Last summer, the Nebraska Tech Collaborative, a talent and workforce initiative under the Aksarben Foundation, partnered with Don’t Panic Labs on a software engineering skills assessment to see what gaps need to be addressed in the state’s tech workforce.

But as a self-reported survey, it was a challenge. The assessment did not get “enough participation to be able to draw any real firm conclusions,” said Doug Durham, a co-founder of Don’t Panic Labs and a member of the Nebraska Tech Collaborative executive committee.

So NTC took a different approach. Now, in partnership with Lightcast, a labor market consulting firm, the Aksarben Foundation has released a new version of its technology workforce dashboard that includes a variety of demographic and job data about tech jobs in Nebraska. 

The previous dashboard was created with the Center for Public Affairs Research at the University of Nebraska at Omaha. The NTC wants Lightcast’s dashboard to be a resource for policymakers and educators to address industry needs.

“This is about strengthening alignment across Nebraska’s six regions around tech talent, empowering educators to respond to employer needs and create more meaningful opportunities for Nebraskans to enter and grow in tech careers within each region,” said Shonna Dorsey, the NTC’s executive director.

NTC is looking for community feedback as it continues to refine the dashboard for the most clarity and usability. Durham wants the dashboard to be a conversation starter for both educators and industry leaders.

“We want to work to validate what we’re seeing in (the data) with the employers themselves across the state,” he said. “We’re hoping that, rather than just putting it all on the Nebraska Tech Collaborative doing the work to try to analyze the data and see what it’s telling us and promote change, that people will be feeling empowered to do that themselves.”

NTC aims for the dashboard to be regularly updated by Lightcast as it uses both publicly available and private data to better understand the state. Durham said a public release for skills assessment results still may be possible.

“This next phase (of the dashboard) reflects a continued investment in shared, data-driven infrastructure to strengthen our workforce and support long-term economic growth,” said Sandra Reding, president of the Aksarben Foundation. “We’re proud to make this resource publicly available and grateful to Google and our collaborators across the state for helping bring it to life.”

Lev Gringauz is a Report for America corps member who writes about corporate innovation and workforce development for Silicon Prairie News.