Workforce Development

Buffalo Niagara Region Looks to National Best Practices to Inform Workforce Development Strategies

December 5, 2016  • Economic Opportunities Program

Guest blog by Liz Callahan, workforce development manager at the Buffalo Niagara Partnership.

“A ‘New Buffalo’ is emerging, and civic optimism is riding high these days in western New York. In 2014, with a surge of new immigrants and many former residents returning to Buffalo, the city and region marked the reversal of a 50-year decline in population.

Looking to harness this momentum, regional leaders from business, philanthropy, government and education came together to form the Buffalo Niagara Regional Workforce Coalition. The Coalition is a multiyear, multisector collective effort whose goal is to build a better, more rational workforce development system that meets the needs of growing businesses, creates economic opportunity for all residents, and pushes forward the two-county region’s renaissance. In fact, the New York State Department of Labor projects 20,000 advanced manufacturing openings through 2020 due to retirements and growth. …”

This guest blog was published by the US Department of Commerce as part of the CTWP series celebrating collaboration across seven US communities. Read the full post at Commerce.gov and share your thoughts with #CommunitiesThatWork.