Education and Workforce Development

Building Pathways to the Future

Bridging business with education to create a more cohesive and stabilized local talent pipeline is more relevant and necessary now than ever before. The Chamber’s Education and Workforce Development department partners with Hawaii’s education, business, and community leaders to expand access to higher education, provide meaningful work-based learning opportunities and support homegrown talent to secure the future generation of Hawaii’s workforce.

The chamber is proud to launch Hawaii2Work: Securing Tomorrow’s Workforce Today to address Hawaii’s workforce shortage, help dislocated workers find jobs, and encourage our local business community to invest in their future workforce by participating in work-based learning with our local public schools.

Based on a Chamber survey conducted in July, 75% of respondents are still struggling to fill job openings and 59% are offering hiring incentives or raising wages.

Despite the challenging situation, we can work together to get Hawaii‘s economy thriving.

First, we invite Chamber members to consider carving time out to provide work-based learning with our public schools, either virtually or in-person. This can include speaking to a class about your industry, spending an hour participating in mock job interviews, or offering an internship.

We invite you to visit www.cochawaii.org/hawaii2work, take 1 minute to complete the form, and a member of our team will connect with you to support your companies’ involvement in work-based learning. The level of commitment and when you choose to participate is up to you.

Visit Hawaii2Work

Sector Partnerships

The Chamber, in partnership with the Workforce Development Council, brings industry leaders together with education, workforce development agencies, labor, and community organizations to address shared economic and workforce development opportunities.

Through collective action, Hawaii’s leaders collaborate around solutions that support talent pipeline development, growth and competitiveness of the sector.

Learn More About Sector Partnerships

Hawaii is Hiring is a one-stop resource designed to connect Hawaii residents impacted by COVID-19 with employment and training resources. It provides local job seekers and new graduates with a streamlined job board and simple access to training and education tools valued in Hawaiʻi’s in-demand and emerging industries.

Hawaii is Hiring also helps residents find local short-term certificate programs and earn-and-learn opportunities like internships and apprenticeships that provide workers of all ages with opportunities to gain new skills to re-enter the workforce.

We’re committed to helping Hawaiʻi residents impacted by COVID-19 find new employment and prepare for career paths that align with Hawaii’s economy of the future.

Visit Hawaii is Hiring

Career Exploration and Work Based Learning

The Chamber works in creating Career Exploration and Work-Based Learning (WBL) opportunities for our keiki through grant-funded sponsorships. WBL provides meaningful preparation and experiences for Hawai’i’s youth for the workforce such as site visits, job shadowing, mentoring, and internships. Through connecting businesses and schools, the Chamber hopes to build a strong pipeline for a readily employable homegrown talent network. The Chamber believes that this focus on employability will offer our youth with more opportunities for access to higher education, high-wage jobs, and exploration into their passions.

WBL Intermediary

As a WBL Intermediary, the Chamber offers a structure of support for schools and businesses to create WBL opportunities that are sustainable and liberatory for Hawai’i’s youth and teachers.

WBL Champions Network

The Chamber is proud to convene dedicated community partners who have a shared goal of making work-based learning in Hawaii more accessible, equitable and high quality. The WBL Champions ensure that WBL opportunities exist within the various Academy pathways offered in our Hawai’i schools.

Supporting Free Virtual Career and Technical Education Resources for Hawaii Students

The Chamber has partnered with the State’s Career & Technical Education (CTE) office to help Hawaii students impacted by the COVID-19 school closures continue their learning remotely through virtual career chats on Nepris.

We’ve seen an impressive show of support from various community members who were able to share their expertise and give our students a first-hand look at what it takes to succeed in their industry.

Tour Spotlight: Re-Use Hawaii

Mahalo to Quinn Vittum and the Re-use Hawaii team for providing a virtual tour to students in the American Job Center’s Work Hawaii Youth Program. Participants learned about reducing waste and sustainability, and the importance of professionalism on the job.

Click Here to Visit our Virtual Tour Page!

Other Initiatives We Support:

Talent Roadmap

This collaborative community initiative identifies recession-resilient career clusters and lays out actionable strategies that will help to create more jobs with family-sustaining wages for Hawai‘i’s people. This roadmap shows how state leaders can fill Hawai’i jobs with local workers, ensure employment for displaced workers, and create lasting and effective partnerships across education and industry.

Promising Credentials

An in-depth study has been conducted to identify the Industry-Recognized Credentials that Hawaii employers value most. Using labor market data and employer insights, the Promising Credentials in Hawaii Career Pathways project will ensure the workforce development efforts happening in our schools and communities match the demand to fill high skill positions in local businesses.

Click here to access the Promising Credentials kick-off webinar!

FAFSA Support

We support Hawaii P-20’s efforts to ensure Hawaii families complete the Federal Application for Federal Student Aid (FAFSA) to open the door to need-based federal financial aid and other merit-based scholarships.