Bridging the Trades Gap with Location Intelligence
At Datastory, we're keenly aware of the expanding skills gap in the trades industry and the consequent economic challenges it poses. As demand rises for electricians, plumbers, contractors, and manufacturing workers, supply struggles to keep up. With an aging trades workforce and a societal push toward four-year degrees, fewer young people enter vocational career paths today.
Location intelligence can strengthen increasingly important initiatives to drive trades-based career awareness and connect educational institutions with employment opportunities. Take our MapDash platform, for example. With pre-configured data layers, turnkey mapping analytics workflows, and streamlined communication tools, MapDash provides the geographic, demographic, and economic insights needed to revitalize vocational trades in local communities.
Understanding the Trades Gap with Geospatial Data and Analysis
MapDash’s preset educational institution layer enables teams to see where trade schools are located, understand enrollment, and make strategic plans to increase access to education opportunities.
Location intelligence enables nonprofits and learning institutions alike to uncover trends in education, employment, and other factors that contribute to the trades gap. At Datastory, we often see MapDash used to perform the following analyses related to trade employment supply and demand.
1. Identify areas impacted by trades work shortages .
MapDash is preconfigured with the data layers needed to understand regional labor market trends and identify opportunities for increased vocational education and opportunities.
With MapDash, high-need areas can be determined by simply layering in industry data, demographic trends, and local construction and manufacturing activity. This information can be used to prioritize urgency to fill specific trades in those areas.
2. Understand training program locations and class capacity metrics
For many, pursuing a vocational career is not feasible given the lack of accessible training. MapDash’s preconfigured data library makes it easy to see where educational programs are, allowing teams to pinpoint gaps in trades education infrastructure and identify locations that require more investment.
3. Provide motivated students with more resources
MapDash’s location-specific infographic and reporting capabilities enable organizations to connect students interested in a vocational career to appropriate local trade school, apprenticeship, and workforce development resources tailored to their skills. Facilitating these connections can be critical during early education to establish stable careers post graduation.
4. Map out nearby employment opportunities
Detailed points of interest data in MapDash highlight nearby places for employment in the trades to demonstrate the opportunity students will have upon graduation from training.
Up-to-date location-based data baked right into MapDash helps highlight construction firms, contractors, manufacturers, and utilities seeking trade skills in a particular area. Presenting this information enables graduates and credential earners to easily connect with employers in their area.
5. Expand awareness of vocational education alternatives
Maps and data are extremely powerful communication tools. MapDash empowers teams to promote vocational education alternatives using interactive community tools that clearly communicate the various career options in the trade industry alongside employment opportunities. This tailored, location-specific communication strategy can help expand awareness of potential obtainable career paths and help close the trades gap.
Let’s Work Together to Close the Trades Gap
At Datastory, we've witnessed first hand the power location intelligence has in helping career focused organizations achieve their goals. Take for instance the Auburn Career Center, which utilized MapDash to increase enrollment, and Fort Wayne YMCA which employed it to plan an entirely new career-focused campus. We are confident MapDash’s location-based insights will better assist you in executing on your mission to close the trades gap, too.
Let's discuss how location intelligence can address the trades gap within your community. Get in touch with our team for a personalized analysis.