The governing board of the States’ Career Cluster Initiative has endorsed EMSI, a League Corporate Partner, as a preferred product provider. The decision follows Economic Modeling Specialists’ (EMSI) recent upgrade to its web-based economic analysis suite, Strategic Advantage (SA). The States’ Career Clusters Initiative is backed by the National Association of State Directors of Career Technical Education Consortium (NASDCTEc).

SA can use the initiative’s career-clusters framework to organize regional labor market information, including total jobs, earnings, and growth projections for hundreds of occupations. The tool can display occupations organized by cluster, pathway, and required education level, as well as a ranking of all clusters or a focused report on an individual cluster.

“I am impressed with the accuracy, sophistication and user friendly approach that defines this software,” said Mike Rush, administrator of professional-technical education in Idaho and former president of NASDCTEc. “We have used the product over the past year with considerable success. The additional features, including summarizing the information by clusters, make this product even better. It will help answer many of the critical questions required by Perkins including identifying high-wage, high-demand careers and tying occupations to a program of study. Another key advantage for us is being able to customize the data for multiple geographic areas.”

Andrew Crapuchettes, CEO of EMSI, said that the move was designed to add value for community colleges as well as career and technical schools. “We are very excited to have tied the career cluster framework to actual regional job information,” he said. “Our hope is that this tool will help administrators, guidance counselors, students, and parents discover and understand the high-wage, high-growth fields in their local areas.”

Strategic Advantage has always had the ability to display regional labor market information for jobs corresponding to a college’s course offerings. The new career cluster ability is expected to complement that feature, helping colleges and career and technical schools make their offerings more responsive to local labor market conditions. Similarly, the information will provide valuable career guidance to individual students and other job seekers.

EMSI is a professional services firm which has recently merged with CCbenefits, Inc., to provide a complete suite of web-based tools and reports designed for workforce, education, and economic development. Over 700 community and technical colleges, hundreds of workforce boards, numerous economic development councils, state departments of commerce, Manpower, Inc., and the U.S. Treasury have used the tools and reports developed by EMSI and CCbenefits. For more information, or to setup a demonstration, please contact Luke Jankovic (luke@economicmodeling.com) 208.883.3500 x123 or visit our website (www.economicmodeling.com).