In 2020 at the height of the Pandemic, the U.S. Department of Education’s Education Stabilization Fund-Reimagine Workforce Preparation (ESF-RWP) Grants Program provided a highly competitive opportunity for “support to help States with the highest coronavirus burden create or expand short-term education and training opportunities and/or or career pathways programs that help citizens return to work, become entrepreneurs, or expand their small businesses.” […]
Eligible applicants were the State’s Workforce Boards and on the behalf of the Nevada Board, Nevada Governor's Office of Workforce Innovation (GOWINN) led a core team comprising Nevada Governor's Office of Economic Development (GOED), Nevada System of Higher Education (NSHE), and the State Library for Nevada’s Public Libraries to design Nevada’s application. Shorter-term, stackable credentials and badges will gain ever more importance for the individual to re and upskill. That in turn requires assistance with identifying which offerings are relevant and how those fit into the development of a career path from on-ramp to through to further career progression. SANDI aims at eliminating silos and bringing together all stakeholder within the Workforce Development realm through an approach that we termed “The Community of Practice”.
As the standard template for career pathway development in Nevada, LEAP integrates education, government and industry in a standardized process to ensure that workers have the skills they need to succeed in both the short – and long-term in the New Nevada, that education institutions know what they need to teach, and that companies have a qualified workforce. LEAP is designed to be a dynamic and responsive framework.
One of the opportunities for companies looking to expand or locate their business operation in Nevada is the State’s ready and willing workforce, as well as Nevada’s commitment to create training programs that will equip workers with the skills needed by our employers.
WINN represents the first workforce development training program of its kind in Nevada and is a commitment to businesses to arm them with the skilled employees that they need. The program is administered by GOED in coordination with Nevada System of Higher Education, the Governor’s Office of Workforce Innovations, the Department of Employment, Training and Rehabilitation, and the Nevada Department of Education. Since its inception, WINN has made more than $11 million in strategic investments to enable accelerated on-ramps to high-skill and high wage jobs.
In an effort to help Nevadans who are unemployed because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Nevada Governor’s Office of Economic Development (GOED), the Governor’s Office of Workforce Innovation (OWINN), and the Nevada Department of Employment, Training and Rehabilitation (DETR) are using CARES Act funding to make the Lightcast SkillsMatch tool available for those seeking to get back into the job market.
The Nevada SkillsMatch tool is free and available at https://nv.lightcastskills.com/. It is not a job board, but it can be used to connect individuals to jobs that meet their qualifications.
The SkillsMatch software platform will help people identify which employment skills they have and help them identify which skills they need to obtain, to become more employable in today’s job market.