Vision from the LMI Institute Chair, Amy Faulkner

I would like to begin by thanking Scott Sanders for his tremendous leadership this past year as our outgoing chair. As the president and CEO of NASWA, we know how full your plate is and appreciate your service.

I would also like to thank the C2ER and LMI Institute staff for putting on another great conference and for giving me the opportunity to share my priorities as Chair in the coming year.

Last year, I was fortunate to be an active participant and board member in the creation of the 2021-2023 LMI Institute Strategic Plan. And as the incoming chair, I have a responsibility to keep the board’s focus on that strategic direction and to ensure the board fulfills the LMI Institutes mission.

The Mission of the LMI Institute is to support and promote the production and use of high-quality workforce and employment information. We accomplish this mission by:

• Providing training and professional development to state and other LMI professionals.
• Improving the knowledge, skills, and understanding of LMI customers.
• Offering management, staffing, and coordination to support the nationwide LMI infrastructure.
• Fostering and encouraging the use of local, state, and national LMI in decision-making related to workforce development, economic development, education, and other relevant policy areas.

With that, there are 4 principal categories we will look to make progress on with the LMI Institute over the next year:  LMI System & Program Support; Technical Training; Research & Product Development; and Partnerships.

Because every state will be in a slightly different situation. A major challenge in the coming year will be when and how to transition back to in-person events, or how to create a hybrid approach to providing training, conferences and other LMII services. Like all of you we will be seeking to adapt to the “new normal”.

One adaptation includes the newly launched online web forum that we are encouraging members to use to stay connected with their colleagues and peers, ask questions, and post new products, and promising practices.

The Institute serves as a central node for a network of data producers, users, and intermediaries – bringing them together to collaborate, educate, innovate, and lead. So we will be looking to continue the Voices of LMI initiative to share the valuable work of the LMI network to those both inside and outside of the LMI community so we can continue to develop productive partnerships that support state & local workforce and labor market information efforts.

If you have not been asked to record a video, you may be hearing from us soon!

The Institute actively pursues an understanding of user needs and integrates that understanding in the development, production, and delivery of labor market information products. As such, we are planning a major push on new research and product development in the coming year. This includes continuing to provide licenses & certifications data, all of the new PMP efforts; which I also have the pleasure of serving as the board chair this year (including labor force projections, exploring skills based projections, and building a projections analyst community of practice with Tableau data visualization), as well as positioning the LMI Institute at the forefront of Future of Work discussions.

The Institute recognizes that the states must play a primary role as leaders and developers of local, state, and national labor market information within a nationwide network. And as such, will continue to work on new training curriculum and webinars to meet both the growing and rapidly changing demands being placed on LMI professionals, such as opportunities associated with big data, data visualization, and high-frequency data sets, along with continuing our important professional development training for new LMI analysts.

All of these efforts help fulfill the mission & principles of the LMI Institute and I look forward to the venture as your incoming chair.