The field of economic development continues to evolve, adding dimensions of ecosystem building, placemaking, and network-driven strategies. However, business retention, expansion, and attraction (BREA) remains one of the dominant forms of the practice. According to IEDC's 2025 State of the Field report, 87% of practitioners surveyed identified BREA as one of their priority strategies. This reflects a longstanding recognition that retaining existing businesses, supporting their growth, and attracting new investment are foundational to community economic health.

Economic development is inherently interdisciplinary, and BREA work exemplifies this. BREA professionals operate where markets, policy, finance, and community dynamics intersect, requiring fluency across multiple domains. Because the work is so multifaceted, practitioners often transition into BREA roles from diverse backgrounds such as urban planning, finance, law, engineering, or public administration. This diversity of experience is a primary strength of the profession, bringing varied perspectives to the complex challenge of keeping businesses rooted, helping them grow, and drawing new ones in.

To support this diverse talent pool, the International Economic Development Council (IEDC) centers its professional development on core competencies. This approach empowers practitioners to build personalized learning pathways that align with their specific roles and prior expertise, whether they are new to BREA or looking to deepen existing skills.

Competencies: The Heart of the Profession

Business retention, expansion, and attraction sits at the center of economic development practice. Whether a community is working to keep anchor employers rooted, help local firms scale, or draw new investment, success depends on informed decision-making supported by a blend of essential skills:

• Analytical and financial reasoning
• Market and industry expertise
• Stakeholder and institutional navigation
• Built environment and site considerations
• Strategy design and execution
• Program and organizational management

IEDC professional development courses develop these capabilities through a lens that mirrors real-world BREA practice: interconnected, iterative, and highly adaptable.

The Power of Lateral Learning

While some educational models suggest a strictly linear path, BREA work thrives on lateral growth. A workforce specialist supporting a retention visit may find themselves exploring real estate feasibility, while a planner working on a site for business attraction might dive into financial literacy for incentive negotiations. The demands of BREA expand in multiple directions at once.

IEDC's learning architecture enables competencies to build upon one another from any starting point. Practitioners can begin with the domain most relevant to their current BREA responsibilities and layer on complementary skills over time.

Integrating Knowledge in Practice

The IEDC curriculum is designed so that each domain reinforces the others, with BREA serving as a natural throughline:

• Economic Development Fundamentals provides a shared language and essential tools that serve as a lasting anchor for all future learning, including the foundational concepts that underpin effective BREA programs.
• Business Retention & Expansion (BRE) is the cornerstone course for BREA practitioners, sharpening the engagement, diagnostic, and relationship-building skills that directly enhance strategic planning and target industry analysis.
• Economic Development Credit Analysis builds the financial structuring expertise vital for public-private partnerships, incentive packaging, and redevelopment underwriting that support both attraction and expansion efforts.
• Real Estate Development & Reuse bridges market feasibility and site dynamics, supporting the revitalization efforts and site-readiness work that make communities competitive for business attraction and expansion.

Specialized courses in Workforce Development, Technology-Led Development, and Entrepreneurship further extend these foundations. Each strengthens a practitioner's ability to deliver on BREA objectives by addressing the ecosystem conditions that influence business decisions. The result is a modular system where every course adds to a cumulative, high-impact skill set.

Pathways as Unique as the Practitioner

Every professional enters the field with a different specialty, making every entry point valid. Regardless of background, the learning pathways converge around BREA competence:

• Planners often gravitate toward Real Estate Development & Reuse, building the site and market analysis skills essential for attraction-ready communities.
• Finance professionals frequently prioritize Credit Analysis, strengthening their ability to structure deals that retain and grow businesses.
• Workforce leaders may focus on specialized Workforce Development Strategies, deepening their capacity to address the talent needs that drive retention and expansion.
• Chamber executives often find immediate value in BRE, formalizing the business engagement practices at the heart of their daily work.

The focus remains on how these competencies integrate to create a well-rounded BREA professional.

A Modern Philosophy for Growth

This competency-driven model embraces the true nature of BREA work: roles evolve quickly, challenges are cross-functional, and expertise requires constant balancing between retention, expansion, and attraction priorities. IEDC courses serve as versatile components of a professional toolkit, ready to be deployed whenever a new challenge arises.

Your Journey to Impact

The field of economic development welcomes practitioners from all technical, financial, and policy backgrounds. Through structured competency development, everyone can build the skills needed to deliver high-impact BREA results. Intentional learning expands your influence from project analysis to strategy design and capital structuring.

Professional growth here is integrative and expansive. Regardless of where your journey begins, the framework is ready to help you reach your goals. To explore IEDC's full course catalog and upcoming offerings, visit: https://www.iedconline.org/pages/schedule/

Success in economic development, whether through investment attraction, business expansion, or fiscal resilience, stems from informed decision-making. These decisions are supported by a blend of essential skills:

• Analytical and financial reasoning
• Market and industry expertise
• Stakeholder and institutional navigation
• Built environment and site considerations
• Strategy design and execution
• Program and organizational management

IEDC professional development courses develop these capabilities through a lens that mirrors real-world practice: interconnected, iterative, and highly adaptable.

The Power of Lateral Learning

While some educational models suggest a strictly linear path, economic development thrives on lateral growth. A workforce specialist may find themselves exploring real estate feasibility, while a planner might dive into financial literacy for incentive negotiations. Professional demands expand in multiple directions at once.

IEDC’s learning architecture enables competencies to build upon one another from any starting point. Practitioners can begin with the domain most relevant to their current projects and layer on complementary skills over time.

Integrating Knowledge in Practice

The IEDC curriculum is designed so that each domain reinforces the others:

• Economic Development Fundamentals provides a shared language and essential tools that serve as a lasting anchor for all future learning.
• Business Retention & Expansion (BRE) sharpens engagement skills that directly enhance strategic planning and target industry analysis.
• Economic Development Credit Analysis builds the financial structuring expertise vital for public-private partnerships and redevelopment underwriting.
• Real Estate Development & Reuse bridges market feasibility and site dynamics, supporting revitalization efforts in downtowns and industrial corridors.

Specialized courses in Workforce Development, Technology-Led Development, and Entrepreneurship further extend these foundations. The result is a modular system where every course adds to a cumulative, high-impact skill set.

Pathways as Unique as the Practitioner

Every professional enters the field with a different specialty, making every entry point valid:

• Planners often gravitate toward Real Estate Development & Reuse.
• Finance professionals frequently prioritize Credit Analysis.
• Workforce leaders may focus on specialized Workforce Development Strategies.
• Chamber executives often find immediate value in BRE.

The focus remains on how these competencies integrate to create a well-rounded expert.

A Modern Philosophy for Growth

This competency-driven model embraces the true nature of the work: roles evolve quickly, challenges are cross-functional, and expertise requires constant balancing. IEDC courses serve as versatile components of a professional toolkit, ready to be used whenever a new challenge arises.

Your Journey to Impact

The field of economic development welcomes practitioners from all technical, financial, and policy backgrounds. Through structured competency development, everyone can achieve high-impact results. Intentional learning expands your influence from project analysis to strategy design and capital structuring.

Professional growth here is integrative and expansive. Regardless of where your journey begins, the framework is ready to help you reach your goals.

To explore IEDC’s full course catalog and upcoming offerings, visit: https://www.iedconline.org/pages/schedule/