Forty local leaders selected for academy to address workforce needs across Kentucky

FRANKFORT— Thirty leaders of business, industry, and education from across the state have been named as the first Champions selected to attend Kentucky’s Talent Pipeline Management (TPM) Academy.

Earlier this year, Kentucky was designated by the U.S. Chamber Foundation and the Kellogg Foundation as one of three states to implement the academies, and the Kentucky Chamber Workforce Center was chosen to carry out the TPM initiative in the Commonwealth.

Talent Pipeline Management is an employer-led approach to identifying specific workforce needs as well as training and quality issues and solutions to persistent workforce-related challenges. The TPM Academy is a three-part program to train Champions on ways to build talent supply chains and launch TPM in their own communities.

Since achieving the TPM designation, the Chamber’s Workforce Center has focused on engaging employers to work together on a sector and regional basis to address their workforce needs. The work is being done with the support of the Strada Education Network, a national nonprofit and the founding partner of the Kentucky Chamber Workforce Center, and in partnership with the Kentucky Education & Workforce Cabinet.

The Workforce Center’s Talent Pipeline staff and the Champions selected for the TPM academy will focus on creating specific strategies to meet the needs of different industry and regional sectors. By July 2020, more than 25 employer groups, representing regions as well as business and industry sectors, are to be convened to build talent pipelines for 75 high-demand positions.

The 30 TPM Champions, representing business, nonprofit organizations, public entities and communities are: