For immediate release: October 29, 2015

Washington, D.C.—Business leaders, practitioners and policy makers engaged in a broad discussion about workforce development policies and employment-related issues focused on helping people gain skills and find work in an evolving employment landscape today at the Federal Reserve Board of Governors.

John Engler, president, Business Roundtable and former Governor of Michigan; Jay Moon, president and chief executive officer, Mississippi Manufacturers Association; and Terrie Sterling, executive vice president, Our Lady of the Lake Regional Medical Center, spoke about their experience responding to workforce development challenges and creating programs to train staff and fill jobs.

From the practitioner side, Christopher Calbadon, mayor of West Sacramento, Calif.; Harry Holzer, professor, McCourt School of Public Policy, Georgetown University; and Juan Salgado, president and chief executive officer, Instituto del Progreso Latino and a 2015 MacArthur Fellow, discussed workforce development in the field and how organizations have innovated workforce development programs.

Today’s discussion focused on employer perspectives on workforce development policies and practices and highlighted insights from practitioners for addressing local workforce development needs.

The discussion topics emphasized themes addressed in a recently released publication, Transforming U.S. Workforce Development Policies for the 21st Century. The book was developed in partnership among the Federal Reserve Banks of Atlanta and Kansas City and the John. J. Heldrich Center for Workforce Development at Rutgers University. The past several years have seen the Federal Reserve System increasingly focus on workforce development issues.

The book presents perspectives and case studies from noted academics, policymakers and practitioners from around the country and is designed to inform workforce development approaches for a modern economy.

The event was webcast and is available at ustream.tv/federalreserve . To learn more about the publication, download an electronic copy and find related resources, visit kansascityfed.org/transformworkforce.