Expanding access to high-quality career-connected learning opportunities is helping more high school students make informed decisions about their futures and successfully navigate the transition from high school to postsecondary education and the workforce. This important work continues with support from the Gates Foundation and is being led locally by EmployIndy.
As a part of the Accelerate ED: Seamless Pathways to Degrees and Careers initiative, the Indianapolis “design team”, led by EmployIndy, will build on the success of their work in creating the Indiana Cybersecurity Pathway Blueprint and begin development of a new Indiana BioPharma Pathway Blueprint. With Central Indiana’s economy poised for rapid expansion in tech and biotech, EmployIndy and our partners will use a $500,936 grant provided by the Gates Foundation to create a new and scaled accelerated postsecondary pathway that will focus on quality education, seamless transitions, and dedicated support and resources to ensure equitable paths to success for all Marion County students who are interested in these growing industries.
“EmployIndy is grateful to the Gates Foundation for their continued support as we lead the development of important new career pathway blueprints,” says Marie Mackintosh, EmployIndy’s President + CEO. “We know this work will be vital in addressing bioworkforce talent gaps and providing access to high-quality jobs for all residents.”
Over the next ten years, there is an expected gap of at least 2,200 life sciences manufacturing workers per year in Indiana, which mirrors the national bioworkforce shortage. EmployIndy is also a subawardee of the Heartland BioWorks Tech Hub Program—a consortium led by the Applied Research Institute—as part of the U.S. Economic Development Administration (EDA) Tech Hubs Grant to support the development of the BioPharma pathway.
Originally designated as an Accelerate ED community in 2022, EmployIndy will use proven methodology from the development of the Cybersecurity Pathway to bring together stakeholders from our K-12 and postsecondary systems into a design team to develop this new BioPharma Pathway with the goals of:
- Designing accessible career pathways that support students in earning 30 college credits by the end of high school, and;
- Guiding students into career-aligned courses, leading to an associate degree by the 13th year.
To date, the Accelerate ED Indianapolis design team has improved student completion of high-quality career pathways through the JPMorgan Chase Foundation’s New Skills ready network (NSRN), created a career coaching framework adopted statewide by the Indiana Commission on Higher Education, enabled seamless postsecondary admission at IU Indianapolis, embedded Ivy Tech Community College career coaches at Indianapolis Public Schools (IPS), and built strong infrastructure enabling schools to access career-connected learning through Talent Bound, which includes immersive work-based learning opportunities like the Modern Apprenticeship Program (MAP).
To learn more EmployIndy’s work within the AccelerateED initiative, visit www.accelerate-ed.org/communities/indiana.
INDIANAPOLIS – 26 July 2023 – EmployIndy, Marion County’s Workforce Development Board, is thrilled to announce that Ken Clark has accepted the position of executive vice president, finance and operations where he will lead all aspects of the organization's financial, administrative, operational and human resources strategy, systems and protocols. In this role, his leadership will drive the organization towards operational excellence in service of EmployIndy's strategic goals and efforts to serve underrepresented residents with transformational workforce development services that advance economic mobility.
“With Ken’s track record of optimizing financial performance, building high-performing teams and driving operational efficiencies, we’re excited to have him join the team and contribute to our important mission and vision,” said Marie Mackintosh, president and CEO of EmployIndy. Ken comes to EmployIndy from the City of Indianapolis & Marion County, where he spent over 3 years as the city controller and director of the office of finance and management. Ken has tremendous experience leading IT operations and finance in his previous roles, most notably chief information officer and chief financial officer at the Information Services Agency (ISA), including running IT strategy and operations that support the city’s departments as well as leading the restructure of the IT expense and revenue models. Ken’s work at the ISA earned the city and himself the Mira Award for Corporate Innovator of the Year and the IBJ’s CTO of the Year award in 2018.
“I am excited to continue supporting the City of Indianapolis in this new role with EmployIndy. Witnessing EmployIndy grow their services and support our community through the economic turmoil of the pandemic and subsequent recovery has inspired me,” said Clark. “I look forward to furthering their vision of preparing Marion County residents for the workforce to secure livable wages and grow in careers while meeting employer demand for talent.”
Clark joins the organization shortly after the announcement of its 2023-2025 Strategic Plan, grounded in four primary interventions: Career-Connected Learning, Coaching and Training, Talent Connection, and Job Quality. This plan will serve as the guiding commitment to Marion County while EmployIndy continues to be responsive to the evolving education, training, and career needs of the ecosystem as its workforce leader and intermediary.
INDIANAPOLIS – EmployIndy, Marion County’s Workforce Development Board and local workforce intermediary, is excited to announce its acceptance into the U.S. Department of Labor’s first ever cohort of the Job Quality Academy. The Job Quality Academy, designed and operated in partnership with Jobs For the Future (JFF), will provide EmployIndy the opportunity to build a greater understanding of job quality principles, how to incorporate them into their policies and programs, and develop methods and tools for assessing progress.
Good jobs are the foundation of an equitable economy that lifts workers and families and makes businesses more competitive, but many Americans lack work that provides them with decent pay, benefits, safety, or hours that allow them to take care of both their work and home responsibilities. These problems are even more pronounced for workers from historically marginalized communities and in certain industries, such as hospitality and the care economy.
The U.S. Departments of Labor and Commerce identified principles of a good job, which include equitable recruitment and hiring; benefits; diversity, equity, inclusion, and accessibility (DEIA); empowerment and representation; job security and working conditions; organizational culture; pay; and skills and career advancement. A good job is one that helps workers achieve economic stability and mobility, while prioritizing diversity and worker voice.
“We know the Job Quality Academy will add even more momentum to our efforts around good jobs, that we’ve outlined in our recently launched three-year strategic plan as well as the implementation of our Choice Employers initiative,” said Marie Mackintosh, president and CEO of EmployIndy. “Marion County businesses will be competitive and thrive when they invest in job quality and wage equity practices, leading to an increase in the number of good jobs in our regional economy and more prosperous workers.”
As expectations on employers to offer quality jobs in Central Indiana are rising, EmployIndy has recently launched its Choice Employers initiative to help Marion County organizations find the right combination of actions to reduce turnover, offer a strong company culture, and be considered an ideal place to work. Through the Good Wages Initiative, a pillar of Choice Employers, EmployIndy has already certified over 70 local employers, representing 18 industries and nearly 25,000 workers, who have committed to increasing worker wages by $5.1M.
With the additional three pillars of the Choice Employer initiative including Culture and Diversity, Employee Supports, and Career Pathways, EmployIndy will utilize the learnings and best practices from the Job Quality Academy to strengthen and increase its impact locally.
Launched in Spring 2023 and set to span roughly 6 months, including two 3-day in-person summits in Washington, DC, the Job Quality Academy comprises up to 16 teams, including workforce boards, state workforce boards, state workforce agencies, and tribal organizations, representing communities across the nation. To maximize learning, EmployIndy has invited representatives from three local employer partners, B&W Plumbing and Heating, IEC-Indy, and UA Local 440, to join them for the duration of the academy. With construction industry roles in high-demand, EmployIndy’s Job Quality Academy team chose these partners in order to produce a template that is replicable throughout all industries.
To learn more about the Job Quality Academy, visit www.jff.org/job-quality-academy. To learn more about becoming a Choice Employer in Marion County, visit www.employindy.org/choice-employers or contact Lora Steele at lsteele@nullemployindy.org.
