Perkins V is a critical source of funding for CTE providers. But, as economists like to point out, there’s no such thing as a free lunch. If your institution wants to see those Perkins dollars, you’ve got to earn it by conducting a comprehensive local needs assessment (CLNA), and using the findings to align programs with your region’s unique labor market needs.
While the letter of the law only requires you to update the CLNA every two years, the spirit of the law is for localized labor market analysis to become an integral, ongoing part of the program development and review process.
In fact, the section of the legislation titled “Continued Consultation” states that recipients should work with stakeholders on an “ongoing basis” to ensure programs are “informed by labor market information,” “responsive to community employment needs,” and “designed to meet current, intermediate, or long-term labor market projections.” (It’s section 134(e)(2), if you’re wondering).
Assess local needs with ease
To help with this need for ongoing evaluation, we’ve added a new Perkins V Local Needs Assessment report to the Analyst platform. Designed with input from our client partners in the trenches and insight from our experienced team of in-house economists, the report pulls together a myriad of data points into one accessible report that’s easy to export and share — in two simple steps:
Step 1: Enter a region
Step 2: Get detailed, localized labor market information, including:
Industries ranked by growth, number of jobs, gross regional product, and earnings
Occupations ranked by growth, number of jobs, and earnings
Unemployment by age, gender, race, and ethnicity
Job postings by company, city, occupation, job title, and industry
Top in-demand skills broken down by specialized skills and common skills
Educational pipeline including market share, total graduates, and trend by institution
Regional educational attainment by education level, race/ethnicity, and gender
And for visual learners, here’s what that looks like:
You can also use the filters in the left-hand menu bar to adjust your timeframe (e.g. look at historical trends from the past five years, then switch to forward-looking projections for the next five) or focus on occupations that require a certain level of education (e.g. some college, at least an associates, etc.)
So, whether you’re trying to stay Perkins V-compliant or you’re assessing local needs to answer an ad hoc research request, you’re now just a few clicks away from the data you need.
Learn more
Get a closer look at the Perkins V Local Needs Assessment report in this clip from a recent product update webinar. If you have questions, please reach out to your dedicated account manager, or contact us and we’ll be in touch!