Strong talent pipelines — aligned with business needs — can bolster regional economies and expand worker mobility.

Why it's important: Roughly six in 10 workers will need skills training by 2027 — but only half currently have access to adequate opportunities.*

• Expanding access to relevant training and work experiences becomes even more critical as emerging technological changes like AI reshape the labor market.

What you need to know: Regional partnerships can expand talent pipelines that address these shifting workforce challenges and increase access to good jobs that pay a living wage.

The strategy: These partnerships require cross-sector collaboration and investment.

• Partnerships with engaged business leaders are often most effective at bringing together stakeholders across the education, training, social and business sectors.**
• Employers can shed light on growing occupations, in-demand skills, and evolving workplace trends and provide work-based learning experiences, like internships and apprenticeships.
• The key is to prioritize the needs of both employers and workers to help advance a stronger U.S. economy that benefits all communities.

How it's done: JPMorganChase supports regional talent partnerships in cities across the U.S., including Columbus, D.C., Dallas and New York.

• Over the past five years, the firm has hired an average of 54,000+ workers each year across a wide range of roles. It's also invested over $500 million in expanding career and wealth-building opportunities.
• Now, JPMorganChase is sharing what works when building strong regional talent partnerships and opportunities for business leaders to get involved.

🔎 Zoom in: Columbus, one of the Midwest's fastest-growing cities and a major driver of economic growth in Ohio, is investing in education and skills development to strengthen its workforce.***

• With support from JPMorganChase, Ohio Excels, an education nonprofit that partners with the business community, is a leader in this effort.
• Ohio Excels coordinates the Columbus New Skills Ready Network (NSRN), which brings together local educational institutions to facilitate mentorships, internships, apprenticeships and other work-based learning opportunities in high-demand fields.

The impact: Through robust partnerships, innovative strategies and significant investments, Ohio Excels and its partners report that they have…

• Engaged 75+ businesses to offer students more work-based learning opportunities that align with education and workforce needs.
• Introduced a lottery system for career and technical programs at Columbus City Schools, increasing applications by 29.8%, with 72.3% of students getting into their first-choice programs.
• Leveraged community partnerships to grow access to IT and health care career pathways — with a 117% rise in participation among economically disadvantaged students in the past three years.
• Expanded IT curriculum into middle schools, helping students prepare earlier for in-demand careers.

The takeaways: So far, several lessons have surfaced that community and business leaders around the U.S. can use to lay the foundation for a stronger regional workforce.

• Build deeper partnerships between educational institutions and the business community to align learnings with local workforce needs.
• Leverage employer engagement at the state and local levels to create more work-based learning experiences like internships and apprenticeships, and connect graduates to employment opportunities or job training programs.
• Remove barriers to high-quality programs so all students can reach their full potential (see: the lottery system).

Looking ahead: The future workforce will be shaped by how well leaders across sectors collaborate to align priorities, share resources, address challenges and invest in strategies to develop inclusive talent pipelines that support economic growth.

• Business leaders have the opportunity to help shape the next generation of talent, using the initiatives in Columbus as a blueprint.

Explore what works in other cities.

📍 Zoom In on the future of U.S. communities.

*The Future of Jobs Report (2023. (n.d.)). World Economic Forum. https://www.weforum.org/publications/the-future-of-jobs-report-2023/digest/

** Employer-Led Approach to Workforce Development Promises to Better Align Texas Workers with In-Demand Jobs. (n.d.). https://www. dallasfed.org/cd/pubs/2020/tpm

*** O'Leary, J., Overley, N., & Datar, A. (2023, August 8). Rethinking the workforce development ecosystem: Grow the economy by bridging the skills gap. Deloitte Insights. https://www2.deloitte.com/us/en/insights/ industry/public-sector/strategic-workforce-development-ecosystem.html