Virginia Economic Review

Shannon Kellogg is vice president of public policy at Amazon, where he leads the company’s public policy efforts in support of Amazon Web Services (AWS).

With 30 military bases, Virginia is among the states with the highest share of active duty troops relative to state residents.

On 462 acres in Albemarle County, a plot of land along U.S. Route 29 adjacent to a federal intelligence hotspot is the latest addition to a growing cluster of industries coming to define the Charlottesville area.

Imagine an apartment building. The lobby entrance, residential door, and parking deck are all accessed and opened via a phone app. The resident takes their laptop to the pool and it automatically connects with Wi-Fi.

Educational institutions across Virginia are finding innovative ways to work with businesses to provide a pipeline of potential employees while also creating better employment outcomes for the students they serve.

Many high school students feel compelled to get a four-year college degree, even if that’s not always the best option. Students may not realize that careers in the trades are in demand and pay well.

Expertise in grapevine grafting and propagation, basic tractor repair, fermentation, and wine racking aren’t exactly skill sets that are widely found among the general population. Yet they are skills upon which the more than 800 wineries, breweries, cideries, and distilleries in Virginia depend.

As the COVID-19 pandemic raged on over the last two years, contractors became more popular as people reevaluated the spaces where they lived (and suddenly worked).

Cyberattacks that can drain bank accounts and steal personal data are high on the list of things that keep Virginia business owners and government officials up at night. A University of Maryland study found that hackers launch cyberattacks every 39 seconds. The good news?

Before opening its Westmoreland Workforce Training Center (WWTC) in 2018, Rappahannock Community College (RCC) held welding courses in the evening in borrowed space at Northern Neck Technical Center that a local high school used during the day.

The Virginia Tech Transportation Institute’s (VTTI) labs allow students to tackle much more than just class assignments. The space is also used for projects that help transportation industry members and government agencies advance vehicle design, safety, and other research efforts.

A major IT firm sees an emerging need for young employees with the right skill sets. Schools, in turn, are filled with students who would need such jobs within a few short years. Through a United Way initiative, the various entities are linked.

The Virginia Modeling, Analysis, and Simulation Center (VMASC) specializes in the future — integration of digital technologies into practical uses to support partners in industry and government.

When Thomas Midgette visits a high school, he has one goal in mind: to persuade today’s teenagers that they should seek a career in manufacturing.

Vernon Green had a hiring problem. Eight years ago, the U.S. Army veteran founded GCubed, Inc., which provides IT and cybersecurity services. The company, based in Stafford County near Fredericksburg, soon ran into an obstacle: It had plenty of work, but not enough employees to handle the work.

When Destiny Williams was a senior at Old Dominion University (ODU) in Norfolk, she saw an article on the school’s website about new human capital management (HCM) courses.

The Great Opportunities in Technology and Engineering Careers program (GO TEC) is on a mission to develop a broad talent pipeline for advanced manufacturing companies in Virginia — a serious mission that begins with play.

Broadly speaking, technology fields have a diversity problem. A recent Harvard Business Review article cited slow diversity improvement in the industry over the past several years.