DWD, Partners Receive $750K from Data Challenge
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The Indiana Department of Workforce Development, along with the Indiana Commission for Higher Education and Indiana Business Research Center, have received a $750,000 grant as a first-round winner of the Democratizing our Data Challenge. The challenge aims to improve the connection between education and workforce data systems.
The data challenge is a program from the Coleridge Initiative, a nonprofit organization that works with governments to promote the effective use of data for public decision-making. As part of the program, government agencies are meant to collaborate, develop, and scale tools and practices, such as dashboards, reemployment portals, and training programs, with the goal of improving access to data to inform education and workforce policy.
The DWD’s “Indiana Credential Outcome Transparency” proposal was one of 10 awardees chosen from 21 government agencies and seven universities. The department says it creates “a technical blueprint for mapping the Credential Engine schema to wage, employment, and training provider data, and a prototype app that enables youth, unemployed, displaced, and transitioning workers to better understand high-demand career pathways.”
“This work to bring more transparency to employment data is important to job seekers and employers alike because data silos have been a major impediment for both education and workforce data,” said DWD Data Officer Diana Barrett. “Initiatives like Coleridge and Democratizing our Data can help eliminate those barriers. Our project in Indiana will also work to create transparency around credentials for workers in their industry.”
“Credential transparency allows learners to make informed decisions regarding higher education,” said Ken Sauer, CHE’s senior associate commissioner and chief academic officer. “The Coleridge Initiative will give Hoosiers the tools and information needed to obtain high-demand degrees and credentials needed for Indiana’s jobs of today and tomorrow.”
The DWD says the Return on Credential tool is expected to be available to the public next year.