FRANKFORT, KY – On September 17, 2018 the Kentucky Chamber Workforce Center launched Kentucky’s Talent Pipeline Management (TPM) Academy with a two-day training session by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation’s Center for Education and Workforce.
In August, the Kentucky Chamber Workforce Center chose 40 Champions from across the Commonwealth to train on the TPM system and implement in their communities. These leaders represent business, nonprofit organizations, public entities, and communities.
Kentucky businesses cite workforce as a top priority for success, but despite their efforts they continually struggle to find and retain employees with the skills they need. Because of initiatives to solve the state’s workforce crisis by the Kentucky Chamber Workforce Center, the U.S. Chamber Foundation and W.K. Kellogg Foundation chose Kentucky as one of three states to create Talent Pipeline Management Academies, an initiative created by the U.S. Chamber Foundation.
Talent Pipeline Management is an employer-led approach to identifying specific workforce needs as well as training and identify issues and solutions to persistent workforce-related challenges. The TPM Academy is a three-part program to train Champions on ways to build talent supply chains and launch TPM in their own communities.
The Workforce Center’s Talent Pipeline staff and the Champions selected for the TPM Academy will focus on creating specific strategies to meet the needs of different industry and regional sectors. By July 2020, more than 25 employer groups, representing regions as well as business and industry sectors, are to be convened to build talent pipelines for 75 high-demand positions.
Over the next two years, the Kentucky Chamber Workforce Center will hold meetings to develop strategies to improve Kentucky’s workforce issues. Participating employers, employer-led associations, and education providers will receive training and will build partnerships while using a demand-driven concept in order to connect employees and employers.
“Through the TPM Process, employers will play an expanded role as end customers of the Workforce and Education System,” said Kentucky Chamber Workforce Center Executive Director Beth Davisson. “This effort will allow Kentucky the opportunity to better understand the job projections and needs of business so we can better recruit, train and retain the right talent for the right jobs at the right time.”
Building the workforce of the future will require public-private partnerships… it’s up to all of us — educators, community organizations and employers — to make sure our economy continues to grow” said Michelle Drake, Workforce Training and Business Administrator for Green River Area Development District and TPM Champion for Green River Workforce Development Area.