SkillSmart to Help Fill Pistons Headquarters Construction Jobs with Detroit Residents

First published by Crain’s Detroit Business, September 12, 2018.  The Detroit Pistons and partners building the team’s new headquarters and practice facility in the city’s New Center area have launched a jobs portal to help meet a hiring quota. The Platform LLC,...

Should employers care about GPA anymore?

First published by HR Dive, July 26, 2018.  In 2013, Laszlo Bock, then senior vice president of people operations at Google, revealed to The New York Times in an interview something most businesses probably already knew: GPAs were “worthless as a criteria for hiring, and test...

How Tech Can Bridge the Employment Opportunity Gap

First published by Walmart, March 22, 2018.  Technology is quickly changing how we live our lives, helping to make so many things easier, cheaper and faster. It’s also changing the way we work. Research suggests that innovations like artificial intelligence have the potential to...

Springfield Works Gets State Funding to Expand Programs to Help Job Seekers

First published by MassLive, March 6, 2018.  Springfield Works will use $75,000 it received last week from the state to expand efforts to mentor and guide job seekers all the way from initial assessment to employment. Director Anne Shecrallah Kandilis said Springfield Works will also...

MGM Springfield Looks to Hire Puerto Rican Evacuees Using SkillSmart Platform

First published by MassLive, January 24, 2018.  In Puerto Rico, Omyra Merced worked at several hotels planning events. “I worked in tourism and event planning, doing weddings and parties, things like that,” she said Wednesday. “After the hurricane, many of...

Veterans: America’s Skilled Workforce

  Veterans and their spouses have the right skills. On this Veteran’s Day, our thoughts turn to those who have served and are serving our nation in the military. There is often talk of sacrifice and service, but most of our population has very little understanding of what our...

Getting Smart About Skills Transfer Could Solve the Skills Gap

First published by SHRM, November 7, 2017.  A poor understanding of how job skills transfer among occupations—especially from occupations in decline to in-demand fields—is one of the biggest reasons for the nation’s skills gap. But employers and job seekers can...

Milwaukee Bucks Retrain Jobless Workers to Build New Arena

  First published by Dusty Weis, Association of Equipment Manufacturers At the urging of local officials, contractors on the $524 million project have approached hiring challenges with bold, unconventional workforce development strategies that help people get needed job training....

SkillSmart connects people, training, jobs in Western Mass.

First published by Jim Kinney at MASSLive.com, October 25, 2017.  Baystate Health has 12,000 employees and makes about 1,400 new hires a year of folks from outside its system, said President and CEO Mark Keroack. And as the city’s largest employer,...

Group Students Hands Raised Graduation Concept

States Use Workforce Data to Connect Colleges to Careers

First published by SHRM, October 12, 2017.  A new study highlights how several states are helping students choose what to study depending on the skills local employers say they need. The report from Georgetown University’s Center on Education and the Workforce (CEW), a...

The Future of Work

More and more people are trying to better understand the future of work and why the U.S. has more open jobs – more than 6 million – than at any time in our history. In September, former VP Joe Biden hosted an event Choosing a Future of Quality...

Maryland Meeting the Urgent Demand for Cybersecurity Workers

First published by I-95 Business, October, 2017. Cybersecurity is one of this century’s most urgent global imperatives. Financial damages are measured in the trillions of dollars and are a result of the proliferation of digital devices into every aspect of our daily lives in pursuit...