Northwest Arkansas Council Begins New Strategic Plan

The Northwest Arkansas Council is beginning a new strategic work plan, focusing on leadership and workforce development.

Details of the three-year plan were shared during the nonprofit organization’s annual winter meeting Jan. 27 at Embassy Suites in Rogers. Other priorities will be placed on strengthening regional employers’ connections to schools and upgrading the region’s utility and transportation infrastructure.

The new plan is being implemented after the successful completion of almost every task described in the Greater Northwest Arkansas Development Strategy, a five-year blueprint for regional success announced by the council in January 2011.

The pursuit of that plan’s objectives and strategic actions went so well that a new three-year strategy was prepared.

The council said the Northwest Arkansas population is now more than 505,000, showing a 7.5 percent increase in the last four years. Additionally, the region increased employment (up 9.3 percent since 2010), improved average annual wages (up 9.7 percent since 2009), and reduced unemployment (to 3.9 percent in November 2014). The region’s metropolitan gross domestic product has increased to $23.8 billion (up 29.8 percent since 2009).

Northwest Arkansas also improved its educational attainment, increasing the number of people age 25 or older who have a bachelor’s degree from 25.1 percent in 2010 to 27.9 percent in 2013. There also was an increase in interstate lane miles, and the number of paved trails for walkers, runners and cyclists has tripled since 2010.

The new plan calls for additional attention to be put toward workforce development to ensure that high school and college graduates are prepared for jobs that are in demand in Northwest Arkansas.