Project Overview
MOTIVATION: Many data users lack the knowledge, skills, and awareness to effectively access and utilize state produced labor market information (LMI) for decision-making. Simultaneously, many state LMI agencies lack the capacity, training, or funding to deploy and communicate the data they produce for effective use.
OBJECTIVE: Enhance the ability of LMI data users to access, collect, analyze, and communicate high-quality labor market information to workforce policymakers, jobseekers, and other valuable stakeholders.
STRATEGY: Identify strengths and opportunities for development in the existing ecosystem of LMI data producers (i.e., state LMI offices) and data users, then utilize a cohort learning model (see the “State Policy Academies” activity below) to identify state-level strategies for shoring up these strengths while addressing challenges/gaps. These state-level strategies will inform the development of technical assistance and training offerings that can be deployed more widely to data producers and users in other states.
User Discovery
Through in-person and virtual discovery meetings, the Labor Market Information Institute (LMII) will work to assess the knowledge gaps, access challenges, and training needs of workforce and labor market information data users by better understanding their current practices, challenges/pain points, and opportunities for improvement in accessing, analyzing, and communicating data. This will be done through in-person and virtual meetings, as well as surveys with a broad array of data users, arranged through other associations of data users (e.g., NASWA, NAWB, etc.), existing LMII/CREC relationships/networks, data user convenings, webinars, and LMI agency networks.
Producer Input
Multiple opportunities for input from state LMI agencies will be provided across the lifecycle of the project. This includes an initial survey that will provide an opportunity for LMI directors to identify their existing data sharing and communication efforts, including what they see as their strongest examples of publicly available data products, as well as who they see as their primary user base. Beyond the policy academy process, initial and intermediate findings will be shared with LMI directors during already scheduled meetings (e.g., BLS LMI Directors meeting, LMII Annual Forum, etc.).
Data Insights Academy
Following the initial discovery phase, we will form state-based Policy Academy teams of LMI staff and data users who will work collaboratively over a 6-9-month period to examine opportunities for strategic alignment in data production and use, as well as increase collaboration and co-investment in state data ecosystems. This peer exchange process will take place through meetings and activities of two teams in each state:
- Core Team – four members, with two representatives from the state’s LMI agency and two leaders representing the workforce system and/or other data user constituencies in the state. The core team will participate in multi-state meetings with other core teams and will drive convenings and conversations among the home team.
- Home Team – additional state, workforce system or stakeholder representatives whose input is critical for the success of the state’s strategic collaboration.
The work of the core team will be supplemented with facilitated support from the LMII through two multi-state meetings (one in-person at the start of the process, one virtual at the end), monthly calls with core team leaders, and one in-state site visit by facilitators. The state teams will also be provided with ongoing technical assistance delivered by subject matter experts from the LMII and its network of partners. By the end of the process, the teams will have identified initiatives, policy innovations, and models of collaboration that lead to improved data sharing and communication between producers and users, and that can be replicated across the workforce LMI ecosystem.
Click here to learn more about the Data Insights Academy!
Training Development/Implementation
Based on the results of the discovery meetings and policy planning process, the LMII will co-create a comprehensive training and technical assistance plan aimed at responding to the issues raised. This will include the development of curricula for training programs delivered through in-person workshops, webinars, and online courses that will address the identified needs of both labor market information data producers and data users seeking to serve jobseekers and workforce policymakers. These trainings will cover topics such as data collection, analysis, and dissemination; labor market analysis; and effective use of labor market information for decision-making. The training will be developed with and led by experienced trainers who have a deep understanding of labor market information data production and usage. Training modules would also be provided to partners such as the National Association of Workforce Boards, the American Association of Community Colleges, or the Council for Community and Economic Research.
Current training development is taking the form of the Data Insights Roundtable webinar series, which convenes LMI data producers and users and learn from one another.
Click here to learn more about these webinars!