“Imagine what we could be if we unleashed the power of talent?”
Johnny C. Taylor, Jr.
SHRM President and CEO
SHRM seeks to be the connective tissue that repairs the workforce pipelines between learning, work, and opportunity. And we’re doing it by increasing awareness, advocacy, and action.
Awareness
Use your voice — backed by SHRM data — to highlight the disconnect between education and workforce readiness, spotlight effective solutions, and share best practices for connecting overlooked talent to in-demand jobs through strategic partnerships and public investment.
Advocacy
Stay informed with SHRM’s Policy Briefing and find opportunities to engage with policymakers. Support efforts to expand access to education and upskilling, and elevate your voice through Capitol Hill Days, grassroots campaigns, or community conversations on education-to-employment pathways.
Action
Strengthen your community’s talent pipeline by partnering with local schools or workforce boards. Launch or expand work-based learning programs to tap into new talent. Share your success with SHRM to help amplify and scale effective solutions nationwide.
SHRM’s Emily M. Dickens Joins NCDA to Spotlight the Education-to-Employment (E²) Initiative
SHRM’s Chief Administrative Officer, Emily M. Dickens, joins Elle O'Flaherty, Co-Chair of NCDA's Government Relations Committee to discuss the challenges and opportunities in the current labor market, focusing on SHRM's Education-to-Employment (E2) Initiative.
SHRM's Johnny C. Taylor, Jr. Testifies Before Congress on Workforce Preparedness
SHRM President and CEO Johnny C. Taylor, Jr. began this conversation during the first hearing of the 119th Congress as he testified before the House Committee on Education and the Workforce and posed a powerful question: “Imagine what we could be if we unleashed the power of talent?”
SHRM’s E2 Initiative is tackling the U.S.’s broken, leaky, and busted talent pipeline by connecting education to employment across three key pathways: K-12 education, higher education, and untapped talent. This is a collaborative effort. No one sector, no one stakeholder, no one organization can do this alone. We have to work together — across traditional boundaries — because our challenges are interconnected, and our solutions must be as well.
People do not live, learn, or work in silos — and we can’t afford to operate in them either.
Broken, Leaky and Busted
To build smarter, stronger bridges between the systems that shape our workforce, E² will work to better connect K–12 classrooms to career pathways, align higher education institutions with the evolving job market, and ensure untapped talent has access to inclusive employment opportunities.
Fixing the education-to-employment pipeline requires coordination among all stakeholders. Despite the challenges, our system remains the best in the world. To explore the challenges, opportunities, priorities, and what’s working across each key pipeline, download SHRM’s resource here.
