1. Help address the front-line workforce development needs of Massachusetts employers, industries, and sectors, particularly those experiencing or anticipating skill shortages.

2. Improve basic foundational or occupational skills of Massachusetts workers to support employment and career mobility.

3. Provide opportunities and resources to Regional Industry Teams to develop and implement innovative workforce development models that drive system change.

Competitive advantage was given to proposals that:

• Were industry driven

• Developed integrated workforce partnerships

• Emphasized basic and foundational skills in the context of work

• Promoted long term employment and career mobility

• Included internships, job placement, and post-employment support

• Expanded access to education and training

• Strengthened the skills of workplace educators

• Were data-driven based on current labour market information

• Focused on outcomes

• Provided evidence of a strategy for developing sustained improvement or change

• Promoted co-investment by the partners.

Six projects were funded in 2002 in health care, finance, manufacturing and biotechnology. All the funded projects bring together companies, local workforce investment boards, education/training providers, workers and/or organized labour, and one stop career centres for the purpose of designing and delivering education, training, and support services to support worker skill and career development.

Two Examples of BEST Workforce Partnerships: Biotechnology and Hospitals

Biotechnology

In the case of the Blueprint for Biotechnology project, the partnership is led by the Massachusetts Biotechnology Council, the state’s leading employer association for the industry. The BEST Initiative has allowed the industry association to reach out to community colleges, workforce investment boards, and career centres in order to develop a coordinated effort to create a standard state-wide bio-manufacturing curriculum. Participants are receiving training on company time to gain access to quality entry-level jobs at the participating employers. Then they progress up existing career paths to more skilled positions that pay higher wages. Certificate programs in bio-manufacturing are operating at two participating community colleges.

To complement the BEST Initiative project, Commonwealth Corporation approached a group of Boston community-based organizations and organized them to apply for private funding to develop a job readiness curriculum for bio-manufacturing. Led by the Urban League of Massachusetts, the coalition members are working together to recruit and prepare individuals from their diverse constituencies for vocational training and employment in the biotechnology industry.