Learn Without Leaving: An Assessment of Nantucket’s Educational & Workforce Needs
Learning has always been at the center of the Nantucket community and Remain has invested in that premise through our work at the Nantucket Community Music Center and Nantucket Community School and The Corner Table and Nantucket Culinary Center. In 2014, building on ongoing collaborative programming efforts, Remain engaged Economic Development Research Group, Inc. (EDR Group), in partnership with the University of Massachusetts Boston College of Advancing and Professional Studies and Nantucket Community School, to study Nantucket’s educational and workforce needs for the year-round and seasonal communities.
EDR Group, in partnership with Mt. Auburn Associates, spent three months surveying, interviewing and conducting focus groups with Nantucket residents, visitors, employers and representatives from the public school system. The joint research project, the Learn Without Leaving study, collected survey responses from 650 participants, conducted focus groups and gathered personal interviews. EDR Group compiled this information and documented those needs to inform future programming that could be targeted at areas of the greatest demand. EDR Group released the executive summary of their findings on January 15, 2015 and the full report on March 24, 2015.
Findings from this research, which were paired with regional and national data when possible, include both career- and enrichment-related educational and training needs. Importantly, the findings serve to highlight gaps in programming and should not be interpreted as proof of market potential for, or financial feasibility of, a given educational offering—both of which should be future considerations.