The City of Chattanooga is proud to join a new peer-learning cohort led by the National League of Cities and the U.S. Department of Labor to accelerate city efforts to design, develop, and launch a workforce initiative to build pathways into good jobs.
The Good Jobs, Great Cities Academy works with municipalities to spur innovative and scalable city-supported solutions that upskill and reskill workers into quality, high-demand jobs in infrastructure, clean energy, and advanced manufacturing jobs made possible by investments from the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL), the CHIPS and Science Act, and the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA).
“This is a once-in-a-generation opportunity to bring more infrastructure jobs to our community. Our partnership with NLC and the Department of Labor will supercharge the work already underway to help historically underserved and underrepresented communities get into high-quality jobs,” said Mayor Tim Kelly.
“We are building a comprehensive training-to-career framework for a diverse, skilled, and ready workforce and an economy that works for everyone. Earning a spot in the Good Jobs, Great Cities Academy was a very competitive process, and I want to thank our Director of Workforce Strategy, Quentin Lawrence, for showcasing what we’re doing in Chattanooga and helping us stand out from the crowd of applicants.”
The Good Jobs, Great Cities Academy includes 16 cities working throughout 2023 and 2024 to develop innovative and scalable city-supported solutions that upskill and reskill workers into quality, high-demand jobs in infrastructure, clean energy, and advanced manufacturing jobs made possible by new federal investments, with a focus on supporting residents from historically underserved and underrepresented communities in order to address key shortcomings in their education and workforce ecosystem.
Academy cities are working closely with their employers, workforce development boards, and other cross-sector partners to take bold and innovative actions to build strong on-ramps into in-demand infrastructure occupations for workers facing barriers to career success. For example, such city partnerships will take action to launch pre-apprenticeship programs, expand Registered Apprenticeship into new sectors, design a comprehensive youth strategy for a city, or develop a regional sector partnership for a growing industry.
Cities participating in the Good Jobs, Great Cities Academy will benefit from the unique opportunity to engage with NLC, USDOL, other federal agencies, national thought leaders and their peer cities to:
- Identify and convene employers and other stakeholders within a targeted subsector relating to infrastructure, clean energy, or advanced manufacturing
- Identify and address gaps and/or shortcomings in their education and workforce ecosystem, allowing them to develop new, or scale existing successful initiatives
- Implement strategies that ensure infrastructure, clean energy, and advanced manufacturing career opportunities are high-quality and support long term economic vitality in communities
- Be better positioned to address the multi-faceted structural issues many groups of workers face (including opportunity youth, women, workers of color, Indigenous workers, workers in rural communities, justice impacted individuals, veterans, parenting workers, etc.) in accessing good jobs, and connect such workers to equitable and meaningful postsecondary and workforce opportunities;
- Learn how to effectively leverage and allocate funds and other resources to support their goals for addressing their workforce needs
- Strengthen policy and practice by intentionally building connections to supportive services for workers, and connecting to the care economy (including childcare, healthcare and mental health as key supports for workers)
Cities selected for the Academy include:
- Birmingham, AL
- Chattanooga, TN
- Duluth, MN
- Fort Lauderdale, FL
- Frederick, MD
- Jamestown, NY
- Kokomo, IN
- Lansing, MI
- Missoula, MT
- Monroe, NC
- Newark, NJ
- San Antonio, TX
- Santa Fe, NM
- Saint Louis, MO
Tacoma, WA
Tempe, AZ