Tennessee ranked No 1 in the South Central region for workforce development programs

Site Selection magazine recently recognized Tennessee's efforts to support a steady pipeline of educated Tennesseans to meet the needs of companies throughout the state.

Every state has its own circumstances, of course, from population to ratio of urban to rural school systems to companies participating in apprenticeship programs and many other factors.

But as much as they have differences in demographic and educational attainment factors, they also have some things in common. They have legislatures that appropriate funds to education and workforce training programs, for example, and they have capital investors kicking the tires of their state to assess labor and skills supply in case their business model requires a new location there.

Rather than rank specific state workforce training programs or STEM initiatives across the country or even across a region, Site Selection looks regionally at the state contexts in which such programs are applied. Is there a culture of proactivity, a leader-of-the-pack emphasis on getting graduates to work in in-demand industries and occupations? On skills credentialing? The states with that kind of focus on workforce will be the states with the individually branded programs that work, and that companies notice.

Source: Site Selection

The East Tennessee Economic Development Agency markets and recruits business for the 15 counties in the greater Knoxville-Oak Ridge region of East Tennessee. Visit www.eteda.org

Published January 11, 2019