The Partnership for Industry and Education (PIE) contest, launched in 2017 by the California Economic Summit, focuses on creating synergy between employers and educators to bridge workforce gaps throughout the state. It complements the mission of the California Economic Summit, which has emerged as the only statewide venue with a comprehensive agenda for taking on the state’s top economic challenges: reducing income inequality, increasing economic security and community resiliency in a time of climate change, bolstering wealth generation, and restoring upward mobility.
AMP SoCal partners, including the Aero Flex Pre-Apprenticeship Program, The Uniquely Abled Project, and MiraCosta Technical Career Institute, were among a strong list of 37 different programs nominated for the PIE contest this year. This list represents some of the leading workforce and training initiatives in the state and are prime examples of collaboration between industry and education providers. Each workforce partnership was judged on how connected program goals and the problems addressed were, how well progress was tracked and results were demonstrated, how students and workers were involved in planning, and how scalable the program is.
Aero-Flex is a highly successful pre-apprenticeship engineering program that has continued to grow in demand, reach and industry focus. The program is an employer driven pre-apprenticeship earn and learn model in engineering that is working to meet the workforce development demands from the aerospace and advanced manufacturing industry.
The Uniquely Abled Project, is working to shift the social paradigm from “disabled” to “uniquely abled” by introducing career-oriented trainings and profession opportunities for those on the autism spectrum, has contributed to reduce the unemployment statistics of the disabled to a level comparable to the non-disabled.
As the preferred talent pipeline for regional companies, MiraCosta College Technology Career Institute – Accelerated Immersion Type Technical Work Skill Program allows students to complete up to 600 hours of training in less than one semester. The training sessions are shaped by industry advisory board.
This year’s top prize was awarded to the Green Energy Training Services Core Apprenticeship Readiness Programs (GETS) in Alameda and Contra Costa counties of the San Francisco Bay Area.