What does the 21st Century Workforce System look like. We began to see the contours in with a remarkably successful project in Indiana. I presented these slides in the annual meeting of the Australia New Zealand Regional Science Association International meeting in Australia in December 2013.

1. STRATEGIC DOING
WORKFORCE INNOVATION IN REGIONAL ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
!
INNOVATION IN REGIONAL ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT PANEL
ANZRSAI CONFERENCE
UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN QUEENSLAND
HERVEY BAY, AUSTRALIA
ED MORRISON
DECEMBER 2013
!1

2. The Challenge

3. The United States Workforce
Investment Act “has failed to keep pace
with changing economic conditions.”
!
National Skills Coalition
February 212

4. The shifting foundation of
global competitiveness…more skills
Percent change in
employment share
relative to 1998
20
High educated
occupations
15
10
5
0
-5
-10
-15
1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009
Source: OECD 2013
Medium educated
occupations
Low educated
occupations

5. The Experiment

6. The Big Question…
What does an 21st Century
workforce-educationeconomic development
system look like?

7. Starting point: 13 regions with $15 million to each

8. The Innovation

9. Our Hypothesis
Strategic Doing!
+!
Collaborations that are scalable,
replicable and sustainable!
=!
Regional Transformation

10. Innovation 1:
Strategic Doing on a regional scale

11. Innovation 2:
Simple, iterative strategy process

12. Innovation 3:
Opportunity Fund for seed investments!
in promising collaborations
Phase 1 Grants: Exploratory
Phase 2 Grants: Pilot
Phase 3 Grants: Scale up

13. Innovation 4:
Simple stage gate process
Replicable = f (knowledge)
Scalable = f (cost structure)
Sustainable = f (value created)

14. Innovation 5:
Managed, lean, open network
60+ initiatives
31 partner organizations
200+ metrics
But only...
1.5 FTE in direct administration

15. Innovation 6:
Metrics for agility and learning
200+ metrics tracked over 60+ initiatives

16. Innovation 7:
Swarm innovation!
(how to start!
an ecosystem !
forming)

17. The Results

18. Exceeded targets by nearly 3X
25,351
Target
Outcome
2.9X
16,355
2.7X
8,768
6,117
Started Training
Completed Training

19. Triggered $1.50 in additional investment
for every $1.00 invested
22
Initial Investment
Direct Leverage
22
1.5X
18
15
11
7
4
0
15

20. Swarm innovation…
60+ pilot collaborations…
80%+ continued past initial funding

21. Example…Guitar summer camp:
Now a national STEM initiative

22. Example…Green collar manufacturing
Now a national manufacturing initiative

23. Example…Strategic Doing
Now rolling out nationally

24. The Key Lesson

25. Be patient and persistent…
Innovation networks take time to form…
go slowly at first to go fast later on

26. Thank You
Ed Morrison
edmorrison@purdue.edu