Workforce Development 

A region’s workforce in large part determines its success or failure.  A survey of leading manufacturers in the Milwaukee Region underscored the importance of matching jobs with the people who have the right skills to fill these positions.  Simply put, if we cannot meet the demands of our employers, those jobs and those companies will flow out of the region. While companies rate the quality of the workforce as one of the region’s strengths, they also see recruiting and retaining the skilled workers they need now and in the future as a major challenge.

Regional Workforce Alliance

The Regional Workforce Alliance (www.milwaukee7-rwa.net) is a collaboration of organizations representing workforce development, economic development and education across southeastern Wisconsin.  Led by the Milwaukee Area Workforce Investment Board, the Waukesha-Ozaukee-Washington Workforce Development Board and the Southeast Wisconsin Workforce Development Board, the Alliance invests in strategies to build the skilled workforce that Milwaukee-area businesses need to compete in today’s global economy. Many of the initiatives of this group are supported by funds awarded by the Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development’s Growing Regional Opportunities in Wisconsin (GROW) grant.

The WIRED Initiative

To cultivate new ideas and processes for developing our region's talent, the Milwaukee 7 Region has received a $5.1 million Workforce Innovation in Regional Economic Development – or WIRED – grant from the U.S. Department of Labor.  The initiative encourages regional collaboration among public and private entities to develop a skilled workforce that attracts economic development and jobs.  The Milwaukee 7 is one of 39 regions across the U.S. to have been selected for the grant. 

The WIRED Innovation Fund

One component of the WIRED initiative is the WIRED Innovation Fund, a $2.5 million resource that will invest in innovative programs, projects and activities to transform key elements of the talent development system in our region.  This funding will be used to develop long-term programs and solutions for workforce development while through new methods of training and education.  

Organizations can apply for funds from the grant to explore and/or implement innovative workforce development delivery systems.  To learn more, visit www.milwaukee7-rwa.net for details about the WIRED Innovation Fund.

STEM7 & STEM Talent Development

Engineers & Scientists of Milwaukee (ESM) is leading science, technology,
engineering and math (STEM) awareness and outreach efforts on a local, regional and
statewide basis through the STEM7 Initiative, a strategic collaborative for the development of STEM talent in southeastern Wisconsin.

ESM’s STEM7 Initiative is the region’s partner for STEM talent development and has developed an intensive regional and statewide outreach effort linking the STEM talent pipeline to economic and workforce development, gaining positive exposure that has reached beyond the seven counties to the rest of the state and, in some cases, nationally. To learn more, visit www.esmke.org.