Alabama Talent Triad Officially Launches; Receives $1.4 Million Grant From SkillsFWD
On December 6, 2023, leaders from the Alabama Workforce Council and the State Workforce Development Board were joined by Governor Kay Ivey to formally launch the Alabama Talent Triad; the nation’s first full-scale learning ecosystem that centers skills as the unit of transaction in the labor market at the population level.
After a six-month pilot with manufacturers and healthcare employers, the Talent Triad launched into statewide production with over 19,000 student and jobseeker users and over 50 employer partners.
Greg DiDonato, EBSCO Vice President and leading Talent Triad Developer, said “EBSCO is honored to be the trusted partner of the State of Alabama to operationalize through technology its revolutionary skills-based economy, bringing together students, job seekers, employers, and education & training providers to create a true marketplace for skills that will benefit all Alabamians.”
On December 7, 2023, SkillsFWD, a new initiative on a mission to catalyze a more equitable skills-based hiring ecosystem, announced six inaugural grants of $1.4 million each to fund projects solving challenges around the adoption and accessibility of learning and employment records (LERs). LERs are digital records of an individual’s formal and informal learning and employment and can be used to represent diverse experiences on the job or inside the classroom.
C-BEN is one of the six recipients of these grants, working with the Alabama Talent Triad to develop a new system that provides opportunities for job seekers by combining their skills, credentials, and experiences. It leverages a comprehensive skills-based talent marketplace, which uses the lifecycle of LERs to connect job-seekers to employment and education opportunities, to scale state-wide pathways from entry credentials to middle skills jobs across four industries.
Dr. Amber Garrison-Duncan, C-BEN Executive Vice President, said, “The demand for skilled, agile workers is only growing and C-BEN is driving transformation in learning systems to match, including advancing the adoption of Learning and Employment Records. Alabama Talent Triad is leading the nation in this transformation, and we are proud to continue to partner with the state.”
“LERs have the potential to transform the landscape of workforce and economic development, but there is still a gap between the existence of these records and their adoption and use by individuals and employers,” said Dawn Karber, director of SkillsFWD.
Paul Fain, News Editor at Inside Higher Ed said, “Alabama’s Talent Triad is a complex, multiyear project that taps AI as part of a “population level” attempt to connect jobseekers and employers based on skills. Many experts think the Talent Triad is perhaps the nation’s most advanced LER experiment.”
The Alabama Talent Triad was established to bring employers, jobseekers, education & training providers and students together to build a true skills-based hiring economy; unparallel and unmatched in scope and impact.
Tim McCartney, Chairman of the Alabama Workforce Council, said that “the Alabama Talent Triad is a decisive tool for connecting employers to skilled individuals who are looking for opportunities. This system will finally accomplish what we have been talking about doing for decades – connecting talent to the economy using skills.”
By working together, Alabama is connecting talent to opportunity through the common denominator of skills. The Alabama Talent Triad is available, at no cost, to all of Alabama’s employers, students, job seekers, and employers.