UNO leaders pitch skill-based economy and workforce partnerships at regents meeting

University of Nebraska Omaha officials briefed the Board of Regents on April 11 about the campus’s new STEM Trail Center and a suite of workforce and credentialing initiatives they say target employer needs and adult learners.

Dr. Chris Moore, professor of physics and director of the STEM Trail Center, described the center’s classroom models and said the facility served nearly 2,000 UNO undergraduates this academic year and had “direct impacts” on about 16,000 young people through summer camps and planetarium programming. Moore said center research shows that a one-week summer camp for third- through tenth-graders produced a 15% increase in interest in STEM careers and that “there is a dose response” — repeated exposures strengthen outcomes.

Chancellor Jolie (University of Nebraska–Omaha) framed the campus’s broader strategy as a response to a “skill-based economy” and demographic enrollment pressures. She said UNO’s Career Connect program — launched May 2, 2022 — asks employers to provide paid internships to reduce unpaid internship burdens on students; presenters reported 54 employers had pledged paid internships and 11,429 paid internship postings were on UNO’s Handshake platform. UNO described efforts in competency-based learning across six colleges, a planned competency and workforce development hub under consideration for NU center status, and partnerships with employers such as Union Pacific, Mutual of Omaha, Valmont, HDI and Warner Enterprises to support cooperative education pilots in logistics and supply chain.

Jolie highlighted microcredentials (26 reported offerings) in topics from artificial intelligence to grant development and said nearly 1,000 campus employees use enterprise generative AI tools for daily work. She said more than 70 faculty are redeveloping courses to include AI content and hands-on experience. UNO reported a 13% increase in new transfer enrollment last fall driven in part by a math-transformation partnership with Metropolitan Community College and noted that Nebraska Department of Labor data showed 81% of UNO graduates remain working in Nebraska one year after graduation and 67% at five years.

The UNO presentation positioned the campus as building “micro-pathways” and experiential learning to produce job-ready graduates and to serve employer partners in the region. The board thanked UNO leaders for the facility tour they received the prior day and congratulated campus staff on the center’s early metrics.

Quotes from the presentation were delivered by Dr. Chris Moore and Chancellor Jolie; those remarks are part of the board meeting record.