Responsive Regional Ecosystems | Industry Sector Strategies
Employers face widening skills gaps and communities need stronger pathways to in-demand jobs with family-sustaining wages. These regional talent pipeline challenges cannot be solved by any one organization or system alone.
AIR helps regional systems bring industry leaders, workforce and education partners, and community stakeholders together to align priorities and take action to create value for employers, individuals, and communities. We use evidence-based methods to conduct needs analyses, strengthen employer engagement, devise comprehensive solutions, and structure multilevel networks that enable regions to build and sustain industry-driven partnerships that endure.
Our Projects
Building a Future‑Ready Energy Workforce Through Sector Strategies
The Energy industry is complex and rapidly evolving. Sector partnerships and sector strategies connect business needs to education and workforce partners to build essential human capital talent. AIR is providing research and technical assistance to The Energy Workforce Strategies project, a one-year federal initiative funded by the Lawrence Berkley National Laboratory for the Department of Energy’s Office of Energy Jobs, focused on the implementation and scaling of sector strategies in the energy industry and the development of a comprehensive Energy Workforce Strategy to accelerate and amplify workforce development.
Sector Strategies Framework Technical Assistance
State and local workforce systems across the country are increasingly using sector strategies, and evidence shows there is room to strengthen and expand these efforts. To support this work, the U.S. Department of Labor’s Employment and Training Administration (ETA) partnered with AIR to update the Sector Strategies Framework, along with practical technical assistance tools such as an Implementation Guide.
The updated Framework builds on AIR and ETA’s original 2016 work and reflects AIR’s recent research and hands‑on technical assistance supporting sector strategies across workforce and education systems nationwide.
Virginia Sector Strategies and Career Pathways Academy
From 2017 to 2024, AIR supported the Virginia Sector Strategies and Career Pathways Academy, a statewide workforce system transformation initiative led by the Virginia Community College System in partnership with state and local agencies. The Academy sought to strengthen Virginia’s regional workforce ecosystems by operationalizing industry sector strategies and career pathways across service delivery, building partner capacity to meet employer talent needs
