The effort, in collaboration with Research Improving People’s Lives (RIPL), a national nonprofit that helps governments harness data, is described in the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) Combined State Plan for 2024-27. LAUNCH, it said, offers integrated service delivery to “support all residents on pathways to employment and economic security.” It utilizes the “no wrong door” philosophy enabling a single point of entry into a website or system, and uses data and artificial intelligence to match job seekers with postings and suggest learning resources.
“LAUNCH unlocks visibility of employment for job seekers. Its design is based off of skills matching to career,” Arkansas Chief Workforce Officer Mike Rogers said in a statement. “Anyone looking for the right-sized occupation and training to increase capability can find it on LAUNCH.”
Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders likened the platform to LinkedIn in remarks last week announcing its debut. “LAUNCH has already been integrated into our state’s unemployment claim system for a few months, and the results have been incredible,” the governor said, indicating leaders are unifying the college application process and plan to integrate higher education information in LAUNCH.
Officials piloted LAUNCH last year as an addition to state programming; it now has 11,257 unique users, 5,777 job listings and 634 participating employers, according to the news release. Site visitors can use CiviForm to swiftly apply for multiple government services simultaneously; the Google.org Fellowship program supported its implementation here.
The national nonprofit RIPL is the development team behind the platform, the news release said, with funding from the Walmart Foundation. RIPL has assisted New Jersey with its wage hub and Rhode Island with its Back to Work RI initiative.
