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New federal grant will strengthen Oklahoma’s workforce in advanced manufacturing, aerospace and defense, and AI infrastructure
The U.S. Department of Labor recently awarded Oklahoma with $6 million to expand employer-driven workforce training programs across the state. The initiative will help build a skilled workforce in three of the state's fastest-growing industries: aerospace and defense, advanced manufacturing, and AI infrastructure.
Oklahoma was among 14 states selected to receive a total of $86 million through the Department of Labor's Industry-Driven Skills Training Fund. Led by the Oklahoma Employment Security Commission, the grant will accelerate innovation, strengthen domestic production, and address critical workforce shortages.
America Achieves served as a key partner on the grant, helping to develop Oklahoma’s application. America Achieves will also play a central role as strategic advisor as the initiative begins, shaping program design and implementation.
This award builds on America Achieves’ proven track record of working with dozens of communities nationwide to design and secure nearly $250 million in bipartisan funding for economic and workforce development initiatives.
"Oklahoma is thrilled to be winning competitive grants. Federal investment represents a vote of confidence in how our partners are aligning around initiatives," said Trae Rahill, CEO of the Oklahoma Employment Security Commission. "This award is a win-win-win for Oklahoma employers, workers and our education system. Through this work with America Achieves and the Good Jobs Economy, we’ll continue leading the way in modernizing talent systems in our country – connecting people to real opportunities."
The initiative focuses on three key areas: effectively training both new and current workers, retaining skilled employees, and placing workers into new jobs in fast-growing industries. Workers will receive targeted training and upskilling opportunities aligned with employer demand, strengthening the talent pipeline and boosting regional economic competitiveness. Employers will receive funding through an outcomes-based approach.
In addition to collaborating with America Achieves, Oklahoma will work with partners including the Oklahoma Workforce Commission, Oklahoma Career Tech, the state’s colleges and universities, and Guild, the nation’s leading talent development organization.
"Oklahoma is showing how strategic investments in workforce development can create lasting economic opportunity," said Jon Schnur, CEO of America Achieves. "When we align funding for training with employer needs and connect workers to good jobs, we build stronger communities and a more competitive economy that works for everyone."
In July, America Achieves launched Good Jobs Economy partnerships to work alongside governors, states, and local regions to connect residents to good jobs while helping employers access skilled talent. Good Jobs Economy is a centerpiece of the National Governors Association (NGA) Chair’s Initiative, “Reigniting the American Dream,” led by Oklahoma Governor Stitt.
Oklahoma was one of two state partnerships announced at NGA’s summer meeting. The goal of Good Jobs Economy is to help hundreds of thousands of Americans reach and stay in the middle class by accessing good jobs and advancing their careers.
America Achieves is a national nonprofit organization working to help local communities and states ensure everyone has a clear path to a good job, no matter who they are, where they live, and whether or not they have a college degree. Our Good Jobs Economy initiative partners with states, regions and local workforce and economic development intermediaries to design, fund, and implement the programs, strategies and systems that create sustainable pathways to good jobs. As part of this Good Jobs Economy initiative, America Achieves is partnering with the National Governors Association Chair’s Initiative to modernize state talent systems that support the workforce efforts of regional coalitions.
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Report from Brookings Metro, in partnership with America Achieves, shares five foundational building blocks to help coalitions move from vision to results
Across the United States, regional leaders face a shared challenge: how to grow good jobs and expand economic mobility for all residents. To overcome this challenge, it will take cross-sector coalitions that include all stakeholders—government, business, education, and community groups.
But turning collaboration into results is not easy. A new guidebook produced by Brookings Metro, in partnership with America Achieves, shares practical guidance from regional coalition efforts across the United States.
Over the past year, America Achieves, in collaboration with Brookings Metro, worked with a group of 11 regions to collaboratively tackle critical coalition governance questions in a Good Jobs Economy Peer Learning Cohort. Through a combination of site visits, one-on-one technical assistance, cohort-wide problem-solving sessions, and workshops with researchers and leaders of similar regional efforts, we supported these regions as they made tangible progress to strengthen their coalitions.
A new guidebook released today, The Coalition Imperative: A Guidebook for How Regions Can Build and Sustain Coalitions Toward a Good Jobs Economy, provides lessons and leading practices from these coalitions to build the long-term civic infrastructure needed to grow good jobs, strengthen economic mobility, and build resilient regional economies.
“Growing an economy with plentiful good jobs and fair access to opportunity is a long-term national project,” said Jon Schnur, CEO of America Achieves. “This guidebook shows one way for regional leaders—from governors and mayors to business, higher education, and community partners—to collaborate to deliver measurable results. America Achieves is proud to support regions that are demonstrating what it takes to modernize talent systems and build prosperity that lasts.”
The report identifies five foundational building blocks for effective cross-sector coalitions: shared focus, governance structure, operational rhythm, performance management, and financial sustainability. It offers actionable guidance for local and state leaders to organize their economies around good jobs. It also highlights five implications for policymakers and investors, emphasizing how public and private funding can accelerate regional transformation.
“Across the country, regions are learning that no single organization has the resources or perspective to tackle the good jobs challenge alone,” said Joseph Parilla, Senior Fellow and Director of Applied Research at Brookings Metro and co-author of the report. “This guidebook is designed to help leaders translate that insight into action, and move from coordination to measurable impact.”
The publication informs America Achieves’ Good Jobs Economy initiative, a multi-year, outcomes-driven effort launched in partnership this summer with the National Governors Association Chair’s Initiative and Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt and Maryland Governor Wes Moore. Built on lessons learned from supporting more than 85 regional coalitions with their economic development and talent systems building efforts over the past six years, the Good Jobs Economy helps state and regional coalitions design, fund, and implement modernized talent systems that connect people to good jobs at scale.
The Good Jobs Economy initiative aims to identify, train, and place one million youth and adults into good jobs in priority sectors and high-demand occupations over a decade. This includes Good Jobs Funds, where philanthropic capital helps states and local regions unlock enacted large-scale public funding to launch, modernize, and scale effective programs and partnerships. It also helps states build integrated talent systems and policies enabling sustained impact at large scale. Good Jobs Funds will build the evidence, program capacity, and public momentum that will help states modernize their own funding and systems to enable sustained, scalable results. This work is based on a talent system framework that guides states to set and measure outcome goals, define employer demand regularly, build and scale effective programs, identify and connect talent to jobs, align funding to outcomes, and build implementation and governance infrastructure.
America Achieves and Brookings Metro collaborated to design and deliver the programming for the Good Jobs Economy Peer Learning Cohort. The guidebook draws from the insights generated from this program by participating regional coalition teams—from Buffalo to El Paso, Minneapolis to Miami—that are advancing cross-sector strategies in advanced manufacturing, biopharma, clean energy, and other high-growth industries. Together, these regions represent over $400 million in federal investment, billions of dollars in associated private investment, and the early stages of creating tens of thousands of good jobs.
The full guidebook and executive summary are available at https://www.brookings.edu/articles/the-coalition-imperative/.
Good Jobs Economy is a centerpiece of Incoming National Governors Association (NGA) Chair Governor Kevin Stitt’s “Reigniting the American Dream”
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: kristy@goodjobseconomy.org
July 30, 2025 — Today, the national nonprofit organization America Achieves launched Good Jobs Economy partnerships to work alongside governors, states, and local regions to connect residents to good jobs while helping employers access skilled talent. The goal is to help hundreds of thousands of Americans reach and stay in the middle class by accessing good jobs and advancing their careers. These partnerships build on America Achieves’ prior work helping local regions advance economic and workforce development.
Oklahoma Governor Kevin Stitt announced his NGA Chair’s initiative, Reigniting the American Dream, and introduced Good Jobs Economy as a core partner in the initiative’s work to modernize talent systems and launch good jobs funds. Governor Stitt and Maryland Governor Wes Moore, NGA’s Vice Chair, announced that Oklahoma and Maryland will be the first states to work with Good Jobs Economy to scale effective programs and modernize talent systems — and prepare to make effective use of newly enacted Workforce Pell Grant funding. Workforce Pell was recently enacted by Congress to help students, for the first time, pay for short-term job training programs starting July 1, 2026; this new law also empowers governors to shape which programs in their state are eligible for workforce Pell funds. Our initial work in Oklahoma and Maryland will expand to support additional states while creating playbooks and tools to help other interested states and communities launch Good Jobs Funds, modernize talent systems, and best leverage Workforce Pell funding.
“A Good Jobs Economy is essential to reigniting the American Dream. This year, I am challenging every governor to build strong bridges between millions of Americans seeking good jobs and the employers eager to hire them. We need to think boldly and act urgently,” said Governor Stitt. In his remarks at the NGA summer meeting, Stitt said, “I’m going to partner with organizations like Good Jobs Economy…to help states build modern talent systems–ones that connect people to real opportunities.”
“We are excited to partner with Good Jobs Economy, launched by America Achieves as part of the National Governors Association Chair’s Initiative, to expand access to high-quality jobs for more Marylanders,” said Governor Moore. “We'll deploy state, philanthropic, and federal funding to scale what works, modernize our talent systems, and ensure Marylanders can access good jobs while giving employers the talent they need.”
“This effort is about turning economic promise into real opportunity,” said Jon Schnur, CEO of America Achieves. “It’s about expanding the middle class, and ensuring businesses can build and grow by accessing the talent they need, and ensuring that more Americans can achieve the dignity and security of a good job.”
Across the country, employers face talent shortages, including more than 2 million unfilled manufacturing jobs projected by 2030, threatening over $1 trillion in economic output. At the same time, nearly half of full-time workers don’t earn enough to be self-sufficient. For many young people, the path forward feels out of reach: 60 percent say the American Dream is either not real or unreachable, according to the Broken Marketplace study. Meanwhile, AI and other technologies are accelerating workforce changes faster than current systems and strategies are adapting.
In response to this need, Good Jobs Economy will work in close partnership with Oklahoma and Maryland, and other select states and local regions, to draw on that work and lessons learned into practical playbooks, tools, and other resources shared through a national learning network. We will leverage the data, research, and insights from these early efforts to help governors and cross-sector coalitions launch Good Jobs Funds and modernize talent systems that deliver real results:
Create and Scale Good Jobs Funds. These funds will identify and fund the development, and growth of evidence-based, scalable models that connect employers, job seekers, and education and training providers in local regions. Our goal: 10,000 people identified, trained, and hired into good jobs by 2030.
Modernize talent systems. These talent systems will scale and sustain pathways to good jobs, give employers access to the skilled talent they need, and advance economic development and national security. Our goal: connect hundreds of thousands of people to good jobs over a decade, earning billions in additional wages. This intensive work with states and regions will build the evidence base on what works and inform playbooks and tools that communities across the country can use to guide their work. These statewide talent systems will:
As part of this effort, Oklahoma is launching a Good Jobs Fund with an initial commitment of $19 million to identify, develop and grow successful programs in Oklahoma. This includes $4.5 million in existing public funds through the Oklahoma Workforce Commission for high-impact programs. Additionally, the George Kaiser Family Foundation is committing at least $15 million in aligned funding to prepare residents of Tulsa for good-paying jobs in industries like manufacturing, advanced air mobility, and healthcare. These investments are designed to catalyze larger philanthropic and public funding to create pathways for Oklahomans to reach and stay in the middle class. Governor Stitt will issue an executive order to prepare Oklahoma to make effective use of newly enacted Workforce Pell Grant funding and is expected to establish a task force to develop a statewide implementation roadmap for Workforce Pell in Oklahoma. Read the Oklahoma Fact Sheet →
Maryland will identify and fund the development, implementation and growth of evidence-based, scalable programs and pathways that train and place residents into good local jobs in high-demand sectors such as healthcare, information technology, cybersecurity, life sciences and aerospace. This will include $25 million in public funding through Governor Moore’s nationally recognized EARN program and the Registered Apprenticeship Investments for a Stronger Economy (RAISE) Act, $15 million in aligned philanthropic funding, with additional public and private investments to be made in the future. Maryland’s strategy includes building a revolving workforce fund to support low-cost nursing pathways, a statewide strategy for high school career counseling, and employer connections for underrepresented tech talent, and improving high school career counseling.
Maryland will also partner to build a more integrated and responsive talent system that adapts more quickly to changes in the job market and supports inclusive economic growth. At the same time, the partnership will develop a policy framework and process designed to ensure the effective deployment of recently expanded Pell Grants that become available July 1, 2026 for short-term workforce training programs. Read the Maryland Fact Sheet →
Good Jobs Economy is a bipartisan effort launched and operated by the national nonprofit organization America Achieves, in partnership with the Chair’s initiative of the National Governors Association. Its work is grounded in America Achieves’ experience with regional economic and workforce intermediaries, leading policymakers, and other experts. Over the last ten years, America Achieves has:
Philanthropic funding for the planning and early stages of Good Jobs Economy has been provided by Blue Meridian Partners, the George Kaiser Family Foundation (GKFF), MacKenzie Scott, Strada Education Foundation, and others. This effort builds on America Achieves’ efforts to help Tech Hub applicants develop their plans — funded by the Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth, GKFF, and others. We are in active discussions, and welcome additional conversations, with national and in-state funders to support scaling the Good Jobs Economy work and partnerships.
Today, coalitions of business leaders and economic organizations have come together to release two community-sign on letters that call for robust appropriations for the Regional Technology and Innovation Hubs (Tech Hubs) program and the recently re-authorized Economic Development Administration (EDA)’s Workforce Training Grants and State Grant Pilot Program.
PRESS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
MAY 13, 2025
Press Contact:
Molly Dillon
molly.dillon@americaachieves.org
Today, coalitions of business leaders and economic organizations have come together to release two community-sign on letters that call for robust appropriations for the Regional Technology and Innovation Hubs (Tech Hubs) program and the recently re-authorized Economic Development Administration (EDA)’s Workforce Training Grants and State Grant Pilot Program.
Employers currently project millions of unfilled positions in sectors critical to economic and national security – including energy, healthcare, skilled trades, and emerging technologies. In response, the signatories of both letters agree that if fully funded, the strong, bipartisan-supported initiatives have the potential to not only address workforce preparedness and worker shortages, but also strengthen local economies, empower workers, and enhance America’s national security and global leadership in innovation. The dozens of signatories include corporate leaders, local, business-led regional impact groups representing small, medium, and large-sized businesses, as well as other workforce and economic development-related non-profit organizations.
The full list of signatories is below.
Regional Technology and Innovation Hubs (Tech Hubs)
EDA Workforce Training Grants & State Grant Pilot Program
America Achieves is a leading nonprofit organization that supports a national network of communities and states that are working to ensure every American has a clear path to a good job with upward mobility.
Congratulations to the six Tech Hub designees that this week received Implementation Grants, totaling approximately $210 million, as part of a new round of funding from Congress.
Congratulations to the six Tech Hub designees that this week received Implementation Grants, totaling approximately $210 million, as part of a new round of funding from Congress.
The Tech Hubs initiative, which has overwhelmingly bipartisan support, is a critical component in building the workforce of the future, and strengthening the industries those workers will serve. This is a collective effort by communities, states, regions and our nation to ensure that everyone has a clear path to a good job and career, enabling them to support their families and advance economically regardless of where they live or whether they have a college degree. The new round of implementation grants announced this week by the U.S. Department of Commerce’s Economic Development Administration will further support efforts already underway to expand the production of critical technologies, create jobs in future-facing sectors, and advance our nation’s economic competitiveness and security.
Among the six recipients of the most recent round of implementation grants is the Birmingham Biotechnology Hub in Alabama, a regional coalition that received a $44 million award and that America Achieves has supported with in-depth technical assistance. America Achieves also supported and worked closely with six of the 12 regional coalitions that received implementation grants in July. Today’s announcement means a total of 18 regional coalitions have been awarded Tech Hub implementation grants, 7 of which have received intensive technical assistance from America Achieves.
Also this week, the Richmond-Petersburg Advanced Pharmaceutical Manufacturing Workforce Initiative in Virginia, which America Achieves advised, received a Good Jobs Challenge Grant of nearly $4 million from the Economic Development Administration. The Richmond coalition, led by the Community College Workforce Alliance, was one of eight designees that this week received a total of $25 million in Good Jobs Challenge program funding, as announced by U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo. The Good Jobs Challenge, which supports high-quality, locally-led workforce training programs that create a pathway for workers to be placed into good-paying jobs, has a portfolio that has grown to 35 states and one territory.
Congratulations to all involved and we look forward to the next chapter in this exciting work!
America Achieves, the national nonprofit dedicated to ensuring that everyone has a clear path to a good job and a career with upward mobility, congratulates Congress on the passage of several important bipartisan legislative measures. These include the reauthorization of the Economic Development Administration (EDA) and the continued commitment to the Regional Tech Hubs Program.
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
DECEMBER 20, 2024
Media Contact: communications@americaachieves.org
America Achieves Celebrates the Passage of Bipartisan Place-Based and Workforce Development Legislation
America Achieves, the national nonprofit dedicated to ensuring that everyone has a clear path to a good job and a career with upward mobility, congratulates Congress on the passage of several important bipartisan legislative measures. These include the reauthorization of the Economic Development Administration (EDA) and the continued commitment to the Regional Tech Hubs Program.
These achievements represent meaningful progress in helping people and the communities where they live and work by strengthening America’s workforce, boosting regional economies, promoting economic growth, and ensuring our nation’s competitiveness in the global economy.
Reauthorization of the Economic Development Administration
The reauthorization of the EDA – the first in 20 years – represents a forward-looking step in aligning regional economic development strategies with workforce priorities. The legislation reauthorizes the EDA’s authorities and programs for the first time since 2004, as well as regional commissions which will bolster economic growth and job creation in the areas that need it the most.
Continued Commitment to the Regional Tech Hubs Program
Funding secured for the Regional Tech Hubs Program underscores the federal government’s commitment to fostering innovation and driving economic growth in technology areas important to global competitiveness. By strengthening support for emerging technology ecosystems, this program helps spur new job creation, enhance global competitiveness, and ensure that economic opportunity reaches historically underserved regions. America Achieves celebrates this vital investment in our nation’s technological future.
A Commitment to Bipartisan Collaboration and Real Impact
“The passage of these important pieces of legislation demonstrates what is possible when leaders come together with a shared vision for building a stronger, more inclusive economy,” said Jon Schnur, CEO of America Achieves. “The bipartisan reauthorization and modernization of EDA and continued support of the Regional Tech Hubs Program represent significant progress toward equipping workers with the skills they need, addressing regional economic disparities, and positioning the United States as a global leader in innovation. We are thrilled to see these priorities come to fruition and look forward to working with federal, state, and local partners to ensure their successful implementation.”
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About America Achieves
For more than a decade, America Achieves has incubated high-performing initiatives, launched new nonprofit organizations, shaped over $2 billion in federal funding for inclusive economic development, and partnered with local leaders focused on making their communities better places to live, learn, work, and raise a family. Our organization and partners place a special focus on those who have been left behind — and whose talents are not yet being fully leveraged to build economic opportunity for themselves and their communities. America Achieves helps local economic and workforce development intermediaries, coalitions, and states to fund, develop and implement the programs, strategies and systems that create sustainable pathways to good jobs.
For more information, visit americaachieves.org.
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Transformative grant will accelerate national nonprofit's effort to build a "Good Jobs Economy"
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Media Contact: communications@americaachieves.org
NEW YORK, NY (December 18, 2024) – America Achieves, the national nonprofit dedicated to ensuring that everyone has a clear path to a good job and a career with upward mobility, announced today that it has received a $15 million grant from Yield Giving, the groundbreaking philanthropy founded by MacKenzie Scott.
This unrestricted investment will bolster America Achieves' mission to help communities, regions, and states build a "Good Jobs Economy." These initiatives align the supply of diverse talent to the demand for good jobs – especially in high-growth occupations and high growth economic sectors – with a particular focus on overlooked communities and the people who have long called those places home. This strategy is a crucial element of helping community and state efforts to advance and integrate economic growth and economic mobility.
"MacKenzie Scott and Yield Giving's extremely generous grant will help us support communities and states to effectively address two fundamental realities: millions of Americans from all backgrounds, with and without college degrees, need clear pathways to good jobs and most employers report challenges in finding enough skilled talent, including in high-growth and innovation sectors of the economy," said Jon Schnur, CEO of America Achieves. "This grant will help communities and states scale and spread what works to move tens of thousands of people into good jobs to sustain them and their families - while advancing place-based efforts to advance and integrate economic growth with economic mobility.”
America Achieves is one of 199 organizations receiving support from MacKenzie Scott's Yield Giving, which announced more than $2 billion in total grants today. The majority of recipients focus on expanding economic opportunity and stability for Americans facing economic challenges at this critical moment.
This work is addressing important and urgent needs in communities across this country. Consider that only 50% of children born in the 1980s will out-earn their parents, compared to 90% born in the 1940s. Today's families need 62 weeks of median wages to cover annual living costs, up from 40 weeks in 1985, and nearly two-thirds of Americans live paycheck to paycheck. Meanwhile, three in four more employers report difficulty finding skilled workers.
America Achieves helps local intermediaries, coalitions and public officials to bridge these gaps by helping communities and states build strong programs and local systems that connect people to in-demand jobs and employers to skilled talent.
This grant from MacKenzie Scott and Yield Giving is an anchor investment in America Achieves’ go-forward strategy to help communities and states, over the next three years, increasingly move large numbers of people into good jobs and careers that will drive economic growth and mobility – particularly for overlooked people and communities. Using this strategy, America Achieves will over the next three years support local and state partners to:
America Achieves and its partners will work with states, local intermediaries, and coalitions on four strategic priorities aimed at comprehensive, lasting impact at the regional, state and national levels:
America Achieves has secured philanthropic funding to support the planning and launch of its “Good Jobs Economy” initiative from the following funders. In addition to the investment announced today by Yield Giving, philanthropic funding for planning this initiative was provided by Blue Meridian Partners, the George Kaiser Family Foundation (GKFF), Strada Education Foundation, and others. Of those funders, GKFF also supported America Achieves’ efforts to help Tech Hub applicants develop their plans – as did the Mastercard Center for Inclusive Growth and others.
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About America Achieves
For more than a decade, America Achieves has incubated high-performing initiatives, launched new nonprofit organizations, shaped over $2 billion in federal funding for inclusive economic development, and partnered with local leaders focused on making their communities better places to live, learn, work, and raise a family. Our organization and partners place a special focus on those who have been left behind — and whose talents are not yet being fully leveraged to build economic opportunity for themselves and their communities. America Achieves helps local economic and workforce development intermediaries, coalitions, and states to fund, develop and implement the programs, strategies and systems that create sustainable pathways to good jobs.
For more information, visit americaachieves.org.
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Today, America Achieves and 17 other workforce-related nonprofits and local, business-led regional impact groups involving small and medium sized businesses released a joint letter calling on Congress to urgently pass the bipartisan, bicameral substitute to the House passed H.R. 6655, A Stronger Workforce for America Act. This bill is otherwise known as the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) Reauthorization.
First signed into law in 2014, WIOA is the primary federal law that funds and authorizes our nation’s workforce development system providing career and skilling opportunities to adults, dislocated workers and youth.
The proposed reauthorization includes key provisions that the coalition believes can help states and local communities address these challenges — and modernize and align the program to better meet the needs of workers and employers alike. Specific provisions of the reauthorization that the coalition supports include:
People and employers in communities across the U.S are experiencing a profound shift to an innovation and knowledge economy. With automation, digitalization, and other trends poised to further disrupt the labor market, it is more important than ever to help many more Americans have pathways to good jobs with upward mobility — and to align the supply of talent to in-demand good jobs. The coalition welcomes public and private efforts that effectively address these important nationwide challenges.
The bipartisan reauthorization of WIOA is a chance for Congress to play a role in helping communities and states to address critical skills gaps, empower displaced workers, and promote economic mobility while driving national competitiveness.
America Achieves is a leading nonprofit organization that supports a national network of communities and states that are working to ensure every American has a clear path to a good job with upward mobility.
The full text of the letter can be found here.
The full list of signatories is below:
