California’s new $250M statewide economic initiative offers a plan for sustainable growth, innovation, and workforce mobility

California Gov. Gavin Newsom recently released the state’s new  Jobs First Economic Blueprint, a comprehensive plan and major statewide economic initiative designed to spur sustainable economic growth on a region-by-region basis, to reflect the diverse character of the many parts and peoples of California. 

Made up of 10 strategic industry sectors, including clean energy, advanced manufacturing, healthcare, agriculture and agtech, technology, and innovation, the California Jobs First Economic Blueprint will guide the state’s investments into the policies and programs that seek to create more jobs, faster and to ensure that the investments are sustainable and inclusive (including the regions’ rural, disadvantaged, or underserved communities).

As such, the plan provides for:

• $125 million in funding to support new, ready-to-go projects that advance the regions’ strategic sectors (which includes manufacturing, construction, agriculture, tourism/recreation, the creative economy and tech),
• $92 million in total funding for new apprenticeship and jobs programs, of which
• $52 million is allocated towards new apprenticeships with a focus on high-demand sectors such as finance, advanced manufacturing, and healthcare, and
• $16 million for pre-apprenticeship and apprenticeship funding for young people (ages 16-24) through the California Opportunity Youth Apprenticeship (COYA), a grant program that supports pre-apprenticeship and apprenticeship programs providing hands-on, real-world job training for young people who are either unemployed or not in school,
• $15 million for economic development projects for California Native American tribes, and
• $13 million to support the economic recovery and small businesses in the Los Angeles region. 

To kick start the blueprint’s workforce development strategy, the administration previously unveiled a framework in December 2024 for the California Master Plan for Career Education. The Master Plan provides policies and programs prioritizing hands-on learning and real-life skills, as well as  advancing educational access and affordability. Specifically, the state will implement the “Career Passports” program, a digital tool designed to make it easier for people, especially those without a four-year degree, to prove their qualifications, skills and experiences to potential employers. It will also combine traditional academic records, like college transcripts, with verified skills and credentials earned outside the classroom, such as military service, job training, or volunteer work, to aid in matching employers with potential job candidates. Additionally, the plan proposes to scale the state’s Credit for Prior Learning (CPL) effort to make it easier for Californians—especially veterans and military members—to turn their real-world experience into college credit. 

The origins of the blueprint stems from the administration’s 2023 Regional Investment Initiative (formerly known as the Community Economic Resilience Fund [CERF]), which sought through policies and programs to create accessible and good-paying jobs, as well as economic growth across the state’s thirteen regions. Over the past few years, those regions, in turn, have created planning groups, or collaboratives, involving a wide array of community partners, including labor, business, local government, education, environmental justice, and community organizations to design their own economic plans. These plans would assist the state in establishing its blueprint plan and proposed 10-year economic development approach.

Further development of the initiative also involved the formation of the California Jobs First Council in March 2024. That council, comprised of nine Cabinet-level agencies, was tasked with streamlining the state’s economic and workforce development programs and to identify and/or prioritize industry sectors for future growth by developing an integrated workforce development strategy and a statewide industrial strategy. 

This article was prepared by SSTI using Federal funds under award ED22HDQ3070129 from the Economic Development Administration, U.S. Department of Commerce. (The statements, findings, conclusions, and recommendations are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Economic Development Administration or the U.S. Department of Commerce.