Virginia Economic Review

Peter Beard is vice president of policy and programs at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation, where he leads workforce development projects and initiatives.

When Lydia Ruffin began work as a restaurant server, her goal was to support herself through school. She could not have anticipated how profoundly that entry-level job would shape her career.

Key investments at Virginia Tech, George Mason, University of Virginia help the Commonwealth position itself as a home for AI Innovation

Home to one of the largest concentrations of active duty and veteran talent in the country, Virginia has engineered an ecosystem that helps those who served translate military experience into high-value private sector careers.

New or expanding companies want to know that they will be able to hire workers with the skills they need. While outside training providers offer established but generic faculty, facilities, and programs, in-house solutions allow for customization but require significant investment.

As more tenured employees must upskill and reskill to adjust to an economy that is increasingly reliant on technology and, specifically, artificial intelligence (AI), Generation Z workers are entering the labor market as the first generation of digital natives.

L. Scott Bradshaw enrolled at Mountain Empire Community College (MECC) in Wise County as a student who needed a second chance after spending 57 months in prison. He had a job in a tire shop, but he wasn’t earning enough to pay off his fines and take care of his daily needs.

Alison Lands is vice president of employer and workforce solutions at Jobs for the Future (JFF), a national nonprofit that works to align the education and workforce systems to improve access to quality jobs for over 75 million American workers.

Tamara Fields is the national U.S. public service industry lead at Accenture, and managing director of the company’s Austin, Texas office.

Virginia’s long-held reputation as a top state for business is based on its strong economy, robust infrastructure, innovative incentives and programming, and, increasingly, its highly skilled workforce.

When Julia Boas and her husband, Patrick, have an errand to run or a friend to visit in their hometown of Roanoke, they rarely go by car. Instead, they hop on their e-bikes.

To propel its growth in Virginia, Harris Healthcare is forging partnerships internationally. “A big part of our strategy is to grow in our current international markets, but also expand into new markets,” said Jeremy Trabucco, executive vice president at Harris Healthcare, based in Herndon.

Steven Brint is a distinguished professor of sociology and public policy at the University of California, Riverside, and the author of “Two Cheers for Higher Education.”

Northern Virginia has long been known as the data center capital of the world, owing to its status as one of the original four Network Access Points (NAP).

Tad Deriso is president and CEO of Mid-Atlantic Broadband Communities Corporation (MBC), a South Boston-based 501(c)(4) nonprofit organization that has built an advanced open-access fiber optic network in Southern Virginia.

Microsoft's Investments in Boydton and South Boston and its Regional Partnerships are Positioning the Region as a Tech Destination A century ago, South Boston was a tobacco-producing stalwart. In 1927 alone, the town accounted for more than 20 million pounds in tobacco sales.

Several Virginia higher education institutions now offer courses to help students and working professionals learn how to use data to inform decision-making and solve problems — and some are helping to shape research that could ultimately impact medical, financial, and numerous other fields.

How Virginia Became the Data Center Capital of the World Virginia is home to the largest assemblage of data centers in the world, with Northern Virginia alone accounting for more than 100 (out of 504 known hyperscale data centers worldwide) that total more than 13.5 million square feet of data center space.