Enhance Collaboration Between Educational Institutions and Employers

Enhance and expand collaboration between educational institutions and employers statewide by:

• Establishing a regional intermediary to ensure greater public-private collaboration in assessing workforce needs and communicating those needs with K-12 institutions, job training programs, and post-secondary education institutions;
• Developing a regional strategy for aligning educational programs to workforce needs that has clearly established indicators to measure progress in creating stronger regional talent development initiatives;
• Encouraging schools, especially community colleges, to utilize industry professionals as trainers to develop joint programs that educate and train area students for jobs that are available or coming in a diversity of industries (e.g., the partnership between St. Louis Community College- Florissant Valley and Boeing);
• Requiring public schools, both K-12 and post-secondary, to align instruction to college and career readiness standards that are more comprehensive; and
• Investing in public schools (including in North County), both K-12 and post-secondary, to integrate high quality career and technical education (CTE) into the curriculum in part through work-based learning through internships and other opportunities borne of strong relationships with the business community (e.g., Clyde C. Miller Academy).