Stop Chasing Talent. Start Investing in People.
For years, workforce development has centered around a familiar question:
How do we attract more workers?
Communities compete to recruit employers. Employers compete to recruit employees. States compete with one another for new investment. Economic development organizations market regions. Workforce boards launch recruitment campaigns. Colleges expand programs in high-demand fields.
Despite all of that effort, employers across nearly every industry continue asking the same question:
“Where are the workers?”
Maybe we’ve been asking the wrong question.
The reality is that talent isn’t something employers simply find anymore. It’s something they have to build.
That may sound obvious, but it’s a significant shift in how we think about workforce development. For decades, success was often measured by how quickly we could connect existing workers to existing jobs. Today, the challenge is different. Technology is changing faster than training programs can adapt. Experienced workers are retiring. Entirely new occupations are emerging, while others are evolving almost overnight.
Waiting for the labor market to solve those problems isn’t a strategy. Creating pathways that develop people into skilled workers is.
That’s one of the reasons Registered Apprenticeships have become such an important part of the workforce conversation. Yes, apprenticeships prepare individuals for good careers. But perhaps more importantly, they represent a different philosophy about workforce development. Instead of hoping qualified workers appear, employers become active partners in creating them.
Workforce strategist Nick Beadle has challenged the field to think about apprenticeship differently. As he observes, “Critics complain that the main government-blessed form of apprenticeship is not growing fast enough to fill employers’ needs” (Beadle, 2025). Rather than asking how we can simply create more apprenticeship programs, Beadle argues that the more important question is whether apprenticeship is effectively solving employers’ workforce challenges and creating meaningful opportunities for workers. In other words, apprenticeship is not the destination—it is one of several workforce development strategies that can help communities address broader talent, economic, and workforce needs.
Ohio offers some compelling examples of what successful apprenticeship looks like.
Take the Ohio Manufacturers’ Association’s Technician Fast Track initiative. Rather than asking dozens of manufacturers to independently solve the same workforce challenge, employers came together to define the competencies needed for today’s manufacturing technicians. Community colleges, career centers, and training providers aligned curriculum around those shared competencies, while regional Industry Sector Partnerships—including COMP, MAGNET, and the Mahoning Valley Manufacturers Coalition—are helping bring the model to employers across the state. It’s a reminder that workforce development works best when businesses collaborate instead of competing for the same limited talent pool.
But building talent doesn’t begin when someone becomes an apprentice; rather it begins years earlier.
One of the best examples can be found at Cleveland’s Max S. Hayes High School, where students are introduced to careers in advanced manufacturing, construction, and transportation through hands-on technical education and direct engagement with industry. Through our work with Friends of Max Hayes, we’ve had the opportunity to see firsthand how employers, educators, and community partners are creating meaningful connections between students and careers long before graduation. Whether it’s hosting the annual Skilled Trades Showcase, expanding work-based learning opportunities, or strengthening relationships with industry partners, the goal is the same: helping students see a future for themselves in careers that are both meaningful and in demand. Friends of Max Hayes was created specifically to strengthen those connections between education and industry, ensuring students have access to work-based learning experiences and employer engagement that prepare them for the next step—whether that’s a Registered Apprenticeship, postsecondary education, military service, or direct employment.
Sometimes focus too much on apprenticeship itself and not enough on the ecosystem that makes apprenticeship possible. A successful Registered Apprenticeship doesn’t begin with paperwork. It begins with career awareness, whether that starts in middle school or after. It grows through career and technical education, work-based learning, mentorship, internships, industry credentials, and employer engagement. By the time someone signs an apprenticeship agreement, dozens of organizations have often contributed to that journey.
The reality is that talent isn’t something employers simply find anymore. It’s something they have to build.
Perhaps that’s why apprenticeship feels so relevant today, since it’s one of the clearest examples of what modern workforce development looks like—not because it’s new, but because its core idea has never been more important.
The strongest workforce systems don’t wait for talent to arrive – they build it.
As Ohio continues to invest in advanced manufacturing, healthcare, technology, infrastructure, and other high-growth industries, the question isn’t whether we’ll need more skilled workers. We will.
The real question is whether we’ll continue thinking of workforce development as a collection of programs—or whether we’ll see it for what it really is: a long-term investment in people, partnerships, and regional prosperity.
Ohio is already showing us one answer; if that’s the future of workforce development, it’s a future worth building together.
