LED FastStart

LED FastStart

Provides Louisiana companies relocating or expanding with free workforce recruitment, training, and talent development support.

LED FastStart is a free, in-kind workforce development service administered by Louisiana Economic Development (LED), a cabinet-level state agency, for companies that are relocating to or expanding operations in Louisiana. The program delivers customized talent recruitment, technical and soft-skills training, and long-term workforce pipeline development at no cost to the company. FastStart's model follows a Recruit-Train-Sustain framework: multi-platform candidate sourcing, pre-hire assessment, custom training program development, training delivery, and ongoing workforce sustainability partnerships.

FastStart is available to any for-profit company with a distinct project that meets LED's requirements and aligns with the agency's 2025 Comprehensive Statewide Strategic Plan. There are no industry sector restrictions; the service is routinely bundled as the workforce component of larger LED incentive packages alongside the Industrial Tax Exemption Program (ITEP) and the High Impact Jobs Program (HIP). The state bears all costs of recruitment, screening, training development, and training delivery.

Companies gaining access to FastStart do so through the broader LED site-selection process. To initiate, prospective companies engage LED directly to assess the scope of the project; LED analysts then design a custom workforce plan. Because FastStart is tied to a specific approved project rather than a competitive grant round, there are no annual deadlines — eligibility is determined project-by-project through LED's standard incentives management system (FastLane NextGen). Organizations seeking to maximize impact should engage LED early in site-selection, as FastStart is most effective when workforce planning begins before facility construction.