Indianapolis : Gov. Eric Holcomb along with the Markle Foundation and Microsoft last week announced Skillful Indiana, which will bring new investment, partners and innovation to Indiana’s workforce agenda.
Skillful Indiana will help people find high-demand jobs and develop the skills they need to fill them as well as help employers find and keep the people they need to grow.
“Any qualities grouped together is critically important to better connect employers with future job-seekers and employees and this is where Skillful Indiana will play a key role in collecting experience and commitment and expertise,” Holcomb said.
Holcomb’s goal is to make sure that Hoosiers are finding the jobs that will use the skills they say they have. He explained how investing in education starting at pre-kindergarten with the focus on STEM—science, technology, engineering, and math—as well as computer science will help future generations get the skills they need in a dynamic economy.
Skillful CEO Beth Cobert said the effort strives to make a labor market that will allow Americans succeed in the digital economy. Currently, 20 states are part of the Skillful State Network, including Indiana.
“In the next decade, as all of you know, Indiana will need more than one million skill workers to fill opened jobs and support economic growth,” Cobert said.
She went on to say that while working with national and local partners they will be able to figure out the strengths and needs of Indiana as they would with each state.
Markle has the support to run the Skillful initiative from various business and schools such as Purdue University, Walmart, LinkedIn and Microsoft, including the head of Microsoft Philanthropies, Mary Snapp. Cobert said Snapp has been helping Skillful to grow and develop into what it is today.
Snapp said that programs like these don’t work without the proper leadership and support from the top, and Holcomb’s administration demonstrates that.
All three agree that many jobs will be adapted to fit into the changing economy, which means that Hoosiers will have to change by learning new skills. Also, a learning economy needs to be created starting in grade school all throughout their educational careers.
“This notion of being a life-long learner is what it will be all about going forward and being able to have programs to identify workers with skills and workers with skills and an interest in enhancing those skills with different credentials licenses or even university degrees. It will enable us to create a market that is skills based and not necessarily a market that is based on a college degree,” Snapp said.
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