In November 2005, Secretary of Labor Elaine L. Chao announced the Workforce Innovation in Regional Economic Development (WIRED) Initiative.  The Initiative is intended to support and catalyze the integration of talent and skills development into a region’s larger economic strategies.  It supports innovative approaches to education and workforce development that go beyond traditional strategies for preparing workers to compete and succeed both within the United States and globally. 

This evaluation report describes: 1) the activities and achievements of the first Generation of WIRED regions in their efforts to move towards regional transformation; 2) issues related to goals, strategies, activities, organizational structure and governance and how these have evolved over the first year of operations; and 3) the involvement of the workforce investment system in these initial stages.  The report lays the groundwork for future analysis of the regions’ collective efforts to transform their education, workforce investment and economic development systems that will be provided in future reports from the evaluation teams.