At the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, in March, companies had to quickly adjust in order to support their employees with the changes that were taking place. For many, childcare was the number one issue.
: Center for Education and Workforce
For investors, Talent Finance provides the language and framework for a realm of new possibilities. With a data-driven approach, the Talent Finance initiative is leading a movement to connect the public and private sectors to work towards increasing investment in people.
We believe our nation should have an approach to financing talent development that is fit for our time, not one built for a different economy and era. The need couldn’t be more urgent.
Each year, as the Chamber Foundation hosts the Talent Forward national workforce conference, we focus on talent—educating and training, talent tech and data, recruiting, hiring, and upskilling. With no shortage of talent challenges, the opportunities for informative discussion are endless. While a day devoted to dissecting talent-related topics could focus solely on the problems, Talent Forward is all about the solutions.
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, there were approximately 8.6 million STEM jobs in May 2015, with the highest jobs in software development, user support, and systems analysts. Despite the high number of jobs, the lack of skilled workers in the labor force allow these positions to go unfilled. To make matters worse, the existing STEM workforce lacks diversity among women and minorities, not representing the emerging workforce of women and underrepresented groups.