Governors association partners on $1M AI workforce project
The National Governors Association on Friday announced a new partnership with RAISE US, a nonprofit workforce initiative launched in June by two former governors, aimed at helping states develop effective AI workforce initiatives.
According to a press release, the new, $1 million project will “identify and amplify new policy models that help states design and pilot new corporate incentives to retrain and redeploy workers, support people through job transitions, and develop training models tied to real employer demand.”
Gina Raimondo, the former Rhode Island governor who served as Joe Biden’s commerce secretary, who is also serving as RAISE US’ co-chair and chief executive, said in the release that workers need “a system” to succeed in a changing workforce. The two groups, she said, will combine their strengths to develop that system: “NGA has the relationships with governors, and RAISE US has the coalition, the data, and the proof points of what is working on the ground. Together, we will make sure that workers have access to the tools and the programs that give them a real shot at a good job in an AI economy.”
Organizers said the group is working with governors in Arkansas, Connecticut, Maryland, and Utah to “reorient public workforce and education infrastructure for a shifting labor market,” through paid apprenticeships, short-term credential programs and incentive programs for employers designed to retrain workers.
Eric Holcomb, a Republican who served two terms as Indiana’s governor, and the nonprofit’s co-chair, said in the release that “the best workforce ideas almost never originate in Washington. They first scale in a statehouse, or a community college, or an employer’s HR department. Then, they spread nationally because governors talk to each other and share what is working.” Regardless of where the group’s new workforce ideas originate, they will be disseminated from the nation’s capital: RAISE US has said it plans to publicize the results of its early work during the NGA’s winter conference, next February, in Washington, D.C.
