Statewide Workforce Forums Recap

A heartfelt thank you to all those who attended one of our 14 Workforce Forums conducted in concert with the Vermont Chamber of Commerce. Over the 2017 fall and winter, Betsy Bishop and Ashley Romeo-Boles of the Vermont Chamber gathered feedback on our Workforce & Talent data sets and answers to the question “Why Vermont?”

Two key findings from these events:

• There exists a strong agreement that the Vermont Futures Project’s data accurately reflects Vermont’s workforce reality.
• In an intriguing twist, responses to “Why Vermont” centered around “quality of life,” community and facets of Vermont’s outdoors, and far outpaced those related to jobs, business environment or workplaces.

Work is now underway to incorporate many of the offered ideas into a plan for the future, including recommendations for government and business.