San Francisco, Calif., December 11, 2023 — The U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation, a leading national organization dedicated to strengthening communities through education and workforce initiatives, and SweetRush, a leading provider of custom learning solutions, announced their scaling of a learning program that provides tools to address the nationwide skills gap.
The U.S. Chamber Foundation’s Talent Pipeline Management® (TPM) framework is a talent development strategy that offers data-driven, outcomes-based methodologies to prepare current and future talent for the workforce by ensuring that workers’ skills align with employers’ needs.
The TPM Academy® is a program empowering state and local chambers of commerce, employers, and education and training providers to learn to apply the TPM strategies and create a talent pipeline based on industry needs. Whereas traditional education-employer partnerships tend to rely on solutions developed by the supply side, TPM puts employers in the driver’s seat as they communicate their most critical job needs to their education and training partners. Through the U.S. Chamber Foundation-SweetRush relationship, this training experience is now available online and on demand via TPM Co/Lab™, an online learning community, to benefit more communities in their use of the transformative workforce approach.
“The U.S. Chamber Foundation team were collaborative partners who were closely invested and involved from initial solutioning all the way through to implementation,” says SweetRush Solution Architect Joe Henderson. “Together, we took a highly successful existing program—TPM Academy—and scaled it for a virtual and blended learning audience. Throughout this journey, they remained dedicated to continuous improvement, refining and enhancing the program to better meet the evolving needs of the audience. Working together on TPM Co/Lab has been a pleasure, and we’re gratified at the opportunity to support the U.S. Chamber Foundation’s goal of empowering employers to build talent pipelines in their industries and communities, all while striving for ongoing improvement and innovation.”
With three different learning modalities—in-person, blended, and fully online—learners throughout the U.S. Chamber Foundation’s vast extended enterprise can find a TPM Academy format that fits their schedules and preferences.
In every format, the TPM Academy program empowers learners to engage in the six TPM strategies. Strategy 1 starts with employers identifying one or more talent challenges and forming a “collaborative.” Next, Strategies 2 through 4 provide a systematic process for employers to gather and share their workforce data in a format that can facilitate new career pathway partnerships or improve existing ones by getting data on talent needs, specific skills, and talent suppliers—making them better, more clear communicators of their demand. Strategies 5 and 6 help employer-led collaboratives put their data to work by co-designing internal and/or external talent pipelines, making them more resilient to external disruptions and shocks like an economic recession or a pandemic, and continuously improving them with trusted provider partners. The TPM Academy approach to creating a talent pipeline has been recognized with numerous Learning and Development awards, including three 2023 Brandon Hall Group Gold Awards for its unique approach to blended learning for the extended enterprise. Employers such as Detroit’s DTE Energy and the San Diego Regional Economic Development Corporation have revitalized their talent pipelines with the TPM strategy.
“SweetRush has been an invaluable partner in taking the next step in our evolution to transform our in-person TPM Academy trainings to an engaging, interactive online learning experience,” said Jaimie Francis, Vice President at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation. “Their stellar team helped us navigate how to create the best experience for our learners so that they are empowered with the tools and information necessary to co-design talent supply chains to help students and workers access and succeed in career pathways. We look forward to continued collaboration and bringing this learning experience to more communities across the world in search of workforce strategies and solutions.”
The U.S. Chamber Foundation-SweetRush team continues to be inspired by the opportunity to help employers, workers, and education providers meet the demands of the perpetually evolving business environment. The team looks forward to the continued support of the U.S. Chamber Foundation’s extensive learner audience as they build the talent pipelines that strengthen the economy, one TPM implementation at a time.
Learn more about the TPM Academy and TPM Co/Lab.
About The U.S. Chamber Of Commerce Foundation
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation harnesses the power of business to create solutions for the good of America and the world. They anticipate, develop, and deploy solutions to challenges facing communities—today and tomorrow. Learn more about the U.S. Chamber Foundation’s work on its website.
About SweetRush
SweetRush is trusted by many of the world’s most successful companies to help them improve the performance of their employees and extended enterprise. SweetRush is known for exceptionally creative and effective solutions that combine the best of learning experience design with highly engaging delivery. SweetRush services include custom L&D solution design and development, high-performing staff-augmentation talent staffing, certification development, cultural alignment, and innovative learning technologies such as VR, AR, and AI. SweetRush’s work has earned a long list of awards and accolades in collaboration with its world-class clients. Discover more at SweetRush.
