EDA announces 32 winners of $500 million Good Jobs Challenge

Thirty two industry-led workforce training partnerships from across the country were announced as the grant winners of the $500 million Good Jobs Challenge by the U.S. Economic Development Administration. Selected from 509 proposals, the regional partnerships are focused on removing barriers to training and are expected to increase more equitable labor participation with a focus on 15 key industries.

Good Jobs Challenge winners are expected to jumpstart the development and expansion of training programs that are tailored to each community. Awardees are located in 31 states and Puerto Rico.

More than 50,000 workers are expected to be placed into jobs through the Challenge, with the majority of those (29 percent) expected in the healthcare industry. Information technology (15 percent), manufacturing (14 percent), energy and resilience (13 percent), and transportation, distribution and logistics (10 percent) are other industries that will benefit from the workforce training programs.

America’s supply chains are the focus of 12 Good Jobs Challenge awardees that will include preparing workers for shipbuilding jobs, upskilling manufacturing workers, and training people in rural communities to work in the logistics industry. Eleven awardees have plans to expand and diversify the pool of information technology and cybersecurity professionals. Another eight awardees have a focus on climate-related industries, including developing a clean energy sector partnership to train workers in distressed counties.

EDA noted that all 32 awardees have “holistic equity strategies” that will reach underserved communities in their regions with projects taking place in some of the most distressed areas of the country and recruitment from populations that have been historically left out of job training opportunities. Awardees also will work with local employers — EDA received 824 total letters of employer commitments across the 32 awardees that include commitments to hire and additional contributions to the sector partnerships.

The full list of awardees and more information is available here.