Hadass Sheffer, Dan Ash, Bridgett Strickler and Zach Zimmerman from the TGN Team co-authored a chapter, Bridging The Talent Gap Through Data Insights and Community Action, in the recently released Federal Reserve publication “Investing In America’s Workforce.” You can read the chapter (Volume 1, chapter 3) at InvestInWork.org where we lay out the evidence using BTTG data to support our fundamental assertion that more robust partnerships between Higher Education Institutions, Employers and Employees are mutually beneficial to all.

Chapter Abstract: Communities need objective information to attract investments in workforce development that reinforce employers’ goals, employees’ educational attainment, and regional economic prosperity. The Graduate! Network’s Bridging the Talent Gap initiative is a locally focused, data-driven approach for building the case for employers to partner with their employees and their communities. The authors’ findings from a national survey show a valuable relationship exists between employers who provide learning benefits and employees who take advantage of these programs. Before this survey, much of the evidence to support that notion was not generalizable because of the success stories’ anecdotal nature. Research was consistently lacking data, particularly for midsized and smaller employers, which describe the nature of employer-provided educational benefits, need for those benefits, and affirmation of an employer’s return on investment.