Many of you who have read my CEO letters have undoubtedly noticed that I draw a great deal of my inspiration from my 30+-year career in manufacturing for a Japanese automotive manufacturer. That, coupled with nearly 12 months of partnership with Ascend’s stakeholders from industry, education and the public sector, has led me to recognize a common theme for 2024. It was a year focused on “kaizen,” also known as continuous improvement.

Indiana wrestles with a workforce participation rate that hovers around 63% while state leaders announce hundreds of companies moving to or expanding in Indiana and pouring billions in capital investment into the state. The challenge is clear: We need to create more pathways to employment for more Hoosiers.

This year, leaders have overwhelmingly aligned around a solution: Providing opportunities for students to explore careers and gain valuable skills by combining classroom education with learning opportunities in the workplace.

Thousands of stakeholders have dedicated time and resources to create the framework for statewide work-based learning opportunities for Hoosier students. Work-based learning opportunities include internships, apprenticeships and other opportunities for students to experience a work environment.

Here are just a few ways these pathways are coming to fruition:

• Hundreds of Indiana business, education, government and nonprofit leaders traveled to Switzerland eight times since 2017 to learn about the Swiss vocational and professional education and training system with the goal of building a system in Indiana that works for Hoosier students, employers and educators. Already, talent associations are working to identify the required knowledge, skills and competencies for occupations in the life sciences, healthcare, banking and advanced manufacturing and logistics sectors.
• Nonprofit organizations dedicated to workforce development have launched pilot youth apprenticeship programs in nearly every region of the state. To date, approximately 450 students and nearly 100 employers have participated in youth apprenticeship programs in fields such as healthcare, manufacturing and finance.
• The Indiana Department of Education spent the year sharing recommendations for new high school pathways that incorporate work-based learning opportunities for students. Indiana’s current graduation requirements will sunset October 1, 2028, making final requirements effective for all students beginning with the class of 2029.

Indiana is clearly a trailblazer in developing a statewide system for broad adoption of work-based learning and is achieving more success than most states. As I talk with leaders around the nation, they continually applaud Indiana’s collaborative approach and our collective focus on continuous improvement.

Ascend Indiana is committed to being a part of this continuous improvement movement and will direct much of its work enabling work-based learning in 2025 and beyond. As part of a continuous improvement mindset, we will use data to measure success, gaps and opportunities. We’re starting our work by creating a baseline understanding of the state’s work-based learning ecosystem. We also are enhancing our technology so we can track work-based learning programs, collect and analyze data to measure success and inform improvements and, ultimately, help match students to local experiences. Additionally, our team members will work with educators, employers and workforce intermediaries to develop work-based learning best practices, sharing those broadly for maximum impact.

I look forward to 2025 and working to provide more opportunities for more Hoosiers. I think work-based learning will be a game changer for our state, our students, our employers and more.