If you are not spending as much time developing your future workforce as
you are engaging your current one, then you are falling behind your
competition. That was just one of the key takeaways from the World Forum for Foreign Direct Investment held
in early May in Edinburgh, Scotland.
As companies face ever more stringent sustainability reporting
requirements, big energy users such as data centers are in the firing
line, writes Andy Lawrence, executive director of research at Uptime
Institute. Plus: top countries, states and metros for data center
projects.
Among them: former Baltimore Ravens lineman Trevor Pryce, Sonavi CEO
Ellington West and EcoMap CEO Pava LaPere, whose companies are taking
advantage of Baltmore’s “very special energy.”
Last week the U.S. Department of Labor announced the selection of the initial cohort of 207 Apprenticeship
Ambassadors, chosen to share their experiences and collaborate
with the department to champion apprenticeship opportunities. The program, announced by U.S. Secretary of
Labor Marty Walsh in November 2021, brings together industry, labor,
education, equity and workforce leaders “to partner with the
department’s Office of Apprenticeship to promote Registered
Apprenticeships as a valuable workforce strategy in high-demand
industries” to develop and expand opportunities for historically
underserved people.
Those named have committed to hosting 3,367 outreach and recruitment
activities, 892 training session and 717 promotional meetings. They have
also pledged to develop 460 new Registered Apprenticeship programs and
387 resources in their first year as ambassadors. The department
continues to accept and review applications as we approach the 85th
Anniversary of the National Apprenticeship Act on Aug. 16, 2022, and National Apprenticeship Week, Nov. 14-20, 2022.
Two of the named Ambassadors have withdrawn from the program since the
announcement, a Department of Labor spokesperson told me. The remainder
include a number of state career and technical education offices,
community colleges, unions and workforce development programs. They also
include prominent employers, among them Robert Bosch, IBM, Zurich North
America, Aon Corporation, Google, Lockheed Martin, Microsoft and
Lufthansa Technik Puerto Rico.
How do they break down by location? Here are the numbers for top
jurisdictions by number of Apprenticeship Ambassadors, led by the
nation’s capital, which gets to count the vice president, secretary of
education and secretary of commerce among its ranks:
Jurisdiction
Ambassadors
District of Columbia
16
California
15
Michigan
15
Virginia
11
Illinois
10
Texas
9
Arizona
8
Georgia
8
Maryland
8
Missouri
8
Ohio
8
How do the ambassador numbers align with state leaders when it comes to the nation’s
27,000 registered apprenticeship programs and more than 593,000 apprentices in
FY2021? The map above shows FY2021 data on active apprentices by state. The map below
shows how many completed their programs in FY2021, with South Carolina standing out
for graduating more apprentices than are currently active. — Adam Bruns
Nissan’s $500 million transformation of its plant in Canton heads the
list, preserving and upskilling nearly 2,000 of the state’s 15,000-plus
jobs at more than 200 automotive-related companies in the state.
Esri’s ArcGIS technology enables organizations to map out locations in
order to enhance site selection and minimize customer drive time.
Images courtesy of Esri
Jack Dangermond, Founder and President, ESRI
The Esri User Conference took place last week in San Diego. Leading off
the event was Esri Founder and spatial analysis pioneer Jack Dangermond who spoke on how to literally
map out common ground using a geographic approach to issues. Access the full slate of presentation videos from the
four-day conference to learn how experts at such organizations as
National Geographic, the Jane Goodall Institute, CERN and FEMA put
geographic information systems to innovative and transformative uses.
PHOTO OF THE
DAY
Photo courtesy of Port Houston
This image from Port Houston shows the Bayport container terminal at
sunset. But the sun isn’t setting on the port’s container traffic
anytime soon. The port reported earlier this week that it just had its
biggest June ever for containers (323,823 TEUs) and its year-to-date
volume (1,897,065 TEUs) is 18% higher than in 2021. In addition to
Bayport, Port Houston operates a container terminal at Barbours Cut, and
now has started processing containers at its general cargo terminals in
order to handle the volume. “Just like others in our industry, we are
looking for creative solutions to get the cargo where it needs to be as
efficiently as possible,” said Port Houston Executive Director Roger
Guenther. Those solutions include new Saturday gate hours (nine)
implemented in June. Meanwhile, Port Houston is constructing wharves,
adding container yard space and awarding new contracts for the $1
billion expansion of the Houston Ship Channel.
