North Alabama prides itself on being home to the country’s #1 Affordable Place to Live (Liveability.com); one of the South’s Best Small Towns (Southern Living); the top metro in the STEM Growth Leaders category (Business Facilities); #1 city for STEM grads (Nerdwallet); one of the top metros to “Power the U.S. Economy” (Bloomberg Business); and the #2 City in the U.S. for Tech Jobs (Smart Asset), just to name a few. North Alabama is also highlighted by six community colleges with eleven locations in the region, 7 four-year colleges, and almost a quarter of the state’s high quality workforce.

North AlabamaWorks is a non-profit organization established to do the work of Region 1, a 13-county (Colbert, Cullman, DeKalb, Franklin, Jackson, Lauderdale, Lawrence, Limestone, Madison, Marion, Marshall, Morgan, and Winston Counties) workforce region. North Alabama Works is a workforce council made up of leaders from industry, education, the chambers of commerce, economic development organizations, non-profits, and local government agencies. Over seventy-five percent of the North AlabamaWorks voting membership represents business and industry within the region. The council provides a direct link to the workforce needs of business and industry at the local level, and helps to coordinate education, training and job placement system to meet the needs defined by local employers.