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Rural Career Counseling Coordinators Program – Annual Report to the Legislature – January 2019 1 
Rural Career Counseling 
Coordinators Program 
Annual Report to the Legislature  
As required by Minnesota Statutes, section 116L.66 7, subdivision 3   
January, 2019 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Total cost of salaries, printing, and supplies in  
developing/preparing this report is $2,748. 
(Reported as required by Minn. Stat. 3.197)
This document is made available electronically by the Minnesota Legislative Reference Library 
as part of an ongoing digital archiving project. http://www.leg.state.mn.us/lrl/lrl.asp

Rural Career Counseling Coordinators Program – Annual Report to the Legislature – January 2019 2 
Table of Contents 
Introduction ............................................................................................................................................................. 3 
Minnesota’s Strategic Workforce Development Plan ......................................................................................... 3 
Regional Planning and Rural Career Counseling Coordinators ................................................................................ 4 
Map – Rural Career Counseling Coordinators Program........................................................................................... 5 
Northwest Region – Rural Career Counseling Coordinator ..................................................................................... 6 
Regional Approach .............................................................................................................................................. 6 
Connecting System Partners ............................................................................................................................... 6 
Career Services – Outreach and Marketing ......................................................................................................... 7 
Achieving Equity .................................................................................................................................................. 7 
Northeast Region – Rural Career Counseling Coordinator ...................................................................................... 8 
Regional Approach .............................................................................................................................................. 8 
Connecting System Partners ............................................................................................................................... 8 
Career Services – Outreach and Marketing ......................................................................................................... 8 
Achieving Equity .................................................................................................................................................. 9 
Central Region – Rural Career Counseling Coordinator......................................................................................... 10 
Regional Approach ............................................................................................................................................ 10 
Connecting System Partners ............................................................................................................................. 10 
Career Services – Outreach and Marketing ....................................................................................................... 11 
Achieving Equity ................................................................................................................................................ 11 
Southwest Region – Rural Career Counseling Coordinator ................................................................................... 12 
Regional Approach ............................................................................................................................................ 12 
Southeast Region – Rural Career Counseling Coordinator .................................................................................... 14 
Regional Approach ............................................................................................................................................ 14 
Connecting System Partners ............................................................................................................................. 14 
Career Services – Outreach and Marketing ....................................................................................................... 14 
Achieving Equity ................................................................................................................................................ 15 
Data Table – Rural Career Counseling Coordinators ............................................................................................. 16

Rural Career Counseling Coordinators – Annual Report to the Legislature – January 2019 3 
Introduction  
Minnesota’s Strategic Plan for workforce development is built on stakeholder and service delivery approaches 
that require partnerships at the state, regional and local levels. The Rural Career Counseling Coordinators 
Program (RC3) is part of the plan’s priority strategies for talent development and resource alignment to ensure 
and grow Minnesota’s competitive edge. This report:  
 Summarizes Minnesota’s Rural Career Counseling Coordinators Program 2018.  
 Highlights stakeholder engagement efforts to connect regional educational pipelines with in-demand 
career pathways that meet the current and future workforce needs of area businesses.      
 Provides aggregate data on stakeholder engagement and the statewide total numbers served.   
Minnesota’s Strategic Workforce Development Plan 
The vision of the plan is to have a healthy economy where all Minnesotan’s have – or are on a path to – 
meaningful employment and a family sustaining wage, and where all employers are able to fill jobs in demand.  
Goals  
1. Reduce educational, skills training and employment disparities based on race, disability, disconnected 
youth or gender.  
2. Build employer-led industry sector partnerships that expand the talent pipeline to be inclusive of gender, 
race and disability to meet industry demands for a skilled workforce.  
Rural Career Counseling Coordinators Program  
Each workforce development region located outside the metropolitan area has a Rural Career Counseling 
Coordinator position. This position is charged with improving coordination and communication of workforce 
development programs and services with administering agencies. The RC3 professionals have advanced local and 
regional workforce development program and service delivery knowledge; they apply that expertise with 
customer outreach and engagement and by making recommendations for continuous improvement or new 
workforce initiatives.  
Customers and Services   
 Business – understand workforce development needs of new, existing and prospective businesses. 
 Job Seekers – connect to secondary and higher education, employers, stakeholders and partners.  
 Career Seekers – provide counseling, training and work experience opportunities. 
 Workforce Development System Stakeholders and Partners – share best practices and collaboration to 
enable state-level coordination among workforce development programs and administering agencies.

Rural Career Counseling Coordinators – Annual Report to the Legislature – January 2019 4 
Regional Planning and Rural Career Counseling Coordinators  
Minnesota’s approach to regional planning is based on the federal Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act 
(WIOA) requirements and the state’s experience working in partnership on regional economies with the 
Humphrey School of Public Affairs and the Harvard School of Business.  
Minnesota has six workforce development regions. The process of identifying regions considered factors such as 
geographical size, population, migration patterns and the workforce market. Minnesota’s six workforce regions 
align with its sixteen Local Workforce Development Areas (LWDAs) and its federal Economic Development Areas. 
Each region developed a four-year plan to showcase their distinctive regional economies, unique workforce 
development strategies and tactics and projected outcomes.  
Rural Career Counseling Coordinators have a key role in their region’s work plan to:  
 Connect employers with the diverse talent pools in their region and improve employee retention.  
 Implement regional approaches to connect service providers and community members to their region’s 
racial, ethnic and disability communities to collaborate on workforce development needs and 
opportunities.    
 Build talent pipeline partnerships to connect secondary and post-secondary students and the out-of-
school and disconnected youth with hands on experiences in pre-apprenticeships, work-based learning, 
dual enrollment and equity programs, skills camps, career pathways and occupations in-demand. 
Intentional talent retention and exposure to a wide variety of career pathway post-secondary options are 
vital to growing regional economies.     
 Collaborate with local and regional economic development boards, employers and governmental entities 
to strategically align key messages, identify and address workforce and skills needs, and retain current 
and attract new businesses and industries.   
Rural Career Counseling Coordinators Report Contact at DEED 
 Jeremy Hanson Willis, Deputy Commissioner, Workforce Development 
Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development (DEED) 
[EMAIL] 
[PHONE]

Rural Career Counseling Coordinators – Annual Report to the Legislature – January 2019 5 
Map – Rural Career Counseling Coordinators Program 
 
Regions with a Rural Career Counseling Coordinator position and their Local Workforce Development Areas are:   
 Northwest Region  
Northwest Private Industry Council, Inc.  
Rural Minnesota Concentrated Employment Program, Inc. 
 Northeast Region 
Duluth Workforce Development 
Northeast Minnesota Office of Job Training 
 Central Region 
Career Solutions 
Central Minnesota Jobs and Training Services, Inc.  
 Southwest Region 
Southwest Minnesota Private Industry Council, Inc.   
South Central Workforce Council  
 Southeast Region 
Winona County  
Workforce Development, Inc.  
Each region submitted a 2018 Rural Career Counseling Coordinator report to the Minnesota Department of 
Employment and Economic Development (DEED). DEED has consolidated the submitted reports for this annual 
program report to the Legislature.  
The next five (5) sections of this report highlight the work of each region’s Rural Career Counseling Coordinator.

Rural Career Counseling Coordinators – Annual Report to the Legislature – January 2019 6 
Northwest Region – Rural Career Counseling Coordinator  
Regional Approach 
An established Regional Workforce Alliance membership convenes quarterly to review, oversee and evaluate 
their area’s Rural Career Counseling Coordination efforts. Alliance members are Local Workforce Development 
Area Board members and leaders from the American Indian, New American and Disability communities. In 2018, 
the region launched business cohorts – Partners for Workforce Solutions. These new cohorts help connect local 
businesses with job seekers and validate career pathways. Also new for 2018 is an improved process to align 
resources – SOURCE. The acronym represents RC3 and regional approaches with Students, Older Workers, 
Under-Employed and under-represented workers, Residents, Caregivers, and Efficiencies in workforce 
development.   
Best Practices  
 Launching new and more localized business-focused cohorts named Partners for Workforce Solutions.  
 Establishing a regional database of K-12 Career Exploration and Career and Technical Education (CTE) 
programs and their capacity. 
 Tapping the expertise of Partners for Workforce Solutions to advance regional career pathways.   
 Developing the “SOURCE” acronym to highlight work with Students, Older Workers, Under-Employed and 
Under-Represented Workers, Residents, Caregivers and program Efficiency.   
 Filling identified gaps in the K-12 and adult career preparation and delivery systems using new and 
flexible regional career advisement, internship and work-based learning models.     
Connecting System Partners 
Regional leaders and workforce development partners produced new and timely Regional Workforce Summits in 
three Economic Development Regions. Participants included workforce development system partners, Local 
Workforce Development Boards, Economic Development Commissions, CAP Agencies, Initiative Foundations, 
Adult Basic Education Consortiums, Perkins Consortiums, Chambers of Commerce, education and business. 
Additional events are planned for 2019. Rural Career Counseling Coordinators presented at statewide 
conferences including the Minnesota Rural Education Association (MREA) Conference and the Annual Minnesota 
Career and Technical Education Conference.     
Best Practices  
 Aligning the RC3 and WIOA Regional Planning to eliminate duplicate strategies and tactics.  
 Presenting at statewide conferences of K-12 and post-secondary education professionals.

Rural Career Counseling Coordinators – Annual Report to the Legislature – January 2019 7 
Career Services – Outreach and Marketing   
The new Regional Workforce Summits and Partners for Workforce Solutions business cohorts enhanced 
awareness of the critical shortage of workers in the rural regions. To better explain these needs during 
stakeholder interaction, all the Rural Career Counseling Coordinators collaborated on a new and better outreach 
and marketing approach, including social media. New materials featuring each region’s in-demand business 
sectors and occupations were finalized in December 2018. During 2019, the Northwest’s infographic materials 
about their in-demand occupations and career pathways will be distributed to the 93 school districts in their 
region and shared with job seekers and businesses at job fairs and other venues.  
Best Practices  
 Creating new infographics about career pathways and occupations in-demand using regional labor 
market information.  
 Planning and implementing a new marketing approach featuring occupations in-demand info-graphics.  
Achieving Equity 
The Regional Workforce Summit events had contributors and collaborators from community non-profits 
representing diverse populations. The region’s Partners for Workforce Solutions business-focused cohorts are 
simultaneously engaged in this effort. The common goal is better solutions to address the area’s critical 
workforce shortages. From employer tool kits to providing more detailed population and sub-population data, in 
2018 the region, Rural Career Counseling Coordinator, and the WIOA Regional Planning leaders expanded their 
understanding of and engagement with under-represented populations in their region. Another result is a 
common regional strategy in equity and inclusion for welcoming workplaces and welcoming communities.  
Best Practices  
 Partnering with populations experiencing disparities in education and employment to develop new 
methods to attract, retain, and train or upskill an available workforce.  
 Implementing services and gaining new professional skills to help guide inclusion efforts including:   
o Rural Minnesota CEP, Inc. implemented the Minnesota Pathways to Prosperity - New Americans 
Program and the Minnesota Disability Employment Initiative.  
o The Rural Career Counseling Coordinator is a member of various regional and local equity and 
diversity committees and has completed the IDI® cultural competency training.

Rural Career Counseling Coordinators – Annual Report to the Legislature – January 2019 8 
Northeast Region – Rural Career Counseling Coordinator  
Regional Approach 
The Rural Career Counseling Coordinator collaborates with the region’s two Local Workforce Development 
Boards, several career pathway committees, private sector businesses and public institutions. The RC3 has 
identified the workforce needs and challenges of businesses in key sectors including the construction trades and 
healthcare. Regional entities developed seminars – Workforce Solutions Series – to convene and focus on the 
topics of recruiting new employees and retaining current employees.  
Best Practices  
 Knowing and understanding the region’s key industry sectors and their career pathways.  
 Connecting sector businesses to recruitment, training and retention resources.  
 Linking non-profit organizations to regional workforce development services and partnerships.  
Connecting System Partners 
During 2018, the Rural Career Counseling Coordinator focused on three key projects. The first, and primary 
project, was to enhance and increase the Northeast Minnesota Office of Job Training and Advanced Minnesota 
partnership. Advanced Minnesota is a customized training collaborative consisting of the area’s five Minnesota 
State Community Colleges.  
The second project was to expand the area’s incumbent worker training program. This program partners with a 
business to help fund skills training for full-time employees. Reskilling and upskilling incumbent workers meets 
industry demands for new skills, higher overall skill levels and advanced skills and improves a business’s financial 
results.  
The third project was braiding various funding streams to produce regional career exploration events for Science, 
Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) careers and the forestry, construction trades and 
manufacturing sectors. The career exploration events resulted in increased outreach to area employers and high 
schools to showcase the area’s career pathways and in-demand occupations. 
Best Practices  
 Participating in Career Fairs and an incumbent worker Talent Development Training Program.  
 Partnering with the Iron Range Resources and Rehabilitation Board (IRRRB) for Career Exploration.  
 Engaging with the North Star Expo - Future Forests Stewards, Construct Tomorrow, Engineering 
Mentoring Night, STEM Showcase, Iron Range Science and Engineering Festival (IRSEF).  
 Providing student career awareness and industry exposure by setting up business tours.    
Career Services – Outreach and Marketing   
The Rural Career Counseling Coordinator partnered with northeast Minnesota entities to create and deliver 
an awareness campaign for the region’s skilled trades. This campaign, named 218 Trades, focused on

Rural Career Counseling Coordinators – Annual Report to the Legislature – January 2019 9 
reaching out to four distinct school audiences – (1) high school students, (2) teachers and guidance 
counselors, (3) parents and family members, and (4) groups under-represented in the trades [primarily 
women and people of color]. The awareness campaign used multiple media and methods to reach their four 
audiences and overcome the challenge of getting them to consider a construction trades career.  
Best Practices  
 Working with the construction and skilled trades. This work will continue in 2019.  
 Replicating and expanding the construction and skilled trades career awareness campaign beginning 
with the healthcare business sector. 
Achieving Equity  
The Local Workforce Development Boards in northeast Minnesota have established Diversity and Equity 
Committees. In 2018, these committees developed and delivered cultural competency training for the 
partners and staffs at the Careerforce™ locations in the region. The Rural Career Counseling Coordinator is a 
member of these committees and has completed the IDI® cultural competency training.  
The Rural Career Counseling Coordinator and the local Career and Technical Educations representatives 
worked on the gender disparities for various business sectors such as how to enroll more girls in welding 
classes and more boys in nursing classes.   
Ongoing conversations and technical assistance with employers and business leaders has been conducted by 
the Rural Career Counseling Coordinator. The technical assistance included a review of job postings for 
diversity and inclusion and recommending new recruitment approaches that included how to access talent by 
engaging with diverse community groups.    
Best Practices   
 Being a member of a Local Workforce Development Area’s Diversity and Equity Committee. 
 Conducting equity and diversity training for local businesses.  
 Partnering with local business leaders including the region’s various chambers of commerce and 
other engaged groups to produce equity and diversity training for business.

Rural Career Counseling Coordinators – Annual Report to the Legislature – January 2019 10 
Central Region – Rural Career Counseling Coordinator  
Regional Approach 
Regional collaboration with business, community, employer organizations and chambers of commerce 
supplement this area’s regional workforce data. The result of this approach is informed validation regarding the 
region’s current and projected skills and talent needs, career pathways and in-demand occupations. The Rural 
Career Counseling Coordinator was part of a project to develop a new design for the region’s career materials. 
Project goals included using infographic design techniques that appeal to and engage with multi-generational and 
diverse audiences. The new materials use contemporary visuals to show the region’s labor market information. 
Regional partners aided with the creation and distribution of these new materials.   
Best Practices   
 Engaging in regional planning including update presentations at all regional planning board meetings.  
 Identifying and mapping regional workforce resources.  
 Showing career and technical education activities on a regional asset map.   
 Sharing incumbent worker training, on-the-job training and other resources with business.   
Recommendations  
 Continuing to have the Rural Career Counseling Coordinator give presentations to and share career tools 
and resources with schools, job seekers, partners, and local businesses.  
 Expanding partnerships and collaborations through enhanced engagement across the region.  
 Leveraging the Rural Career Counseling Coordinator’s existing value as a trusted resource to engage and 
collaborate with new regional workforce development entities, community partners and businesses.    
Connecting System Partners 
System partners connect through coordinated job fairs, panel discussions, employer tours, youth-focused 
programs and other projects that highlight career pathways, postsecondary customized training, workplace 
learning options and labor market information. The Rural Career Counseling Coordinator has in-depth knowledge 
of local resources and regularly refers youth and adults to appropriate and timely resources.  
Best Practices   
 Producing a career exposure and hands on event in February 2019 titled EPIC (Explore Potential Interests 
& Careers) with the anticipated attendance of 2,500 high school students. The planning team includes 
local colleges, economic and workforce development professionals and businesses. Employers from six of 
the region’s key industries are the hands-on activities facilitators.

Rural Career Counseling Coordinators – Annual Report to the Legislature – January 2019 11 
Recommendations   
 Integrating the Rural Career Counseling Coordinator information, outreach materials and best practices 
into the new CareerForceMN.com platform that began rolling out in late 2018.   
 Minimizing duplication and realizing a seamless career preparedness processes by braiding funding 
streams and performance measures to better prepare rural youth populations for the future workforce.  
Career Services – Outreach and Marketing   
The Rural Career Counseling Coordinators connect key workforce partners and stakeholders, share workforce 
development information and grow and maintain an employer network. 
Best Practices   
 Offering Somali job search resources and workshop curriculum.  
 Converting recently developed disability awareness training to an online format to promote universal 
access to CareerForce programs and services.  
 Introducing career information at an early age including local career days, career planning events and 
school presentations. This includes middle school, junior high and high school presentations.  
Recommendations – Career Services  
 Funding to update and develop in-demand occupations materials and expand distribution.    
Achieving Equity  
The Rural Career Counseling Coordinator is an active member of the region’s planning team, knowledgeable 
about the region’s career and technical education offerings, world’s best workforce legislation action plans and 
counselor to student ratio data. This role has a collaborative approach to fill in career guidance system gaps in 
high schools. The Rural Career Counseling Career Coordinator has expertise with and connections to Somali job 
resources, disability resources and information and offender information.  
Best Practices   
 Creating labor market information materials that can be customized with local in-demand occupations, 
career pathways, median wages and job growth information. Job seekers, students and businesses have 
found this information to be a helpful visual starting point for their career planning.  
Recommendations  
 Establishing an online resource directory available to diverse populations.  
 Sharing best practices in programming for employment and training providers online for capacity 
building, professional development and more effective service delivery methods.

Rural Career Counseling Coordinators – Annual Report to the Legislature – January 2019 12 
Southwest Region – Rural Career Counseling Coordinator  
Regional Approach 
This region’s Rural Career Counseling Coordinator is expanding partnerships with local school districts, developing 
career materials, providing career advisory services, connecting career education and business, disseminating 
career information and services, addressing disparities and growing stakeholder collaboration across the region. 
Parents, teachers and coaches are the primary source of career information for students. 
Best Practices  
 Increasing high school students’ exposure to occupations in demand through school districts and career 
services partnerships that increase career option awareness.  
 Growing career awareness and career counseling opportunities for students and parents through events, 
stakeholders, outreach and updated in-demand occupations materials.  
Recommendations  
 Supporting the region’s promising collaborations focused on career exploration and development.  
 Educating families, teachers, and creating community awareness regarding career pathway options.  
Connecting System Partners 
The Rural Career Counseling Coordinator is an intermediary to connect job seekers, schools, students, parents, 
employers, education institutions and other stakeholders to each other and to the workforce development 
system. This is accomplished by one-on-one and group meetings, ongoing communications, presentations and 
resource sharing. The RC3’s work in career advisory services and work-based learning opportunities has positively 
impacted the region’s career pathway work and benefited the future workforce and local employers. Work-Based 
Learning is a significant component to this region’s Career Academies/Career Pathway programming.  
Best Practices   
 Bringing the Greater Twin Cities United Way to address disparities in education and employment by 
launching Career Academies/Career Pathway programming in the most diverse secondary schools to earn 
high school and college credits and gain marketable skills in high demand occupations.   
 Expanding career pathways’ work-based learning opportunities, internships, work experience, job 
shadows, employer guest speakers, industry tours and apprenticeships.  
 Providing Career Navigator staff to support students and employers who are engaged in work-based 
learning opportunities. Real-world applications and work experiences in combination with key training 
provide paths to educational and career advancement building the local talent pipeline to help employers 
meet their needs for a skilled workforce.  
Recommendations  
 Reducing duplication by the RC3 coordinating and distributing responsibilities, establishing partnership 
agreements, assuring accountability and holding implementers to agreed accountability measures.

Rural Career Counseling Coordinators – Annual Report to the Legislature – January 2019 13 
Career Services – Outreach and Marketing  
The Rural Career Counseling Coordinator conducted an asset mapping gap analysis of the career advising and 
career pathway coursework. Throughout the region, after interviews with nearly half of the secondary schools, it 
was found that small rural schools have very limited, if any, staff time dedicated to career advising. In larger 
schools with a full time guidance counselor, only about 35% of their time is dedicated to career advising. The 
majority of schools that visited indicated they were not sharing current labor market information with students 
due to lack of time to research and package the information for students. Providing career services in the region’s 
school districts is critical. With the skilled labor shortage challenges impacting the expansion plans of regional 
employers, it is essential that all secondary students graduate with an understanding of the career pathways and 
opportunities for their area’s in-demand occupations. 
Best Practices   
 Providing labor market information to students, parents and school counselors.   
 Launching a regional labor market campaign, “Know Before You Go,” that includes median wage range by 
education level, post-secondary cost estimates and in-demand jobs.  
Recommendations   
 Expanding the use of the new career advisory materials.  
 Funding the updating, high-quality printing and requested quantities of career advisory materials.    
Achieving Equity 
The Southwest Region’s Leadership Team created goals and strategies to increase their capacity to provide 
equitable services to reduce educational, skills training and employment disparities based on race, disability, 
disconnected youth or gender to provide greater opportunity for all Minnesotans.  
Best Practices   
 Belonging to, active membership in and utilization of the professional development available through the 
Youth Intervention Programs Association (YIPA).  
 Increasing diversity on boards, committees and staff. Results include new Local Workforce Development 
Board members and Diversity and Equity Committees and Career Pathway Partnership Committees with 
membership from organizations representing populations experiencing disparities.  
Recommendations   
 Continuing the work with employers on the benefits of hiring targeted populations.  
 Intentionally engaging workforce development boards, staff, partners and employers in 
training/professional development opportunities on diversity and cultural competency and 
responsiveness.

Rural Career Counseling Coordinators – Annual Report to the Legislature – January 2019 14 
 
Southeast Region – Rural Career Counseling Coordinator  
Regional Approach 
The Rural Career Counseling Coordinator serves eleven counties, and during 2018, focused on Career Pathways 
partnership development with the region’s educational institutions, community, professional and business 
organizations. This, and the work to fulfill the statutory responsibilities of this position, was not being done in 
rural Minnesota prior to the creation and funding of the Rural Career Counseling Coordinator position. The RC3 
position is one of the best ways to keep the focus on the needs of the people in rural Minnesota, address those 
needs and expand the talent pipeline to meet the industry demands for a skilled workforce while being inclusive 
of gender, race, persons with a disability and other people with barriers to employment.  
Best Practices  
 Replicating current employer-led industry Sector Pathways Committees and the Equity Taskforces to 
engage employers, board members, community members, and individual career seekers in discussion 
and planning surrounding career pathways.   
 Partnering with business, creating workforce upskill training and providing Labor Market Information. 
Connecting System Partners 
The Rural Career Counseling Coordinator and the Local Workforce Development Boards created regional 
partnerships focused on experiential learning for high school students. Each collaboration includes partnerships 
from K-12 education, post-secondary and employers. One collaboration has seven school districts from Houston 
and Fillmore Counties adopting similar experiential learning programming. The region shares a position working 
in the Owatonna High School as a Career Counselor, funded through three organizations and the school district.  
Best Practices  
 Coordinating with the Local Workforce Development Board’s Career Planners to support students as they 
encounter skill training program barriers.  
 Providing wrap-around services to successfully bridge education and employment.  
Career Services – Outreach and Marketing   
The Rural Career Counseling Coordinator was part of a statewide team that developed new career pathways 
outreach and marketing materials. Seven different templates were created for each region to showcase their 
labor market information, career pathways, in-demand occupations and their median incomes. This region’s 
sectors are business, construction, education, health care, manufacturing, retail services and transportation.

Rural Career Counseling Coordinators – Annual Report to the Legislature – January 2019 15 
Career Services   
 Funding the updating, high-quality printing and requested quantities of the career advisory materials.    
 Placing the new career advisory materials on local websites and social media.  
Achieving Equity  
This region uses Equity Taskforces to connect with and engage individuals with barriers to employment. This 
includes out-of-school youth, people with disabilities, veterans, women, minorities and people with a criminal 
background. The Rural Career Counseling Coordinator is linked to these task forces to build relationships with 
community partners and employers and guide priorities for service delivery.    
Recommendations  
 Funding to continue the Rural Career Counseling Coordinator (RC3) program and its work to provide labor 
market information, develop career pathways and tackle workforce shortage issues.   
 The RC3 position is one of the best ways to keep the focus on the workforce needs of rural Minnesota, 
address those needs and expand the talent pipeline to meet the industry demands for a skilled workforce 
while being inclusive of gender, race, persons with a disability and other people with barriers to 
employment.

Rural Career Counseling Coordinators – Annual Report to the Legislature – January 2019 16 
Data Table – Rural Career Counseling Coordinators  
The following table summarizes the outreach and engagement activities of the state’s Rural Career Counseling 
Coordinators. In 2018, Minnesota’s Rural Career Counseling Coordinators standardized the criteria for 
stakeholder group classification, engagement methods summaries and data collection processes.   
Stakeholder Group Engagement Methods Summary Total Number 
Served in 
2018 
Business Business tours; Career Pathways and Economic Development 
meetings; Career Exploration events; Job Fairs; Internships.   
3070 
Job Seekers 
Layoff, Job Search Workshop and Career Exploration 
presentations; Job Fairs; Business tours.  10,229 
K-12 Institutions 
Career Exploration Summer Camps; Mock interviews in high 
schools; Career Exploration presentations; Local Careers.   321 
Post-Secondary 
Institutions 
Disability Employment Initiative programming; College fairs; 
Integrated instruction for career pathways programming.  93 
Adult Basic Education 
Two-way referrals; LEARN & EARN programs; providing 
services in local jails; How to enroll in skills training - local and 
regional in-demand occupations.  
25 
Consortiums 
Community Based 
Organizations 
Collaborative business engagement efforts; Cross-referrals; 
Engaging diverse communities; Partners in regional planning; 
Accessing new talent for regional workforce and in-demand 
careers / jobs.   
47 
Economic 
Development 
Participation on regional comprehensive economic 
development committees; Collaboration with local and 
regional economic development; Business recruitment 
presentations and tours; Regional talent development to 
meet business and industry current and future workforce 
needs.  
152 
EDR’s, County, 
City, Other 
Entities 
Other  Regional Initiative Foundations; United Way; New Americans 
Project; Tribal Governance and Tribal Workforce Steering 
Committees; Public Libraries; Community Action Agencies.  
77