The City of Frederick, Frederick County, joined a national program elevating local jobs and connecting residents to workforce opportunities.
The City of Frederick is the latest municipality to join the National League of Cities’ (NLC) Good Jobs, Great Cities Program. The Good Jobs, Great Cities Academy includes 16 cities working throughout 2023 and 2024 to develop innovative and scalable city-supported solutions that upskill and reskill workers into quality, high-demand jobs in infrastructure, clean energy, and advanced manufacturing jobs. Great Jobs, Great Cities focuses on supporting residents from historically underserved and underrepresented communities in order to address key shortcomings in their education and workforce ecosystem.
The program is made possible by new federal investments.
From NLC’s website:
Academy cities are working closely with their employers, workforce development boards, and other cross-sector partners to take bold and innovative actions to build strong on-ramps into in-demand infrastructure occupations for workers facing barriers to career success. For example, such city partnerships will take action to launch pre-apprenticeship programs, expand Registered Apprenticeship into new sectors, design a comprehensive youth strategy for a city, or develop a regional sector partnership for a growing industry.
According to NLC, cities participating in the Good Jobs, Great Cities Academy will benefit from the unique opportunity to engage with NLC, USDOL, other federal agencies, national thought leaders, and their peer cities to:
- Identify and convene employers and other stakeholders within a targeted subsector relating to infrastructure, clean energy, or advanced manufacturing
- Identify and address gaps and/or shortcomings in their education and workforce ecosystem, allowing them to develop new, or scale existing successful initiatives
- Implement strategies that ensure infrastructure, clean energy, and advanced manufacturing career opportunities are high-quality and support long-term economic vitality in communities
- Be better positioned to address the multi-faceted structural issues many groups of workers face (including opportunity youth, women, workers of color, Indigenous workers, workers in rural communities, justice-impacted individuals, veterans, parenting workers, etc.) in accessing good jobs, and connect such workers to equitable and meaningful postsecondary and workforce opportunities;
- Learn how to effectively leverage and allocate funds and other resources to support their goals for addressing their workforce needs
- Strengthen policy and practice by intentionally building connections to supportive services for workers, and connecting to the care economy (including childcare, healthcare, and mental health as key supports for workers)
The City of Frederick joins the following cities in the program:
- Birmingham, AL
- Chattanooga, TN
- Duluth, MN
- Fort Lauderdale, FL
- Jamestown, NY
- Kokomo, IN
- Lansing, MI
- Missoula, MT
- Monroe, NC
- Newark, NJ
- San Antonio, TX
- Santa Fe, NM
- Saint Louis, MO
- Tacoma, WA
- Tempe, AZ
Frederick County prioritizes workforce development
The Great Jobs, Great Cities Program is just the latest in a series of recent workforce development initiatives in Frederick County. Here are some of the County’s recent workforce initiatives, including federal and private partnerships:
- In November 2022, Frederick County partnered with the National Jobs Corps program of the U.S. Department of Labor to offer county students and families extended alternative education programming and support, such as trades skills and experience, job training, and apprenticeship opportunities.
- In recent years, Frederick County has attracted several major high-tech private partnerships and businesses to open facilities in the county and hire Frederick residents in tech-heavy industry roles. Examples include The Kroger Co. recently building a 35,000-square-foot robotic customer fulfillment center and creating up to 500 local jobs.
- Frederick County also hosts the impressive Historic Preservation Training Center (HPTC) that trains the National Park Service and others in historic trades, to help fill skills gaps in the workforce and prep constituents for in-demand careers.
- Frederick Community College supports local workforce development initiatives, including programming with its training kitchen to support culinary and hospitality training for the tourism and hospitality industries, and expanding biotech opportunities to educate and equip residents for careers in the high-demand industry.
- The County’s Workforce Services offers a variety of programs and resources to help residents and employers make connections, fill vacancies, and support residents seeking jobs. Frederick County Workforce Services is a partner in the American Job Center network.
