Administration Launches Talent Pipeline Challenge

The television show “America’s Got Talent” offers a wide assortment of entertainment from across the country, but the Biden administration is looking for a different kind of talent. Last week, it announced that it is launching a summer-long Talent Pipeline Challenge to fill high-quality jobs to help build the nation’s infrastructure.

“This is a nationwide call to action for employers, education and training providers, states, local, tribal, and territorial governments, and philanthropic organizations to make tangible commitments that support equitable workforce development in three critical infrastructure sectors: broadband, construction and “electrification” (i.e., the electric vehicle charging infrastructure and battery manufacturing),” according to an administration fact sheet on the initiative.

The challenge will encourage training providers, unions and other intermediaries to provide grant funding for employer-training-provider partnerships and to defer costs of advanced skills training, particularly for underserved workers. In addition, state, local, tribal and territorial governments are encouraged to use federal funding to invest in workforce development efforts in these critical sectors, including:

• using American Rescue Plan State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds for job training and other assistance to workers negatively affected by the pandemic;
• using Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) grant funding, where possible and legally permissible, to support workforce development aligned to project labor needs; and
• using state Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act reserve dollars to fund place-based labor-management partnerships in infrastructure sectors, with apprenticeships and pre-apprenticeship opportunities.

Governments also are encouraged to serve as a regional convenor of employers, training and community partners to identify workforce need and develop a regional workforce training plan; encourage contractors, where permissible under applicable law, to use local/economic hiring preferences to expand the diversity of the talent pool and build local talent; and adapt career and technical education plans.

“These commitments will complement the federal government’s investment in workforce development and help ensure there are trained workers who are ready to meet the demands of implementing the historic [IIJA law], as the country transitions from a historic economic recovery to stable and steady growth that works for working people,” according to the administration.

This challenge may not become a hit TV show, but the initiative can prove promising in providing the necessary workforce.

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