Do you know of an innovative partnership between California employers and educators that is successfully preparing workers to meet the needs of our economy? 

If so, SBC and our friends at the California Economic Summit urge you to nominate themfor the fourth annual 2020 Partnerships for Industry and Education (PIE) Contest, which seeks to identify and honor individuals and organizations working to strengthen California’s workforce of the future and provide businesses with the skilled talent they need to thrive. 

In order for Californians to have the skills required for jobs in the 21st century, employers and educators will need to work together more intentionally than ever before. Across the state, visionary business, education, and civic leaders are rising to the occasion. To inspire even greater collaboration, the California Economic Summit created the PIE Contest to identify and honor innovative partnerships achieving success for students and communities.

Alongside our partners at California Forward, SBC is proud to administer this contest in 2020. In the wake of the coronavirus pandemic, our state and region will require an exceptionally skilled workforce in the months and years to come, a workforce that will rebuild statewide resilience and catalyze economic recovery and security. Strong partnerships between educational institutions and employers have always been critically important to promoting that workforce and are even more so in this time of crisis. 

Criteria for PIE Contest includes:

• A partnership between an employer (public or private) and a California educational institution (K-12, higher education, public and/or private)
• Ability to demonstrate specific success outcomes

More information on the criteria can be found here. 

The top three partnerships will each earn one complimentary two-day registration to the 2020 California Economic Summit taking place this December in Monterey. Each winning partnership will be offered the opportunity to showcase their work and share promising practices with peers at the Summit.

You can read about the top 10 nominees from last year in the 2019 PIE Contest Booklet. https://caeconomy.org/resource/2019-partnerships-for-industry-and-education-pie-contest

The 2020 California Economic Summit takes place on December 3-4, marking the ninth annual event that brings together private, public, and civic leaders from across California’s diverse regions. The Summit’s bipartisan network of business, equity, environmental, and civic organizations is unique in championing solutions that create inclusive, sustainable growth, and opportunity for all. If you’d like to see your favorite employer-educator workforce program highlighted at the event, nominate them for the 2020 Partnership for Industry and Education Contest today.