Critical Skills Shortage Initiative (CSSI)

As part of a statewide undertaking to strengthen Illinois` system of
workforce and economic development, the Governor`s Office and the
Department of Economic Opportunity implemented the Critical Skill
Shortages Initiative.

The Critical Skill Shortages Initiative is designed to
align regional workforce strategies with economic
development to provide qualified workers for
critical skill shortage occupations, and will include:

  -  Identification of skill shortage occupations that
     provide good wages and benefits in key sectors; 

  -  Examination of both root causes and on-the-job
     factors that lead to shortages; 

  -  Redirection of resources and implementation
     of strategies to address these issues.

In the metropolitan Chicago area, the Workforce
Boards of Metropolitan Chicago are responsible
for management of this initiative. As a result of a
$3 million planning grant and with the assistance of stakeholders and
employers throughout the region, three sectors were researched and
analyzed for the purpose of identifying critical skill  shortage needs:
healthcare, manufacturing, and transportation, warehousing & logistics.

In the second phase of CSSI, the Department of Commerce and
Economic Opportunity awarded grants to the Workforce Boards
to support demonstration projects addressing root causes and
implementing solutions that address critical skill shortages in each
of the targeted sectors.

The following reports summarize research results of the planning phase as well as projects
funded in the second phase.

  -  Healthcare Workforce: Turning Crisis into Opportunity

  -  Manufacturing Workforce: Not Disappearing - Just Changing

  -  Transportation, Warehousing and Logistics Workforce: A Job Market in Motion

Link to The Workforce Boards of Metropolitan Chicago