New developments to support the region’s workforce training in advanced manufacturing were unveiled during the meeting, which is a joint initiative of the Brookings Institution and JPMorgan Chase.
Lexington’s mayor, Jim Gray, said at the forum:
“There’s an enormous amount of excitement around Kentucky manufacturing right now.”
First, the poster printing is already underway for the inaugural Advanced Manufacturing Innovation Conference hosted by the city of Lexington in October 2014. The gathering will introduce manufacturers from across the state with the newest technologies in the manufacturing field.
Secondly, a coalition of manufacturers from the region are launching an initiative, titled ‘A Blueprint for Bridging the Industrial Skills Gap’, designed to let educational and training organizations know what skills and capabilities future workers will need to meet regional employment demands.
Brookings vice president and co-director of the Global Cities Initiative, Bruce Katz, told forum participants:
“Louisville and Lexington are the prime example of collaborating to compete. In a globalized economy, traditional boundaries and antiquated rivalries don’t cut it.”
In further support of the region’s commitment to a collaborative approach, Louisville-Lexington is a member of the Global Cities Initiative’s Exchange. This is a system of urban areas engaged in cooperative activities to develop specialized approaches to manufacturing in a global environment.