In March, the city was chosen as one of 21 communities to partner with the federal government in President Barack Obama’s newly launched TechHire Initiative, which aims to identify workers who have skills to qualify for technology jobs or help them obtain those skills so they can be hired.
In 2013, with a push from Mayor Richard Berry, the city partnered with the state Department of Workforce Solutions and Innovate+Educate to create a unique program called TalentABQ. In its first year, TalentABQ helped employers hire hundreds of workers for public- and private-sector jobs. The program is now poised to be replicated nationwide.
In 2014, TalentABQ, which was birthed with a $200,000 city grant and matching funds from the Kellogg Foundation, was featured on the White House “Ready to Work” website with Berry discussing the benefits of skills-based hiring.
The program focuses on helping people get jobs based on the skills they have rather than their formal education alone. That departure from the more traditional hiring practice could help employers in New Mexico and elsewhere in the country fill their needs for workers trained in science, technology, engineering and math, or STEM.
“While STEM education is critical, more critical is defining what someone needs to qualify for a job and then identifying a concrete pathway they can follow to get hired,” says Jamai Blivin, CEO of Innovate+Educate, which coordinates TalentABQ.
The success of this fledgling program is the kind of pragmatic solutions Berry often brings to a problem. And that’s likely because as a former business owner he has hired people – lots of them – and recognizes the importance of talent and drive.
That’s not to say that having an educated workforce and people with higher education degrees and certificates isn’t desirable. It is and we need to promote for more of those as well. But lacking a college degree doesn’t always have to be an impediment to success. Bill Gates, Ted Turner or Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg haven’t done so badly.
Congratulations to all who are involved in TalentABQ because it puts Albuquerque and New Mexico on the workplace map.
©2015 the Albuquerque Journal (Albuquerque, N.M.) Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
