The U.S. Department of Labor’s Employment & Training Administration, in partnership with the League for Innovation in the Community College, dispersed a CD titled “The President’s High Growth Job Training Initiative: Grantee Solutions” to every U.S. community college last month. The CD contains a collection of 64 workforce development products from 23 community colleges to be used to help address workforce development challenges in industries including healthcare, advanced manufacturing, hospitality, biotechnology, and more. It is the first of several CDs to be issued.

The President’s High Growth Job Training Initiative grants are delivering exciting and innovative industry-driven products that represent a broad array of tools ready for your college’s training market to help you develop tomorrow’s workforce. Included on the CD are career ladders, curriculua, competency models, outreach materials, replication strategies, management tools, websites, and more. This CD is the first of several planned by the Employment and Training Administration and to be delivered to your college by the League and others. Soon to be released is a second CD that presents products for the retail industry in partnership with the National Retail Federation Foundation, the research and education arm of the National Retail Federation.

The President’s High Growth Job Training Initiative is aimed at promoting collaboration among community and technical colleges, business, and the public workforce investment system in meeting the skills training needs of high growth industries. The projects and their resulting products target education and skills development resources toward helping workers gain the skills they need to build successful careers in growing industries. Note that the information contained on the CD was created by grantee organizations and does not necessarily reflect the official position of the U.S. Department of Labor. Both ETA and the League encourage you to access and use these materials, as well as share them with others. The League, acting as a contract partner with ETA, is disseminating these valuable products to community colleges nationwide.

To date, the Employment and Training Administration has received over 200 products from grantees and has implemented an aggressive outreach strategy for securing products from grantees in 2007. The agency plans to distribute more product CDs featuring the High Growth Job Training Initiative and the President’s Community Based Job Training Initiative grantees to community colleges, industry associations, and the workforce system through mass mailing, conference presentations and participation, and quarterly mailings.

All of the grantees’ products found on the CD—and more—will also be available on special industry pages at www.Workforce3one.org and will be prominently featured as Grantee Solutions on the home page so they are easy to find, open, and download.