The Cities in Transition Initiative held its third and final study tour from November 10-18, 2012 in Germany.  A total of 16 delegates from Detroit and Flint, MI, Cleveland and Youngstown, OH and Pittsburgh, PA, explored how German cities are aligning their education and workforce policies behind coordinated economic development strategy.   

After gaining perspective on the national policies around education and workforce development, participants looked at the “educonomy” alignment at the city and regional level.  First, participants visited Dortmund, a former steel and coal city that has restructured its economy to focus on technology and related industries.   The group met with representatives from the State of North Rhine Westphalia and representatives from the City of Dortmund’s economic development and talent team.  Next the delegation visited Stuttgart, a city with a strong economy, but is working to attract and retain a talented workforce is key industry sectors. Program participants also visited an extracurricular school lab in Dortmund that focuses on math and science education for students and apprenticeship training centers at the Bosch Corporation and EnBw, a state-run energy company.   For more information, click here.