Podcast Transcript

11 July 2006
WIRED: Talent Driving Prosperity

Jean A. Bonilla, Counselor for Labor and Social Affairs, U.S. Embassy London

As prepared for podcast on July 11, 2006, for the U.S. Embassy website.

(MP3 07 min 12 sec)

Just as we share many of the challenges of globalization, so too the United States and Britain can share in finding creative solutions. I'm Jean Bonilla, Counselor for Labor and Social Affairs at the U.S. Embassy in London. I'm here today to talk to you about an exciting new initiative launched in the U.S. earlier this year to meet some of the challenges of globalization. The Workforce Innovation in Regional Economic Development initiative, or WIRED, is a regional approach to a global issue.

Emily Stover DeRocco, Assistant Secretary for Employment and Training at the U.S. Department of Labor, has contributed a paper on the WIRED initiative to a pamphlet due to be published by the Smith Institute here in the United Kingdom. The Smith Institute pamphlet, "Promoting Productivity in the Global Economy," will be launched at #11 Downing Street on July 11^th. Here are a few highlights from Assistant Secretary DeRocco's paper.

Workforce Innovation in Regional Economic Development: Talent Driving Prosperity

Revolutions in technology and information have ushered in the era we now know as globalization.

While global competition is typically seen as a national challenge, in reality, the real front lines of the battlefield are not national, but rather the regional economies within a given country. It is the regions where companies, workers, educators, researchers, entrepreneurs and governments come together to create competitive advantage. That advantage stems from the ability to transform new ideas and new knowledge into advanced, high quality products or services. In other words, it is in regions where innovation occurs. Those regions that are successful demonstrate the ability to network and maximize innovation assets - people, institutions, capital and infrastructure - to generate growth and prosperity in the region's economy.

Workforce Innovation in Regional Economic Development

Economic regions no longer correspond to state, county, local or municipal boundaries. While many regions in the United States have thrived as a result of globalization and made considerable progress in integrating talent and skills development into their larger economic strategies, there are regions that are struggling to compete. These regions are being forced to revitalize and reinvent themselves. The U.S. Department of Labor recognizes the importance of supporting regions that need additional technical and financial assistance to achieve these goals.

In February 2006, the U.S. Department of Labor launched Workforce Innovation in Regional Economic Development (WIRED), which focuses on the role of talent development in driving regional economic competitiveness, increased job growth and new opportunities for workers.

Through a competitive process, 13 economic regions from across the United States were selected to participate in the WIRED initiative. The regions represent the diversity of America - from metropolitan areas like Denver and Kansas City to rural areas like Eastern Montana and the Mississippi-Alabama border; from the transformation of traditional industries in Michigan and North Carolina, to the creation of entirely new industries in Maine and California. Each region brings a unique set of characteristics, and each offers the promise of unique solutions to the challenges posed by the global economy.

Each of the 13 regions will receive approximately $15 million in funding over a three-year period and will also be provided on-going expertise from several of the leading organizations in the field of innovation. The goal in each of these regions is to expand employment and advancement opportunities for American workers and to catalyze the creation of high-skill and high-wage jobs in regional economies.

Talent Driving Prosperity

Last year, New York Times columnist Tom Friedman published a book that has given shape to the process we have known as globalization, and that shape is flat. It is not the same flatness thought by those who mocked Christopher Columbus, but rather it is a world without barriers, without the obstacles that used to impede commerce and trade. Information, goods, and services now travel freely from place to place and the advances in communications and technology have fueled competitiveness in the global market.

For regions to succeed in this flattened world, they must pay attention to three critical elements. These elements were identified in a groundbreaking report, Innovate America, published by the Council on Competitiveness. The first element is infrastructure. This includes not only the traditional factors such as highways, bridges, and buildings, but also 21st century factors like access to broadband and wireless networks. The second is investment, including the availability of risk capital and the conditions that encourage the use of such capital.

The third critical element is talent. A region may possess a strong infrastructure and the investment resources for success, but without the talented men and women to use those elements for economic growth, they are meaningless. Talent can also drive the other two elements because investment capital is smart money and it will follow the talent while infrastructure can be built to support a growing economy.

The WIRED initiative was launched in recognition that this third key element, talent, drives prosperity. In other words, the bedrock of a nation's competitiveness is a well educated and skilled workforce. It is our vision that WIRED will demonstrate how an intensive effort to develop talent can drive the transformation of regional economies and the systems that support those economies in order to enable regions to compete in the new global economy.

Look for additional information on the WIRED initiative and the thirteen regions on the U.S. Department of Labor Employment and Training Administration's Web site at http://www.doleta.gov . And look for the Smith Institute pamphlet on their website at http://www.smith-institute.org.uk .

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