Workforce Planning

Helping students make a successful transition from the classroom to the workplace is a major factor in the ability of Georgia businesses to grow. The Chamber understands that your business needs an available talent pool from which to fill your employment needs. Additionally, improving the workforce readiness of Georgia students can help ensure the long-term viability of Georgia's economy.

Affecting change that impacts both the educational system and the corporate world can be a challenge, but as the largest voice for business owners in the state, the Georgia Chamber of Commerce has made it a priority to address these issues as they directly impact our members.

It is our view that Georgia's secondary and post-secondary institutions must effectively prepare current and future workers for careers in a variety of technical and professional disciplines. From that viewpoint, the Chamber supports:

• a closer working relationship between Georgia’s K-12, university and technical school systems to achieve a more seamless transition from high school to higher education and the workplace;
• efforts to help high school students get a jump-start on college and work through AP and IB coursework, dual enrollment, and other programs that enable them to earn technical and collegiate credit prior to graduation;
• efforts to support secondary career and technical education and to create career academies, developing high school educational opportunities that focus on workforce competencies needed locally or in key industries;
• efforts to implement work readiness assessment programs throughout the state to enhance workforce competencies and provide the ability to clearly demonstrate those competencies to employers; and
• efforts to improve on-the-job training and retraining programs and incentives to meet the needs of employers.

The Chamber is committed to pursuing these initiatives to produce the workforce our members need to grow.