New Mexico Getting WIRED

The New Mexico Business Weekly published a long profile last week on the New Mexico WIRED project strategies and partnership.

It's one of those perpetual chicken-and-egg questions: Companies seek locations with a skilled workforce. Communities want to build that base of skilled labor to lure said companies. Colleges and training programs try to anticipate those needs accurately so they don't train students for jobs that don't exist. Graduates want good jobs after all that education and they'll go elsewhere if they can't find them.

But what needs to come first? It all needs to be coordinated, according to officials working to implement a new federal workforce grant...

Officials working on the grant said it is fostering collaborations that may have a lasting impact on how the state does workforce development. It includes a labor needs assessment as well as bringing in education officials at the start of the process to align training with anticipated labor needs.