Colorado Talent Academy Graduates First Cohort Focused on Regional Employer-Led Talent Solutions
The Academy graduation event highlighted teams’ collaborative plans designed to tackle real talent shortages.
Colorado Succeeds coordinated the inaugural Colorado Talent Academy in partnership with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation. Over the past several months, cross-sector regional teams built their skills in Talent Pipeline Management® (TPM), applying the framework to understand employer needs, analyze labor market data, and design effective, business-led talent solutions. During the in-person convening in August, teams exchanged insights, collaborated on regional talent plans, and built the shared understanding needed to translate TPM theory into action.
Each team presented their employer collaborative projects as the culminating marker of graduating from the Talent Academy. The projects are grounded in real regional data and workforce challenges identified by participants in industries such as skilled trades, technology, and advanced manufacturing.
These plans also complement and inform the Tactical Workforce Plans that emerged from the Opportunity Now Regional Talent Summits earlier this year, reinforcing the idea that talent solutions should be both data-informed and employer-led. With their new training and regional partnerships, all six teams intend to implement their codified approaches in 2026.
The academy is one of several strategies Colorado Succeeds is advancing to strengthen Colorado’s talent systems by ensuring business is at the table as partners, aligning education and employment systems, and supporting scalable, sustainable solutions. Colorado Succeeds will launch a second cohort in 2026 with a focus on employers in high-demand industries. We are also conducting TPM as a service and welcome partnerships with employers who are ready to engage in demand planning and build effective talent solutions.
We are proud of the work and dedication these teams brought to the first Colorado Talent Academy, and we look forward to seeing how these ideas evolve into meaningful action. You can view each team’s plan below.
