The Greater Peoria region renewed its efforts to study economic development including the region’s talent ecosystem that includes representatives from elementary, secondary, post‐secondary institutions, and business‐centric talent development organizations.
In the spring of 2015, the Mayor of Peoria invited executives from Peoria Public Schools, Peoria Federation of Teachers, CEO Council, Peoria Chamber of Commerce, Illinois Central College, Illinois Student Assistance Commission, Illinois Pathways Initiative, and Greater Peoria Workforce Alliance to participate in a conversation with the Illinois Governor’s office to consider the possibility of joining the Pathways to Prosperity Network. The participants agreed to form a Peoria Pathways to Prosperity (PP2P) team to study education to careers challenges facing students matriculating through the Peoria Public Schools and to recommend improvements.
In the years since, this work has evolved to scale regionally, connecting multiple employers and school districts across five counties to align career pathways to the Postsecondary and Workforce Readiness Act framework. This work is now coordinated by the Emerging Workforce committee of the Workforce Alliance, alongside two other population-based strategies focused on upskilling working adults, and supporting the success of adults with multiple barriers. These committees, along with the K-12 focused Emerging Workforce team, are working to ensure that they’re utilizing the P-20 framework for moving the region toward the 60 by 25 goal in the communities.
Greater Peoria Economic Development Council & Workforce Alliance
The Regional Workforce Alliance has adopted the U.S. Chamber of Commerce best practice improvement process of Talent Pipeline Management to bring structure to their workforce
Over 400 volunteers from 100+ organizations and 15 sponsors came together to host 4,100 8th graders from 65 schools for CareerSpark, a hands-on career exploration on October 5-6, 2022.
Illinois Central College, Bradley University, and Eureka College, along with 40 community partners, will receive once-in-a-generation funding of nearly $15 million to develop 1,000 skilled IT employees over the next three years.
The Regional Workforce Alliance in Greater Peoria has been busy implementing a holistic approach to mapping its regional talent pipeline to gain a more comprehensive
The Greater Peoria Economic Development Council and their partners at Junior Achievement of Central Illinois collaborated with local volunteer employers to create 48 industry-specific virtual booths representing eight different career clusters.
Illinois Central College (ICC), in partnership with Peoria’s CEO Council and Regional Workforce Alliance, Greater Peoria Economic Development Council, Illinois Community College Board (ICCB), Jobs
Peoria partners recently hosted a 15-person delegation of Puerto Rican mayors, employers, and educators to learn about Pathways to Prosperity program.
The Peoria Pathways to Prosperity team and its partners completed a pilot manufacturing pre-apprenticeship and are scaling it to engage approximately 40 students across four school districts and multiple manufacturing employers for AY 2018.
The initial success of Peoria Pathways to Prosperity has drawn attention as a promising demonstration of the community’s capacity to embrace change to meet the challenges ahead. This success was highlighted recently in Peoria Magazine.
In AY 2016-17 Peoria Pathways to Prosperity placed sixty interns at 16 unique employers.
