Over the last several months, there has been a flurry of activity in government-supported efforts focused on addressing the skills gap faced by manufacturing firms and other key S&T industries. The intent of these programs is to develop industry-led partnership that align workforce development efforts with the needs of specific local industries to unlock a region’s economic prosperity. In July, two new initiatives were announced that may help provide a data-driven guide for these efforts in the future. By mapping job skills around the nexus of manufacturing and design, the Chicago-based Digital Manufacturing and Design Innovation Institute (DMDII) hopes to better develop a workforce for the 21st century manufacturing workplace. At the Center for Data Science and Public Policy (DSaPP) at the University of Chicago, a team of researchers hopes to develop a public database that will contain the “DNA” of every job in America that is akin to the output of the Human Genome Project.
