Policy Priorities
About Us
TPM uses supply chain management principles to transform education and workforce systems to be employer-led and demand-driven.
In TPM, employers act as the end customer of the talent supply chain, and are able to proactively organize and manage partnerships with educational institutions. TPM unlocks employer leadership and uses data to deliver an employer return on investment. In Tennessee, the Tennessee Business Roundtable is leading the effort to coordinate and support the TPM initiative in order to meet the workforce needs of our state.
TPM: AN EMPLOYER-LED SOLUTION TO CLOSE THE SKILLS GAP
A Business Driven Initiative
Mission
Use supply chain principles to create regional talent pipelines across Tennessee that are fluid and responsive to the needs of the local business community and provide a consistent flow of educated and skilled workforce participants.
Vision
Meet the workforce needs of Tennessee’s business community.
Foundational Principles
Employer Driven
Employers Drive Value Creation – Employers play a new leadership role as end customers in closing the skills gap for jobs most critical to their competitiveness.
Employer Organized
Employers Organize and Manage Talent Pipelines – Employers organize and manage flexible and responsive talent pipelines in partnership with other employers and their preferred education and workforce partners.
Employer Driven
Employers Drive Value Creation – Employers play a new leadership role as end customers in closing the skills gap for jobs most critical to their competitiveness.
3.5%
Tennessee’s unemployment rate as of December 2018
171,303
Current openings according to Jobs4TN.gov
In Tennessee
In Tennessee
Leadership & History
In early 2018, the Knoxville Chamber obtained funding to bring the TPM Academy™ model to Tennessee. From May through November 2018, representatives from local chambers, workforce development organizations, K-12 education, and higher education participated in three immersive two-day meetings. Participants learned how to use the six strategies above to organize employer members and orchestrate talent supply chains.
The first TPM Academy was completed in November 2018. Academy participants are starting to build employer collaboratives locally. These collaboratives will soon begin delivering the benefits of the TPM process as we build capacity and awareness across Tennessee.
As recommended by the Knoxville Chamber, the Tennessee Business Roundtable will now work to scale this initiative across Tennessee by leading our state’s TPM effort going forward.
Our next steps will include building stakeholder partnerships, creating a structure for TPM in Tennessee, and identifying funding for a statewide model and future TPM Academies.
The TPM Academy™ is an in-person training for state and local chamber, business association, and economic development agency leaders, as well as employers, to learn the TPM approach to drive partnerships with their education and training providers based on industry need.
Facilitated by the U.S. Chamber Foundation, the TPM Academy is supported by a customized curriculum that serves as an employer handbook and gives participants the knowledge, skills, and abilities to implement talent supply chain solutions on behalf of their employer collaborative members. In addition, the corresponding TPM web tool activates the six TPM strategies to streamline data collection and visualization for employer partners.
TPM Academy graduates become members of the TPM National Learning Network (NLN), ambassadors of the TPM approach that regularly collaborate to learn from one another’s successes and challenges implementing TPM projects, and collectively continue to grow the initiative.
READ MORE ABOUT 6 TPM STRATEGIES >>