The city of Chattanooga and the Chattanooga Chamber of Commerce last week announced that JPMorgan Chase will invest $100,000 to produce a skills-gap report that will provide data-driven solutions to address the mismatch between employer needs and the skills of local job seekers.
Many local employers struggle to fill vacancies, especially technical and skilled positions. At the same time, aspiring workers are unemployed and an unprecedented share of the workforce remains underemployed. The grant will help Chattanooga take the first step in a multi-phase process. The workforce analysis phase will focus on identifying the skills gaps in the IT, advanced manufacturing, and healthcare industries.
Analysis results will be published in a final skills-gap report that will be used to convene local governments, educational institutions, private foundations, and businesses to create solutions. The recommended solutions will be implemented by employers and educational institutions to align training programs with current and projected workforce skills requirements.
“Our region continues to enjoy significant economic opportunities, and this skills gap analysis will help our community build a roadmap for potential employees to gain the skills needed to be successful in the tech, automotive/advanced manufacturing and healthcare industries,” said Hamp Johnston, who leads JPMorgan Chase in East Tennessee. “This effort will continue Chattanooga’s long history of leveraging public-private partnerships. Working together, we can address the mismatch between employer needs and the skills of job seekers in a way that benefits our entire community and positions us for future growth.”
In 2013, JPMorgan Chase launched New Skills at Work, a $250 million, five-year initiative aimed at helping inform and accelerate efforts to develop demand-driven skills training so that workers and industries have the skills to compete and prosper in a global economy.
Source: Chattanooga Chamber of Commerce