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virtual reality training and 
advanced manufacturing education partnerships are elevating the workforce of today and producing change-makers for a bolder Louisiana tomorrow.
FastStart is built for rapid change, and we are applying our combined expertise to guide our community through the evolving COVID-19 challenge:
• FastStart has partnered with stakeholders to transition critical training into a rapid online eLearning format for employees.
• Companies and agencies urgently need to deploy operations in a virtual online environment quickly, so FastStart rolled out intuitive user guides for in-demand online tools to our clients and partner agencies for instant deployment.
• We partnered with the community and technical college system to make interactive training available for immediate use in online labs, responding to the need to re-train displaced workers.
FastStart will continue to share our training expertise, insight, and resources and partner with education, workforce, and state agencies to ensure thorough and effective solutions are developed and available in the rapid response pipeline.
With today’s technology-driven marketplace, a competency-based workforce matters more than ever. For more than a decade LED FastStart® has forged vital partnerships with Louisiana’s universities, community and technical colleges, post-secondary institutions, and community-based training providers to invest in and equip our state for the jobs of the future. In our adapt-or-die economy, these investments ease the transition as higher education is being disrupted and provide opportunities for citizens to improve their lives.
Louisiana added
Tech jobs since 2008.
More than
Industry-based credentials issued through Jump Start in 2018.
Actively Investing
IT Professionals in LA. A skilled workforce is part of Louisiana’s developing Technology Ecosystem.
Lower-income and black or Hispanic student enrollment in 4-year colleges between 2011 and 2016
From work-based learning to job shadowing and internships, Jump Start has catalyzed an immense growth in the attainment of Career Diplomas. Prior to Jump Start, fewer than two percent of students graduated with a Career Diploma. Today, more than one in five students graduates with a Career Diploma and Jump Start credentials.
LED FastStart® was part of the state team that developed the initial plan for Jump Start and maintains a critical role in validating culminating credentials and vetting pathways proposed by the field. The Rand Corporation cited the successes of Jump Start in its 2019 report: ”What Other States Can Learn from Louisiana’s Ambitious Efforts to Reshape its Education System.”
LED FastStart® looks to models of educational innovation throughout the state and beyond its borders. Where we find demonstrated success, we identify ways to support and enhance these programs and help them scale wherever possible. For example, Operation Spark is opening a new door to prosperity for low-opportunity individuals around New Orleans by presenting the fastest route to a career in software development, producing 2,000 highly skilled technology workers through its immersive project-based programs, and has impacted many more throughout the state through its virtually-enabled K-12 Jump Start pathway.
LED FastStart® partnered with Nunez Community College and Boeing to recruit over 75 students for its new Aerospace Program.
From New Orleans to Shreveport, LED FastStart® works with employers and partners to purchase and implement the tools necessary to continuously develop highly competent, future-proof workers. The power of the FastStart platform works twofold: attracting employers in the short term while elevating the competency of the workforce in the long-term.
Over
active projects across the state.
The state received
new aerospace job commitments in 2018.
Over
in capital investments statewide.
Software companies get
refundable tax credits for payroll expenditures.
Through a continuous partnership with ExxonMobil, virtual reality training simulators were created to provide training for critical safety procedures. This enabled operators to experience mishaps and make necessary adjustments in a safe, duplicate environment.
Transitioning training to immersive environments for critical or hazardous processes greatly increases retention of the employee/operator by utilizing motor memory response and advanced biometric tracking. Retention rates can increase as much as 80%.
Advanced tracking can pinpoint areas of weakness and nervousness with new operators, and supervisors can require more training in these areas before deeming field competency.
LED FastStart® is developing its College to Corporate Program to allow college students to experience a corporate onboarding process prior to graduation.
DXC is building a 2000-person Digital Transformation Center in New Orleans, which focuses on the development, delivery, and ongoing support of next-generation digital services and solutions for DXC’s global customers. LED’s $25 million-dollar investment in seven area colleges and universities is providing hundreds of highly-qualified candidates to the DXC talent pipeline each year.
To directly support Boeing’s expansion at the NASA Michoud Assembly Facility in New Orleans, LED FastStart® entered a partnership with LCTCS. As Boeing assembles the NASA Space Launch System rocket, Nunez Community College is executing an aerospace technology program that will produce SpaceTEC- and CertTEC-certified graduates for potential employment with Boeing. To date, graduates have already begun employment with Boeing.
Just as BBQ Guys were assessing a corporate move to Atlanta, LED FastStart® stepped in to help them fill their CSR and Sales positions, reaching more than 109,000 people through Facebook. Through a successful collaboration, BBQ Guys not only stayed in Louisiana but expanded their headquarters, adding more than 50 jobs.
To highlight tech opportunities in Louisiana, we launched a video series campaign that features a diverse set of actual employees from our client companies. Every video features an individual telling their stories, sharing how they moved to Louisiana, sometimes with no prior connection to the state. This campaign caught fire on social media and has provided incredible value to employers in the tech space, statewide.
In the six years since the custom web application was launched, recruiting technology has progressed significantly. We are in the process of evaluating new, state- of-the-art recruitment platforms to roll out a game-changing recruitment platform for our clients. At the same time, we’ve added more than 30,000 jobs and 6,000 job seekers to the existing database.
LED’s partnerships and evergreen investments are designed to bear fruit for America’s future workforce. LED FastStart® is future-focused, equipping a diverse workforce with the tools and training necessary to tackle tomorrow’s challenges while simultaneously lowering historical barriers to opportunity that have limited the aspirations of our citizens.
Augmented reality increases content retention by
when used as a training tool.
Virtual reality boosts material recall up to
faster, utilizing motor memory recall.
Since 2008 LED FastStart® has delivered
training hours to 29,000+ employees linked to 233 Economic Development projects in LA.
LED FastStart® has delivered
performance-based grants to reimburse costs for recruitment and relocation of 300 quality jobs for GE Capital IT Center of Excellence in New Orleans.
Through this LED investment, LSUS will achieve a significant set of performance objectives, including the development of a set of certificate programs that will enhance the skill set of its technology graduates and provide high-demand technology expertise to its non- technical majors. The funds will also support the creation of LSUS’ Cyber Collaboratory and its Design-Thinking Lab.
From expanding cybersecurity, cloud computing, and computer science programs to connecting university officials and faculty to industry leaders, our partnership with HBCUs like Grambling have positioned universities to contribute to economic growth and enhanced their students’ opportunities for success.
Manufacturing Week
students participating
Manufacturing Week
events held statewide
RPCC Job Fair
job seekers
RPCC Job Fair
companies
From Facebook Live events to company culture video production, we leverage the latest technology to connect job seekers to the ideal employer.
Through a continuous partnership with ExxonMobil, virtual reality training simulators were created, increasing retention rates by as much as 80%.
Cynthia Senzamici
Apprentice Program
I think this was one of the most rewarding programs I've ever done. I think I've learned more in six weeks than I ever thought I could learn in six weeks.
Jennifer
Boland-Masterson
Site Leader for Michoud Assembly
Facility – Boeing
FastStart is getting the word out because most do not realize that at the Michoud facility there’s a space program going on, and we’re building America’s rocket.
Ed Scram
COO & President – Stupp Corporation
We have been extremely successful, mainly due to FastStart.
Theo Botha
Sales Director – Blade Dynamics
The beauty of the FastStart program is that it’s a varied, multi-faceted resource. It’s a Swiss Army knife.
John Dancy
Senior VP & Chief Information
Officer – CSRA
FastStart treated us as if we were the only client. We never lacked for resources, we never lacked for commitment, we never lacked for responsiveness to anything that we needed.
David Smith
Executive VP of Division Operations - AWG
Louisiana FastStart is such a unique program, and it is so real in the sense that it’s not talk. It’s not one of these economic development programs that you hear about but never get anything from it. This is real.
