On Thursday September 8, in downtown Atlanta, the Metropolitan Atlanta Chamber of Commerce (MACOC) partnered with BLU and other regional chambers to host a dialogue with business leaders from a range of industries, including healthcare, IT, and construction. Participants talked about their individual challenges in attracting a skilled workforce, and explored collaborative opportunities to advance policy solutions for Georgia’s skills gap.  

 

The half-day event featured BLU Executive Committee member Mike Kenig, Vice-Chairman of Holder Construction. Kenig shared the benefits his company and his industry have gotten out of engaging with BLU, and talked about why he wanted to bring BLU to Georgia. Scott Burton, President of Whitaker-Taylor, moderated a panel that included Jessie Hogg Leslie, BLU Director, and Cinda Herndon-King, Director of Atlanta CareerRise. The topic of the panel discussion was policy and practice solutions that narrow the skills gap.   

 

A large portion of the meeting was spent in conversation, both in smaller group breakouts and through robust Q&A with the speakers. A clear consensus emerged: many firms and industries in the greater Atlanta region were not just challenged to find the skilled workers, they were struggling to find solutions on their own. MACOC and BLU have committed to a continued partnership, through a Georgia BLU effort, to create opportunities for the state’s employers to impact skills policy at the state and federal levels, and by facilitating Georgia’s involvement in national peer-to-peer exchanges of best practices.

 

Get the slides here.