WNY Workforce Development Challenge
Governor Hochul announces the first round awardees of the WNY Workforce Development Challenge.
This program is designed to promote and invest in innovative approaches to workforce training for underserved populations throughout Western New York. The Workforce Development Challenge will help increase the capacity of community-based trainers who have proven track records, trusted community relationships, and outstanding abilities for outreach and recruitment. In addition, it will support programs in the region’s target sectors currently experiencing growth, including advanced manufacturing, health and life sciences, tech, tourism, energy, and agriculture by providing training for unemployed, underemployed, and/or career ladder opportunities for entry-level and mid-skill workers. It funds best practice models that maximize collaboration between business and workforce trainers. In 2019, to further build on the program’s success, the Ralph C. Wilson, Jr. Foundation also announced an additional $1.5 million contribution, for a fund total of $11.5 million.
New York State announced in April 2021 that more than $1.5 million in funding from the third round the Western New York Workforce Development Challenge was awarded to four local not-for-profit organizations and their projects:
- BCAT Workforce Development Hub
- Training Opportunities for Workforce Ex-Offender Re-Entry (TOWER)
- Goodskills Career Builder
- JCC Short-Term Advanced Manufacturing Training
Read more about the projects here.
New York State announced in September 2020 that $1.45 million in funding from the second round of the Western New York Workforce Development Challenge was awarded to four local not-for-profit organizations and their projects:
- Trocaire College Technology Institute (TCTI) Career Reboot Program
- New Hope Innovative Career Center
- Beginning Farmer Training Program
- Advancement Training for Healthcare Occupations (ATHOS): A Rural Innovative Training Opportunity
Read more about the projects here.
New York State announced in December 2018 that $4.2 million in funding from the first round the Western New York Workforce Development Challenge was awarded to six local not-for-profit organizations and their projects:
- Prosperity Strategy to Build a Sustainable Niagara County Workforce
- Health Careers Academy & Training Center
- Gerard Place Workforce Development Center
- New Hope Innovative Health Career Center
- ATHOS: A Rural Innovative Training Opportunity
- PUSH Community Energy Workforce Development Project
Read more about the projects here.
First round awardees were announced in December 2018. Second round awardees were announced in September 2020. Third round awardees were announced in April 2021.
Future funding rounds will be announced in the coming months.
Research indicates that employers in high-demand, higher-paying industries need to rapidly identify pools of skilled workers and training programs that meet their needs, and over the long-term, influence the skills of the workforce pipeline to better align their needs. Recent research on the labor market in the region included an employer survey showing the majority of companies in Buffalo Niagara report a number of hard-to-fill jobs or hard-to-find skills, suggesting the supply of labor could be better matched to industry needs. Jobs that are difficult to fill today and the skills that are challenging for employers to find will be compounded as industries across the region grow. The region also faces a looming retirement cliff that will impact the labor supply.
Applying research and best-practices learned through these efforts, the WDC will leverage and build upon the workforce development already happening in the community and will up-skill underserved populations to meet the needs of growing industry sectors, providing opportunities for the workforce throughout all five counties of Western New York.
The grants will be administered by the Community Foundation for Greater Buffalo and Empire State Development. Round three is now closed.
About Round Three - In a new requirement for the third round, all applicants were required to submit a brief Letter of Intent (LOI) by Friday, Dec. 18, 2020. View program guidelines here and program Q&A here. Applicants whose LOI met program requirements were invited to discuss their proposals and complete an application. A virtual public information session was held on Dec. 7 - view the recording here or the PowerPoint here.