Vermont Business Magazine Today, Lisa Ventriss, President of Vermont Business Roundtable (Roundtable), and Mary Anne Sheahan, Executive Director of Vermont Talent Pipeline Management (VTPM), announced the receipt of a three-year, $250,000 matching grant to implement employer demand-driven workforce strategies across all counties in Vermont. The award is one of 13 presented by the Northern Borders Regional Commission, a Federal - State partnership, in support of employment-generating projects to reduce poverty, unemployment, and outmigration, through economic and infrastructure programs.
In accepting the award, Ventriss said, “This award represents validation of the method that the statewide VTPM program brings to workforce development efforts in Vermont. Since VTPM’s inception, the Roundtable has been deeply grateful to the Agency of Commerce and Community Development, Secretary Michael Schirling and his leadership team, for their support and partnership to expand both reach and impact across the state.”
VTPM applies transformational Talent Pipeline Management strategies and webtools, developed by the US Chamber of Commerce Foundation, to fill critical industry skills gaps using demand driven requirements for talent development. Since 2018, results have aligned hiring data with training supply-side programs, which include incentives for the labor force to enter and upskill within the industry. Vermont’s construction industry, for example, has seen over 140 new entrants to the field with the completion of the NCCER Core Curriculum credential, and an additional 60 incumbents also obtain leadership credentials to advance in their careers.
VTPM is sponsored by the Vermont Business Roundtable and was initiated in 2017 with seed funding from the J. Warren and Lois McClure Foundation, the Richard E. and Deborah L. Tarrant Foundation, and Vermont Business Roundtable. State support was granted by the Agency of Commerce and Community Development and the Department of Labor. Regional workforce partners in Talent Pipeline Management include Bennington County Regional Commission; Brattleboro Development Credit Corporation; Lake Champlain Regional Chamber of Commerce; Northern Vermont Development Association; and, Rutland Economic Development Corporation.
The Vermont Business Roundtable (Roundtable) is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization of CEOs from Vermont's top private and nonprofit employers, representing geographic diversity and all major sectors of the Vermont economy. The Roundtable is committed to sustaining a sound economy and preserving Vermont’s unique quality of life by studying and making recommendations on statewide public policy issues.
The Vermont Talent Pipeline Management (VTPM) is a unique, employer-led systems model that employs strategies to leverage lessons learned from supply-chain management and expand the role of employers as end-customers of education and workforce systems. VTPM seeks to improve the employability of Vermonters, to improve alignment of employer needs with education and workforce programs, and to grow Vermont’s economy.
Source: (South Burlington, VT) Vermont Business Roundtable 8.15.2019