Startup Ventura has submitted an application to the California Workforce Development Board’s Workforce Accelerator Fund 14 (Accelerator 14) program. The proposal, the Quantum and Fusion Skills Accelerator, is a planning and development project to build career pathways that prepare Ventura County students and workers for jobs in quantum computing and fusion energy.
California has made up to $3 million available through Accelerator 14 to fund partnerships that develop scalable, replicable career pathway programs in the quantum and fusion sectors, two technologies the state has identified as engines of its next generation of high-wage jobs. Funded projects run from January 2027 through March 2029.
Our proposal brings local industry to the same table as educators at every level. Working alongside gener8tor’s Skills Accelerator team, the partnership would research and design curriculum for quantum and fusion occupations, develop industry-recognized credentials with employers, and map a pathway that carries a student from a Ventura County high school classroom through community college and university coursework and into a career, without leaving the region. The planning period also includes piloting and testing the program and building a sustainability plan so the work continues beyond the grant.
The coalition behind the application reflects how seriously this region takes the opportunity: the Workforce Development Board of Ventura County, the Ventura County Community College District and its three colleges, Moorpark College, Oxnard College, and Ventura College, CSU Channel Islands, Ventura Unified School District, Oak Park Unified School District, and Curri, the Ventura-headquartered logistics technology company.
Emerging industries do not wait for regions to get ready. Quantum computing and fusion energy will need technicians, engineers, and operators within the decade, and the communities that train that workforce first will be the communities where those industries put down roots. This application is a bet that Ventura County can be one of them.
Awards have not yet been announced, and we will share the outcome when the state completes its review. Whatever the result, the partnerships formed through this application are exactly the coalition Startup Ventura was built to convene, and this is only the first project we intend to pursue together.