Arkansas Center for Data Sciences

The Arkansas Center for Data Sciences (acds) provides services to employers needing specific skills to maintain and grow their businesses. In 2023 acds was asked to continue with the it sector, but also begin to work with employers in advanced manufacturing, transportation & logistics, healthcare, and energy. Acds provides the employers a supplemental staffing strategy using the registered apprenticeship program. At the end of 2023 acds grew the it sector, and established a growing pipeline in the new sectors. The number of apprentices grew from 249 in 2022 to 388 in 2023, and the number of participating employers grew from 101 in 2022 to 145 in 2023. The acds goal to scale to 400 apprentices and 100 employers has been far exceeded as we write this in october of 2024. The roi for employers, the life changing careers for the apprentices and their families, and the economic impact of the new wages in Arkansas is significant. Acds develops the talent applications by assessing, offering free pre-apprenticeship training, resume coaching, and mock interviews. We take the candidates where the are currently and prepare them to be employer ready. Today we have approximately 1,500 active candidates, and we have almost 1,000 active apprentices.acds works directly with the employers understanding the skills they need. Acds works with the talent pool and provides pre-apprenticeship training, 302 in 2023, work based learning internships, 51 in 2023 with 82% being offered full-time employement after the intnernship, and apprenticeships, 388 in 2023.the monthly newsletter continues to plan an important role for education and communication. The number of subscribers has grow from 7,276 in 2022 to 8,800 in 2023. The number of social media followers has grown form 4,109 in 2022 to 5,800 in 2023.the talend development team had 4,174 individual applications, and in 2023 that number was 5,163 bringing our total to-date to 16,353.the unified community apprenticeship team (ucat) continued to meet monthly in 2023. This team has evolved to and its mission has become the statewide apprenticeship expansion meeting now weekly.the department of labor continued to compliment the acds outcomes that are being reported quarterly. Acds benefited from the department of labor formula funding state apprentice expanxion funding grants that state of Arkansas department of commerce through the division of the office of skills development funded two new acds resources to focus on the new sectors.