Message from the President

One of the recommendations included in the Delaware Investment Agenda, unveiled in March by the Delaware Business Roundtable, is to “streamline communication with new and existing businesses and identify opportunities to meet workforce needs.” Another is to “build industry-led sector partnerships supported by education, workforce providers, and economic development organizations to strengthen Delaware’s talent pipeline.”

The report has many “to do’s” but let me focus on these two alone. First, maybe it is time we build a technical solution to communicate employer’s workforce needs in real-time. Just about every business in our state uses some form of technology and is connected to the outside world. Wouldn’t it be great if we had a unified system capable of effortlessly uploading job vacancies and utilizing AI and other tools to identify commonalities among these postings? Then, we could efficiently communicate these requirements to educators, training professionals, and other stakeholders. How many administrative assistants or welders do we need and where are those jobs and employers located? Job seekers could then scan an app on their phone or desktop, look at opportunities that fit their skills and interests, apply, and schedule an interview all in one place.

Second, in a “state of neighbors” we should be able to quickly build connections between employers, educators, workforce providers, and economic development leaders and systemize our training pipelines. We recently hosted our Navigating Delaware Pathways: An Education and Workforce Development summit, and educators, trainers, human resources professionals, and business leaders alike agreed that a “systems” approach to workforce development and talent pipelines are the future. We have a fragmented set of work preparation assets, and our future success is dependent upon connecting these pieces. Quickly. The challenge is before us because the future is now.