Centering Work: Integration and Diffusion of Workforce Development within the U.S. Manufacturing Extension Network

Nichola Lowe, Greg Schrock, Matthew D. Wilson, Rumana Rabbani and Allison Forbes
Additional contact information
Nichola Lowe: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Greg Schrock: Portland State University
Matthew D. Wilson: Great Cities Institute, University of Illinois Chicago
Rumana Rabbani: University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Allison Forbes: Center for Regional Economic Competitiveness

No 22-371, Upjohn Working Papers from W.E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research

Abstract: As the U.S. economy rebounds from the COVID-19 pandemic, strategies that promote long-term transformation toward high-quality jobs will be critical. This includes workplace-improving interventions that enable employers to upgrade existing jobs, often while enhancing their own competitive position. This paper focuses on the Manufacturing Extension Partnership, a national network of federally funded centers that support small and medium-sized manufacturing firms. We document the range of workforce- and workplace-enhancing strategies that MEP centers have adopted since the network’s inception in the mid-1990s. While workforce development is unevenly implemented across today’s MEP network, leading centers within the network are devising transformative strategies that shape underlying business practices in ways that can improve the quality of front-line manufacturing jobs. The pandemic recovery, along with federal commitment to reenergize domestic supply chains, presents an opportunity to establish NIST-MEP as a national workforce-development leader while also strengthening localized institutional partnerships to center that effort on inclusive economic development and recovery.

Keywords: Industrial policy; industry studies; economic development policy; workforce development policy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: J81 L6 R11 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022-08
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-lab and nep-ure
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

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