Publications

As businesses and workers adjust to rapidly changing work environments, employers are focusing on improving diversity to strengthen their workforce. In addition, new economic and workplace challenges may exacerbate barriers to employment — particularly for those who experience barriers to education, employment, and advancement — otherwise known as opportunity populations. Organizations that serve opportunity populations are looking for new ways to connect those who experience barriers to employment to meaningful career pathways and advancement. Strengthening relationships between businesses and opportunity population-serving organizations (OPSOs) is important, but major systemic challenges to sustained partnership often exist.

A growing number of organizations and initiatives are focusing on closing a communication gap that exists because our education and employment systems don’t speak the same language or communicate effectively. But as they’ve grown in number, the challenge of differentiating between and among players, their overlapping solutions, and the complex relationships among them likewise grows. This paper aims to demystify that landscape and how the major initiatives, including three led by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation, fit together.

In a dynamic labor market, companies large and small recognize the need to invest in their own people, leading to much buzz around upskilling. Upskilling strategies are no longer the exception, but a necessity. The U.S. Chamber Foundation has partnered with employers to apply successful Talent Pipeline Management (TPM) strategies to build internal pipelines and upskill an existing workforce.