Annual Report
A Realigned Mission, A Renewed Focus The Partnership, Inc. restructures to meet the needs of Delaware’s business community BY RICK DEADWYLER THE PARTNERSHIP, INC. IS THE 501(C)(3) workforce development affiliate of the Delaware State Chamber of Commerce. It was created to promote charitable and educational activities by developing and fostering programs that encourage private sector involvement in workforce development and education. The Partnership consists of four flagship programs: Delaware Principal for a Day, Superstars in Education, Intern Delaware, and the Delaware Young Professionals Network. These four programs combined establish a workforce development pipeline from high school to career. 2021 was an incredible time of development for The Partnership.
“Many people do not get the chance to do [Intern Delaware] and I find myself incredibly lucky to be a part of this program.” — Intern Feedback 80
To meet the growing and changing talent needs of its members, The Partnership realigned its mission and priorities to become better focused on workforce development and creating a pipeline of talent in Delaware. This led to the organization merging with Intern Delaware—a program dedicated to building Delaware’s future workforce by keeping talent in the First State—and rebuilding The Partnership’s board to include State Chamber members across multiple industries throughout the state. We were glad to bring back a favorite program, Delaware Principal for a Day, which took place October 18 through 22. The newly reimagined program included a career day twist and placed business professionals into Delaware high schools, specifically targeting freshmen and sophomore audiences. Visiting guest principals gave presentations about their career paths and industries and highlighted high-demand jobs. In total, 34 guest principals visited 20 Delaware high schools as part of this year’s program. “I was able to spend an hour with [the students] sharing about the work of the Delaware Data Innovation Lab and Tech Impact,” said Ryan Harrington of Tech Impact who shadowed the principal at Christiana High Jan uar y / Fe b r uar y 2022 | DELAWARE BUSINESS
