Pima Community College Partners with Nonprofits to Solve Local Workforce Development Challenges

Pima Community College, in partnership with the Center for the Future of Arizona and the Aspen Institute Economic Opportunities Program, is celebrating solutions developed by fellows who recently completed CFA’s 10-month Southern Arizona Workforce Leadership Academy. 

The highly competitive academy brought together 20 senior-level workforce development professionals from economic development organizations, community-based organizations, educational institutions, public agencies, county and state agencies, professional business or industry associations, and workforce boards.  The fellows worked to develop innovative solutions to help resolve workforce challenges across Arizona’s Yuma, Pima, Cochise and Santa Cruz counties.  At the end of their fellowship, the fellows unveiled their innovations and recommendations to benefit Arizona’s workforce ecosystem.

The proposals developed by the fellows ranged from developing methods to align and strengthen education systems, and creating a central repository of available resources, to creating better collaborations within the workforce development ecosystem, and ideas to help small businesses increase job quality, retention, and productivity.  

Information on the participating fellows and their in-depth proposals/executive summaries may be found here.

PCC played an integral role in developing the concept for this academy, and it was selected by the Aspen Institute as one of six regional providers for this cycle.  The academy had two primary goals:  1) identify the commonality among all of the workforce development plans in the region and identify actionable steps to unite those plans through real-world projects, and 2) identify the next generation of workforce development leaders to eventually replace older workforce development leaders as they retire or move on.

Ian Roark, PCC vice chancellor of workforce development and innovation, brought forward the concept for this Academy and served on the Advisory Group.  Amanda Abens, PCC dean of workforce development and lifelong learning, was selected to serve as one of the three facilitators.

“Pima Community College remains committed to doing our part to strengthen the workforce development ecosystem, and we realize that we must do so in concert with our regional partners,” said Roark.  “It’s been an honor and a pleasure to work with the great people at the Aspen Institute and Center for the Future of Arizona through our partnership in the Southern Arizona Workforce Leadership Academy.”

Abens said, “Through this academy, we set out to identify and develop plans to bolster the ecosystem, and we have done so. I am so proud of how the fellows, individually and as a group, have developed a shared vision of prosperity for the working learners we serve.”

The Southern Arizona Academy is the second Workforce Leadership Academy provided in Arizona, and is made possible in part by the Aspen Institute, Thomas R. Brown Family Private Foundation, and the Burton Family Foundation.