The 5th Annual Edition of the Lehigh Valley Hot Careers Guide is now available and for the first time, it is supplemented and expanded with an interactive, online Hot Careers Lehigh Valley Dashboard.
The 12-page Lehigh Valley Hot Careers Guide is produced by Lehigh Valley Economic Development Corp. (LVEDC) in collaboration with a coalition of major employers, community leaders, and education partners to inform students, educators, and the community about the most in-demand careers here in the region. 
The guide, which is distributed to more than 60,000 middle and high school students across the Lehigh Valley, provides a clear visual representation of career opportunities and a basis for meaningful career exploration based on individual interests.
The occupations listed are the most common to appear in Lehigh Valley job postings; employ at least 95 people; and/or were suggested for inclusion by local employers. Each career pathway includes accompanying information about wages and educational requirements.
New this year is the Hot Careers Lehigh Valley Dashboard. This dashboard is an interactive, digital version of the Lehigh Valley Hot Careers Guide that helps students and job seekers explore career opportunities. The dashboard can be used to explore jobs, industries, wages, educational programs, and more to shape career paths.
LVEDC has created a tutorial video explaining how to use the dashboard. View it here.
“Because students and job seekers prefer information in interactive, digital formats, the guide was migrated to a digital dashboard to meet them where they are with engaging content about career opportunities. This will make the information even more accessible and appealing than in the past,” said Karianne Gelinas, Vice President, Regional Partnerships & Talent Strategies at LVEDC.
The Lehigh Valley Hot Careers Guide and Hot Careers Lehigh Valley Dashboard are part of LVEDC’s award-winning talent development, attraction, and retention strategies. Those strategies are driven by the Education and Talent Supply Council, a collaboration of educational institutions, major employers, and economic development and workforce agencies. The council focuses on creating and executing data-driven regional strategies that help the Lehigh Valley maintain a competitive workforce and talent supply.
Frank Alvarado, LVEDC Director of Research and Data Management, analyzed the data for the guide and created the dashboard from scratch.
"One of the key recommendations of the most recent talent study was to develop and adopt digital tools to increase accessibility. We thought starting with the Hot Careers Guide, given its popularity, would be helpful," said Alvarado, a certified Tableau Desktop Specialist. "We didn't have a template or a guide to work with on this because much of the information just doesn't exist publicly."
The guide represents an LVEDC analysis of publicly available occupational data and subscription-based job posting information that is specific to the Lehigh Valley. In addition, the educational program data is a direct result of the collaboration of the educational partners that are part of the education and talent supply council. Without that collaboration, Alvarado said LVEDC would not have been able to accurately link local educational programs that would prepare students or certain careers. The information in the guide is vetted by regional industry leaders for accuracy.
LVEDC relies on research and data to create its strategies. It conducts focus groups, interviews, and surveys to gauge needs. That research has resulted in the development of an annual Internship Summit and the creation of several Talent Study reports.
The Lehigh Valley’s talent development initiatives recently were held up as a case study for other regions to follow in an article by Chief Learning Officer, a national publication that writes about how training and education impact corporate productivity. The publication is a resource for officers and executives directly involved in the development, implementation, and funding of training programs.