Lehigh Valley Talent Advantages

LVEDC’s Talent Supply Initiative was born out of a July 2015 study called “Bridging the Workforce Gap,” which assessed the strength and weaknesses of the Lehigh Valley workforce, andprovided key strategies on how to improve upon them. The study recommended convening a regional group in an unprecedented partnership including schools, employers, and economic development and workforce agencies. The inaugural meeting of this group, called the Education and Talent Supply Council, took place in November of 2015.

The group sought various funding sources that led to funding in 2017 through the Strategic Innovations grant in partnership with the Workforce Board Lehigh Valley and the Keystone Communities grant enabling the contracting of MDB Insight to engage in a detailed, regional study  around talent supply and subsequent recommendations and the hiring of an LVEDC staff member to drive the initiative.

The talent study sought direct responses from employers within five target sectors:

• Health care
• Transportation, warehousing, & logistics
• Life science research & manufacturing
• High-value business services
• Manufacturing.

Upon conclusion of the study, LVEDC released the report, authored a 20-page summary document, as seen below.

LVEDC then began the work of prioritizing the recommendations that most impact the region’s talent pipeline. Since then, five work groups have been created and facilitated by LVEDC with areas of concentration including:

• Employability skills
• Career pathways
• Internships
• Attracting and retaining the next generation of talent
• Research

The success of this initiative is attributable to employer input, data-driven recommendations, and the actions of the work groups directly impacting the region’s efforts in growing, recruiting, developing, and retaining talent in the Lehigh Valley.

The complete MDB Insight report is available on the LVEDC website, in addition to the 20-page summary of the report published by LVEDC.

To find out more about LVEDC’s talent supply initiatives, contact Karianne Gelinas, Vice President of Regional Partnerships and Talent Strategies, at [email protected].