Powering Climate & Infrastructure Careers: Accelerating Systemic Success in Minnesota
Minnesota leads the U.S. in addressing climate change, with the goal of achieving 100% carbon-free electricity by 2040, in alignment with the state’s comprehensive Climate Action Framework, its strategy for addressing and preparing for climate change. Minnesota leaders view addressing climate change as an opportunity to bolster the economy and foster a more inclusive state. Minnesota’s “Drive for 5 Initiative” focuses on recruiting from and providing opportunities for underserved populations in the near-term to meet the high demand and project growth of priority occupational groups, including clean energy, trades, and manufacturing sectors, that offer family-sustaining wages.
The Minnesota Governor’s Workforce Development Board (GWDB), housed within the Department of Employment and Economic Development (DEED), serves as the statewide leader and convener for workforce development initiatives and organizations. GWDB’s participation in the Families & Workers Fund (FWF) Powering Climate & Infrastructure Careers (PCIC) initiative will help Minnesota reach its state goals and expand access to high-quality climate and infrastructure jobs for all Minnesotans. The GWDB’s efforts to facilitate alignment between initiatives, coordinate stakeholder engagement, and elevate promising practices will unlock the possibilities of workforce and economic development policies and programs. These efforts are helping transform current “siloes of excellence” across the state – pockets of impact occurring in different regions – into a unified “system of excellence” statewide.
Third Sector had the privilege of collaborating with GWDB to strategically plan stakeholder engagement and chart a path forward for connecting and advancing their job quality and career pathway efforts.
- Maximize Partner Feedback: Third Sector and UC Berkeley Labor Center supported GWDB in outlining stakeholder engagement goals, targeted questions, and continuous feedback loops for a statewide convening of 40 representatives spanning employers, education and training providers, workforce development boards, labor and community-based partners, and policy groups. Stakeholders provided input on GWDB resources and plans regarding job quality, sector partnerships, local and regional workforce planning, and Labor Market Information.
- Strategic Planning and Quick Wins Acceleration: Following the convening, Third Sector identified key themes, highly feasible and impactful “quick wins,” and recommendations for GWDB’s work to advance job quality and inclusive training and career pathways, including adopting a two-pronged approach of statewide socialization and local adoption to advance job quality. Third Sector also helped GWDB lean into its role as the statewide convener by considering strategies and tactics for effectively aligning on and providing ongoing communications about priorities to maximize its impact.
The GWDB’s approach demonstrates that state governments and workforce development boards that serve as strong conveners can help build momentum and accelerate impact.
We offer the following recommendations for state and local agencies seeking to strengthen the connective tissue between workforce and economic development initiatives:
- Convening Towards a Shared Vision: The GWDB accelerated the development and approval of its statewide job quality framework by implementing a robust planning and engagement process to successfully consolidate various efforts, standardize terminology, and establish core pillars for quality jobs, including equitable hiring and advancement opportunities and strong worker voice and respect, among others. Statewide conveners responsible for aligning efforts towards a shared vision help not only to streamline initiatives, but they also mobilize partners and accelerate the achievement of shared outcomes, such as the creation of quality climate and infrastructure jobs for all jobseekers and workers.
- Co-create to Accelerate Buy-in: State agencies should actively embrace co-creation by seeking stakeholder feedback on policy and tool development while resources are still in draft form. Implementing continuous feedback loops with key partners will help ignite and sustain lasting collaboration, as well as accelerate buy-in early on. The GWDB’s deliberate transparency in sharing resources with partners early in their development enabled them to actively articulate the underlying strategy and process of their initiatives, demonstrating they value stakeholders’ expertise and value them as co-creators and implementation partners. Through their willingness to openly share early drafts and ideas with partners and solicit their input, GWDB demonstrated humility, vulnerability, and a genuine commitment to building trusting partnerships. State agencies seeking to move stakeholders from planning to effective action should adopt a co-creation mindset to build trust, generate excitement, and mobilize collective action.
The GWDB’s work demonstrates how a strong statewide convener, strategic stakeholder engagement, and robust partnerships rooted in trust accelerate the implementation of critical initiatives to help jobseekers and workers access greater economic opportunity. Moving forward, GWDB is excited to launch its job quality framework with state and local partners and advance inclusive training and workforce pathways in climate & infrastructure. Learn more about our work with Arizona in our final post.
To learn more, contact Jess Praphath, Managing Director, Workforce Pathways, at jpraphath@thirdsectorcap.org
