The West Valley is booming! Drive around Peoria, Surprise, Buckeye, or any of our wonderful West Valley communities, and you will see a diverse mixture of development projects across our region. With 80% of our Peoria residents commuting to Phoenix or the East Valley for employment, we want to ensure effective avenues are developed to bridge the gap between business and education and keep more of our talent local! Second paragraph: By engaging in effective partnerships with the Peoria Unified School District , numerous higher education partners, and our local businesses, our Education & Workforce Development Committee aims to:
1. Develop opportunities that enhance skillsets and help prepare students to enter the workforce post-graduation.
2. Provide an outlet for businesses to promote their services and help attract talent.
3. Connect students to career experiences that will help answer the question, “What do I want to be when I grow up?” Third paragraph: If you are a member interested in supporting our workforce development initiatives, click the Join button below to help us lead efforts to best connect and develop our workforce.
Welcome Marianna Smith from University of Maryland Global Campus! Marianna is a champion of workforce readiness programs and a dedicated workforce development leader with over 10 years of experience. She brings strong expertise in strategic planning, program and policy development, and partnership management. We are excited to have her involved and look forward to the impact she will continue to make in our community.
To address efforts that enhance our talent and workforce in the West Valley AND help our students come to those career defining, lightbulb moments a little sooner, the Peoria Chamber of Commerce’s Education & Workforce Development Committee has launched a Career Matching Program. By gauging various career experience interest and desired industry from our students, and engaging with our members to help provide those experiences, our Career Matching Program is aimed to create hyper-local opportunities that address our talent sprawl and keep our residents working, living, and playing in the West Valley!
Are you a student living in Peoria that would like to figure out your next step forward? Complete the form below and choose from one (or more) of the following career experiences:
1. Career Connection: Select this if you simply want the opportunity to connect with a professional in your desired career or industry and ask them questions so that you can better determine if that is the right career for you.
2. Career Shadowing: Spend a few hours meeting with a business to better understand “A Day in the Life” and determine if that type of role is right for you.
3. Internship: Start gaining valuable experience in your desired industry or profession with an internship! Button below content should read: Student Matching Form. We will create this form and upload to the button once created.
Are you a business owner or professional working in the West Valley that wants to help build our future workforce? We need your support to create a better bridge between students and our local business community so that we are keeping our talent local and helping contribute to a better quality of life for our residents. If you would like to participate in our Career Matching Program, simply complete the form below and select the experience(s) that you can accommodate:
1. Career Connection: You are willing to connect with students to help answer questions and help share how you got to where you are today.
2. Career Shadowing: You are committing to having a student visit your business and see what it’s like to do your job or work in your industry.
3. Internship: You have the need to support a paid or unpaid internship and would like to formally seek qualified candidates to fill that role. Next paragraph: Members that participate in our Career Matching Program will receive additional promotion of their business and other member perks for helping us launch this new initiative! Button below content should read: Business Matching Form
