Education and Workforce
Strategies & Initiatives
ICW develops education and workforce strategies for businesses, chambers of commerce, and communities to hire, train, retain, and advance skilled workers in the 21st century.
Current Initiatives:
ICW's Education and Workforce Summit 2008
Join ICW in Philadelphia, PA October 20-22 for its annual Education and Workforce Summit. |
Career and Technical Education (CTE)
With support of its membership and counsel from other national groups, ICW is looking to reform both the public image and implementation of career and technical education through a number of initiatives. |
Center of Excellence for Radiation Protection Technology
A two year project to establish a degree program in nuclear technology at community colleges across the U.S., answering the call for training in these highly-specialized, but growing fields. |
Digital Skills Working Group
The Digital Skills Working Group is comprised of a core group of corporations committed to building a broad coalition to convey the range of digital skill levels required for today's workforce.. |
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Leaders and Laggards: A State-by-State Report Card on Educational Effectiveness
On February 28th, 2007 the U.S. Chamber of Commerce released a state-by-state report card reflecting the performance of the 50 states and Washington, DC on their K-12 education systems. |
Making Smart Decisions: HR Assistance for Hiring Individuals with Disabilities
The gap between available jobs and available workers with the skills needed in those jobs could grow to 35 million or more in 5 years. Yet, individuals with disabilities remain an untapped resource of potential workers. Learn how to access: information and referrals, technical assistance, public awareness, and training on all aspects of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). |
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Workforce Housing: Chambers and Realtors Building Retention Solutions for Business
Given experts' forecasts of housing prices continually rising faster than wages in many growing geographic regions and occupations, employers via their local chambers of commerce are creating and implementing solutions for "workforce housing" - housing that is affordable to working families. |
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Workplace Flexibility
ICW in partnership with the Families and Work Institute and the Twiga Foundation are conducting a nationwide campaign to demonstrate the value of workplace flexibility as a sound business decision. |
Past Initiatives (ordered by year project ended)
Workforce Development Leadership Course II
This unique course brought together chamber executives – or chamber workforce development staff – and local one-stop career center directors from the same communities to build effective partnerships between the two. |
2004
Chamber–Job Corps Partnership
This initiative developed statewide partnerships among chambers of commerce, one-stops, Jobs Corps, and workforce development organizations. |
Making Work Work: A Retention and Advancement Model
In partnership with Goodwill Industries International, this project focused on developing an effective workforce retention and advancement model. This model was used to assist small and mid-sized employers with turnover and help entry-level employers maintain and advance at work. |
Market-Responsive Community Colleges
In partnership with the American Association of Community Colleges, ICW developed a practical toolkit for community colleges and chambers of commerce to create effective workforce development partnerships. |
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Operation Transition
Based on a 12-month demonstration project in San Diego, ICW with its partners developed a transition model for improving employment and education outcomes of veterans and their spouses. |
Workforce Development Leadership Course
This two-and-a-half day course developed the capacity of chambers to be workforce development leaders using intensive skill building and interactive activities. It aimed to effectively link member employers, welfare recipients, and human services resources. |
Workforce Innovation Networks (WINs) I
WINs Module I, funded by the Ford Foundation and the Annie E. Casey Foundation, worked with three chambers of commerce to advance the important role of employer organizations in helping low-wage and less-skilled workers advance in the labor market. |
Workforce Investment Act
ICW, with its partners, worked through a network of chambers to help improve service and relationships between employers and local Workforce Investment Act (WIA) systems. Specific issues addressed included information about employer involvement as one of the two primary customers of publicly funded one-stop career centers and services under WIA and related programs. |
2003
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Health Care Career Ladders
This 18-month project explored workforce development issues in the health care industry resulting in the development of multi-provider health care career ladders. |
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Workforce Learning Academy Model
Using a tested three-part model, the Workforce Academy model brought together employers, workforce development agencies, and service providers to create change and improvement in local workforce development systems. |
Workplace Literacy
This project made the business case for helping adults gain the basic literacy skills necessary to become productive employees. The Workplace Literacy Toolkit described the nature of the literacy problem in America, how it impacts businesses and industries, and what communities can do to increase local efforts to improve adult literacy. |
 Read our monthly e-mail newsletter to learn about ICW's initiatives, workforce and education resources, and new activities to strengthen local workforce development projects nationwide.
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