Page 10 - Delaware Lawyer - Spring 2019

FEATURE
Jack Markell
Building a
Pathways to Prosperity and Zip Code Wilmington teach skills to match employer needs.
Most days that I served as Governor, I had at least two types of conversations. One conversation was with employers who told me that they had empty jobs to fill but they were unable to find skilled workers. In fact, during my tenure, I visited about 2,500 Delaware employers. When I asked them how Delaware’s state government could facilitate their success, more than 90 percent told me exactly the same thing: ensure they could hire a capable workforce.
8 DELAWARE LAWYER SPRING 2019
And the other conversation was with individuals who wanted a shot at work but who had difficulty finding employment. Those individuals could be returning veterans, people with disabili- ties, those who had been involved in our criminal justice system or those whose days in formal education did not prepare them for the demands of the modern-day workforce.
I decided that helping employers find new pipelines of talent and helping aspir- ing workers and entrepreneurs develop the skills they needed to be successful would be a major focus of my time as Governor.
Fortunately, we had many willing partners in this effort, including our state’s k-12 schools, higher education institutions, employers and many public-
minded citizens.
The work we did and the progress we
made providing new employment op- portunities for people with disabilities, returning veterans and those who had been incarcerated could certainly be the subject of a separate article. For the pur- poses of this one, I focus in on two main initiatives: Pathways to Prosperity and Zip Code Wilmington.
Pathways to Prosperity
Back in 2013, the Wilmington News Journal hosted an “Imagining Delaware” forum on Delaware’s economy. At the suggestion of Rodel President and CEO Paul Herdman, Bob Schwartz of Har- vard’s JFF (Jobs for the Future) initiative attended and talked about the efforts of the Pathways to Prosperity Network, or- ganized by JFF and operating across the
Capable Workforce