pool of roughly 750,000 Louisiana residents currently outside the workforce.
Our holistic model considers community needs to drive industry outcomes.
