SSTI Digest

Mayor Rahm Emanuel and a coalition of Chicago organizations and private businesses have announced plans to place at least 1,000 workers in manufacturing jobs. The mayor’s 2015 budget proposal, presented this week, includes $200,000 for the effort, with another $750,000 in funds and in-kind contributions from partners. Recent growth in the region’s manufacturing sector has created an urgent need for workers with specific training and apprenticeships, according to the mayor’s announcement. Existing training programs would be leveraged to train participating workers and six local organizations have been tapped to aid in jobs placements. Learn more…

The U.S. Department of Commerce has released the names of the 27 individuals who will serve as the initial members of the National Advisory Council on Innovation and Entrepreneurship (NACIE). NACIE, which will begin work in December, will advise the secretary of Commerce on transformational policies to help communities, businesses and the American workforce become more globally competitive. Subcommittees will explore the council’s three main focus areas: entrepreneurship, innovation and job-driven skills training. The list of council members includes representatives from the private, nonprofit and academic sectors, including several organizations involved in state and regional technology-based economic development. Read the announcement…

North Carolina’s new Economic Development Partnership began operations this week. The public-private partnership will assume many of the economic development operations of the state’s Department of Commerce (as described in an earlier Digest article), with most of its 34 staff members previously working for the department, according to the News & Observer. The partnership will help firms gain access to the state’s research, technology and academic resources, though the NC Office of Science, Technology and Innovation, which administers a number of innovation-focused programs, remains under the Department of Commerce. Learn more…

If a concentration of highly skilled workers is an important leading indicator to more widespread economic growth, which regions are leading the way? Using data from the Current Population Survey (CPS) to compare the educational attainment rates of the nation’s largest labor forces from 2005 to 2013, authors from the Cleveland State University Maxine Goodman Levin College of Urban Affairs determine where America’s highest-skilled jobs are clustering. In ranking the percentage of labor force with a graduate or professional degree in 2013, the list of top five regions is perhaps unsurprising: Washington, D.C., San Jose, Boston, San Francisco, and New York – considered first-tier metros by nearly all accounts. In assessing the percent point change between the percentage of workers with an advanced degree in 2005 and in 2013, however, “second-tier” metros begin to emerge as leaders.

The Department of Defense’s (DOD) SBIR program is meeting three of its four legislative/mission-related goals, according to new study from the National Research Council (NRC) of the National Academies – SBIR at the Department of Defense. Those four congressional objectives of the DOD SBIR program are to:

Stimulate technological innovation; Use small businesses to meet federal R&D needs; Foster and encourage the participation of socially and economically disadvantaged small businesses; and, Increase the private sector commercialization of innovations derived from federal R&D.

While DOD SBIR-funded projects are commercializing at a substantial rate, aligned with the DOD needs, and developing innovative technologies, the DOD has failed to increase the involvement of woman- and minority-owned small businesses in its SBIR program.

In celebration of National Manufacturing Day, the Obama Administration announced it will release a new competition to award more than $100 million to launch a new Institute for Manufacturing Innovation (IMI) focused on Integrated Photonics. The proposed Integrated Photonics Institute will assist in developing an end-to-end photonics ‘ecosystem’ in the U.S. and support research and development efforts across the country on domestic foundry access, integrated design tools, automated packaging, assembly and test, and workforce development in the research area related to photonics. Administered by the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL), the formal request for proposal (RFP) should be released in early November.

Each year, the first Friday in October marks Manufacturing Day, a quasi-holiday where manufacturers nationwide open their doors to host open houses, tours, workshops, and other events to educate the public on the current state of American manufacturing. Although the phrase “American manufacturing” may conjure up images of oversized equipment or Rust Belt decay, the industry is, by many accounts, thriving.  In dollar terms, U.S. manufacturing output is at record levels, worth more than $2 trillion, fueled by international demand for goods such as aircraft, electrical equipment, engines, metal products, and chemicals, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis.

After decades of seeing their suburbs thrive while their cores decayed, cities across the United States  are receiving a long overdue influx of talent and capital in what Alan Ehrenhalt describes as the “great inversion.” While a large proportion of wealth and population in many regions still lives in the suburbs, trends are shifting, and it’s not just anecdotal. Although the transformation of blighted buildings, the development of new rentals, and the appearance of boutiques and cafes littering sidewalks garners the most attention, there is a quantitative component as well.

The U.S. Small Business Administration has announced four new Regional Innovation Clusters that will be included among its portfolio of high-performing regional networks. Awardee clusters will receive $500,000-$550,000 for mentoring, counseling, pitch development and other small business support programs.  The new members of SBA’s cluster portfolio include Milwaukee’s Water Technology Cluster, Southeastern New Mexico’s Autonomous and Unmanned Systems Cluster, a Retail, Supply Chain and Food Processing Cluster spanning the Ozarks region and a Marine Industries Cluster in several Gulf Coast states.

Although black women may show more interest in STEM majors than white women as they enter college, they are less likely to earn a degree in those fields according to new research in Cultural Diversity and Ethnic Minority Psychology. In “Ethnic Variation in Gender-STEM Stereotypes and STEM Participation: An Intersectional Approach,” the authors analyze data from more than 1.7 million college freshmen between 1990 and 1999, finding that both black women and black men initially say they planned to major in STEM fields at higher rates than their white counterparts.

The Department of Labor (DOL) announced that it will award $450 million in job-driven training grants to nearly 270 community colleges across the country via the Trade Adjustment Assistance Community College and Career Training (TAACCCT) competitive grant program, which is co-administered by the DOL and Department of Education. The awards are to support community college-industry partnerships that will expand and improve education and career training programs offered at community colleges across the country. The intent of the program is to align community college degree programs with the needs of regional industry and help job seekers get the skills they need for in-demand jobs in industries such as information technology, cyber security, health care, energy, and advanced manufacturing. This round of TAACCCT grants will allow the 270 awardees to partner with more than 400 employers from across the county. Read the press release…

On September 28, California Gov. Jerry Brown signed SB 850 into law, which establishes a pilot-program that will allow 15 of the state’s community colleges to launch low-cost bachelor’s degree programs in vocational fields of high demand by state industries. This bill makes California the 22nd state to offer state residents the opportunity to earn a low-cost bachelor’s degree at a local community college.