Strategic Goals
Through its programs and partnerships, the Council’s work is focused on three strategic goals:
- Increasing the public awareness of and access to career education and training opportunities.
- Improving the effectiveness, quality, and coordination of programs and services designed to maintain a highly skilled workforce.
- Providing for the most efficient use of federal, state, and local workforce development resources.

Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA)
WIOA is a federally funded program that establishes the Workforce Development System and provides funding to support training and employment services.

Grant Opportunities
Utilizing state, federal, and private funds, the Workforce Development Council funds employer, industry, and public sector projects.

Resoure Hub
Get the latest news, program updates and outreach materials for WDC’s programs and partnerships and learn about opportunities to engage with the council through upcoming meetings and events.

Who We Are
Through grant opportunities, programs, and partnerships and with support from public and private funders, the Idaho Workforce Development Council is preparing tomorrow’s workforce.
Programs & Partnerships
Through its committees, programs, and collaborations the Idaho Workforce Development Council helps to connect Idahoans to career opportunities, and Idaho’s employers to a qualified workforce. See some of our highlighted projects below.

Idaho LAUNCH
Idahoans can match their skills to employer needs and research training for the skills that hiring managers seek. By filling out a simple form, they can connect with a career planner to access training funds for in-demand courses.

Idaho LEADER
The Idaho Leader initiative is designed to help employers and education entities scale work-based learning opportunities such as internships, externships, apprenticeships, co-ops, career education, and on the-job training.

Youth Apprenticeship Readiness Grant
Through a joint effort with the Idaho Workforce Development Council, Idaho Department of Labor, and Idaho Career Technical Education, Idaho Business for Education is scaling up Idaho’s Youth Apprenticeship program, with a goal of placing 400 apprentices by 2024 in some of the 1,200 federal apprenticeships.

Next Steps Idaho
An initiative of the State Board of Education in partnership with the Idaho Workforce Development Council, Next Steps Idaho is designed to help all Idahoans understand and pursue the many education and career opportunities available to them.

Idaho Connect
Idaho Connect is an online, interactive platform that builds bridges between education and the world of work, expanding lessons beyond textbooks to help students explore careers. Educators at contracted schools can request online sessions for their classrooms from employers. Employers can build a window of opportunity to Idaho’s youth by providing sessions about what they do.

Talent Pipeline Management (TPM)
Created by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation and led in Idaho by the Idaho Workforce Development Council, TPM® is designed to be a scalable, employer-led solution designed to close the skills gap in ways that generates shared value and a return on investment (ROI) for employers as well as learners, education and workforce providers (including OPSOs), and the communities in which they reside. This systemic approach unlocks employer leadership and engagement in a novel way by speaking the language of—and leveraging strategies and practices associated with—supply chain management.

Teacher Externship Program
Every summer, the STEM Action Center, in partnership with the Idaho Workforce Development Council, provides K-12 classroom teachers and college and career advisors the opportunity to work at an Idaho employer where they gain valuable industry experience and knowledge, helping them better prepare students for the world of work.
Age of Agility: The Governor’s Summit on the Future of Work
In this time of rapidly changing economic standards and education delivery methods, join business, education and policy leaders from across the state as they share insights and innovations to ensure Idahoans thrive in our future workforce.
Please feel free to forward this event to your networks.
Keynote Address: Governor Brad Little
Featuring: Tom Mueller, Former CTO, Space X
And more…
Full agenda coming soon!