It has been one month since participants were announced for the U.S. Chamber Foundation Career Readiness Lab and the Tempe Chamber of Commerce has been moving quickly to respond to the call for innovative, Chamber of Commerce-led programming to better connect classroom to career. This summer, the Tempe Chamber of Commerce will launch Career Ready Tempe, a youth workforce pilot program intended to tackle barriers to employability for income-eligible youth and help employers create a robust youth talent pipeline.

Now more than ever, the success of American business and the effectiveness of our education systems are inextricably linked. Business leaders must be even more engaged in ensuring that our education and workforce systems are preparing learners beginning at an early age for the increasing demands of the globally competitive 21st century knowledge economy.

Addressing our country’s workforce development challenges is no longer a big business problem. In fact, small businesses may yet deliver the most innovative and important solutions for creating real pathways to opportunity in today’s economy.

At the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation, we are engaging a wide variety of business, education, and quality assurance partners on how to build the missing piece of a new triad, one that can provide better quality signals from employers for both traditional higher education programs and non-traditional programs, such as apprenticeships. The goal? To ensure learners have the information they need on which programs deliver the most aligned career pathways, and employers know which programs they can turn to for reliable talent.