Healthcare and construction collaborative groups meet regularly to work to address the talent supply in their respective industries.

As concern mounts nationally over how to prepare students for available jobs, externships—instructive stints in local industries—are becoming an increasingly popular means of providing teachers a sneak peek at the skills their students will need to be competitive. Externships give local businesses an opportunity to impart their knowledge of career opportunities, hiring trends and the skills required for work in different industry sectors.

The South Plains Teacher Externship experience provides teachers with three full working days on site in a local business during the summer months. This is not a tour, the host business is asked to provide teachers with hands-on working experience and beneficial shadowing in their business. Teachers gain real-world perspective and application connected to the skills they are teaching and industry exposure in course-specific areas. 

For more information, click here.

The South Plains High Demand Job Training Project enhances and maximizes the capacity of various Career and Technical Education (CTE) programs in area school districts and South Plains College. It facilitates occupational training at the secondary level during the school year to prepare high school students for high demand occupations. 

This project is made possible because of the partnership between LEDA, MLI, Workforce Solutions South Plains, the Texas Workforce Commission, and many South Plains area EDC’s. To date, this grant has been awarded to the South Plains area 13 times totaling cumulatively 6.4 million dollars. Most of the school districts in our 15-County workforce development area have received these grants and 14,661 students have been using the equipment purchased since 2015.

Texas Workforce Commission:          $1,904,914

LEDA/MLI:                                           $4,187,224

Other Partners:                                  $    333,652

Total                                                   $6,425,790

The purpose of Community Workforce Partnership (CWP) is to create and coordinate a formal system to carry out a cooperative program to meet the training, education, and information needs of local and regional businesses, industries, and the local and regional labor market. By creating and implementing a workforce development model, CWP assists local and regional businesses, educators, and jobseekers.

The Community Workforce Partnership brings together education and workforce development partners to address the talent needs of our local communities. Members of CWP include LEDA, Lubbock Chamber of Commerce, Workforce Solutions South Plains, Region 17 Education Service Center, local area independent school districts, South Plains College, university systems and the Texas Manufacturing Assistance Center.   

The Skills Development Fund is Texas’ premier job-training program providing local customized training opportunities for Texas businesses and workers to increase skill levels and wages of the state’s workforce. The Texas Workforce Commission administers funding for the program. Success is achieved through collaboration among businesses, public community and technical colleges, Workforce Development Boards and economic development partners.  

In 2019, the Texas Workforce Commission awarded South Plains College and Workforce Solutions South Plains a Skills Development Fund grant of $506,719 to meet the training needs of a consortium of businesses, which included J&B Industrial Services, Red River Commodities, Simflo and Azteca Milling, LP.  This funding will be used to train their total of 206 employees in various courses needed for their specific jobs.

Learn more here.

The South Plains Career Expo is an annual event held in the fall at the Lubbock Memorial Civic Center.  This career exploration event is a great opportunity for area high school junior and senior students, with more than 4,000 students attending from across the South Plains.  This is one of the largest events of its type throughout the state of Texas. This event is hosted by Workforce Solutions South Plains, South Plains College, LEDA, Texas Tech University System and area school districts.

Learn more here.

Through a relationship with the CWP and Workforce Solutions South Plains, LEDA continues to help engage the community by promoting a variety of job fairs that are held throughout the year.  Click here to find dates for area job fairs.

Workforce Solutions South Plains is one of LEDA’s most valuable partners.  LEDA works closely with this organization to explore grant opportunities for local businesses. Workforce Solutions also hosts a variety of job fairs, assists companies with employee recruitment and job training programs.

The Lubbock Chamber of Commerce and Lubbock Economic Development Alliance (LEDA) have partnered to provide future workforce training and demand planning strategies to South Plains businesses through the formalized Talent Pipeline Management (TPM) program. Created in 2014 by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, TPM is a program designed to benefit employers through mobilizing the business community and closing the skills gap. This is done by applying lessons learned from supply chain management, education, and workforce partnerships. Employer collaborations play an expanded role as “end-customers” of a talent supply chain, consequently becoming more effective at determining and communicating the most critical working needs to trusted partners as well as managing and improving performance. 

Program Partners

• Covenant Health System                                                                     
• University Medical Center Health System                                
• Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center (TTUHSC)
• Lubbock Heart Hospital West
• UMC Physicians Group                                                                          
• StarCare Specialty Health System                                                                 
• BSA Compassion Home Care            
• Lubbock Chamber of Commerce                                                   
• Lubbock Economic Development Alliance                                              
• Workforce Solutions South Plains                                                  
• City of Lubbock
• TTUHSC School of Nursing
• Covenant School of Nursing
• South Plains College
• Lubbock Christian University
• Wayland Baptist University
• West Texas Professional Training
• Lubbock Independent School District
• Lubbock-Cooper ISD                               
• Frenship ISD
• Roosevelt ISD

Based on the overwhelming data of critical labor needs within the region’s healthcare industry, in 2020 TPM, in partnership with the South Plains’ three largest hospital systems, created a group of regional healthcare professionals, private employers, training providers and various community partners, South Plains Healthcare Collaborative (The Collaborative), with the intent to foster collaboration across the healthcare community across the South Plains region. These hospital systems and partners not only serve many of the 15 counties surrounding Lubbock, but also Eastern New Mexico, the Permian Basin and Panhandle regions of Texas. This Collaborative meets on a regular basis to discuss how to best meet the needs of current healthcare business challenges.

This ongoing collaborative effort has led to over 1,000 scholarships awarded to students in health science programs and funded healthcare career exploration activities for hundreds of middle school students. The health science equipment purchased for South Plains training providers has been used by over 1,500 students each academic year. Significant strides are being made to address the shortage of healthcare talent in our region.

These efforts have been made possible by the dedication of the collaborative members, coupled with several generous workforce grants from the Texas Mutual Insurance Company, the Texas Workforce Commission and the City of Lubbock (ARPA funding).