Expanding Hawaiʻi’s Water Workforce with WAI—Opportunities & Innovations

Join us for an in-depth presentation on strengthening Hawaiʻi’s workforce through WAIʻs Work-4-Water initiative and the EPA Innovative Water Infrastructure Workforce Development Program. This webinar will build on insights shared by Gabby at the recent Pacific Water Conference, with added focus on workforce-specific challenges and solutions, including:

• Hawaiʻi’s Job Market & Sector-Specific Shortages: Addressing critical workforce gaps in water and wastewater management.

• Expanding Work-Based Learning: Enhancing pathways for wastewater careers through hands-on training and industry collaboration.

• Customizing Career Pathways: Supporting entry and advancement with tailored workforce solutions.

• Addressing Geographical Disparities: Leveraging hybrid learning models to increase accessibility and equity.

As we expand these efforts in Hawaiʻi, this session will provide a collaborative space for industry leaders, educators, and workforce professionals to discuss strategies for developing a skilled and resilient water workforce.

Exploring Career Navigation from a national perspective: Insights into Action

In 2023, our national network partner, the National Fund for Workforce Solutions, launched a research initiative to better understand career navigation across the country. From Boston to San Francisco, Chicago to Birmingham, workers shared diverse experiences that revealed a key insight—career navigation works best when workers have the power to shape their own journeys.

Now, we’re turning those insights into action. The National Fund is partnering with employers in eight regions to apply human-centered design approaches that improve career navigation and workforce development. This session will highlight key lessons, early results, and real-world applications from two regions and sectors. Employer partners will share successes, challenges, and the impact of these innovative strategies.

Join us on Wednesday, March 26, from 8:00–9:30 AM HST (2:00–3:30 PM Eastern) to explore how these insights can be applied locally in Hawai‘i. Using Human-Centered Design concepts and tools as another opportunity for learning, un-learning and engagement with workforce issues impacting our communities, together we can leverage worker insights and implement best practices to build a resilient sustainable and thriving workforce here in Hawaiʻi.

The State of Healthcare in Hawaiʻi: Key Insights from HAHʻs 2024 Workforce Report

A Webinar on The State of Healthcare in Hawaiʻi: Key Insights & Innovations from HAHʻs 2024 Workforce Report

Discover the latest insights into Hawaiʻi’s evolving healthcare workforce with Janna Hoshide, AVP of Workforce Development at the Healthcare Association of Hawaiʻi (HAH)—representing 170 healthcare organizations across the full continuum of care.

We’ll dive into key findings from the Hawaiʻi Healthcare Workforce Initiative’s 2024 Report, highlighting how strategic collaborations between industry, community, government, and education have helped reduce the state’s healthcare job openings over the past two years. Yet, with demand for healthcare professionals still surging and workforce shortages impacting patient care, how can we continue strengthening the talent pipeline and supporting the next generation of healthcare workers?

Join us as we explore:

• Hawaiʻi’s latest healthcare workforce trends

• Innovative solutions addressing critical staffing challenges

• Opportunities to shape the future of healthcare in our islandsWhether you're a healthcare professional, educator, policymaker, community leader, or engaged citizen, this conversation is vital to ensuring a strong, sustainable healthcare workforce for Hawaiʻi.

Date: Friday, March 14th 2025

Time: 10:30 am - 11:30 am HST

Access the 2024 HAH Healthcare Workforce report here.

Webinar Resources

A resilient and inclusive workforce is essential to Hawai‘i’s future. 

Last month we launched our report: From Crisis to Opportunity: Building Hawai‘i’s Workforce Resilience, which highlights the urgent challenges facing our workforce and provides a bold vision to ensure economic stability and prosperity for all.

This resource outlines strategic, data-driven solutions to address workforce shortages, improve job quality, and create equitable career pathways—especially for underserved communities. It also provides actionable steps for policymakers, employers, educators, and workforce leaders to drive real change.

🔹 What You’ll Learn:
✅ The current state of Hawai‘i’s workforce & key challenges
✅ Strategies to expand access to family-sustaining careers
✅ Opportunities for businesses, educators, and policymakers to take action
✅ A roadmap to ensure Hawai‘i’s workforce is future-ready by 2035

Webinar Resources

Discover the defining qualities of "Good Jobs in Hawai'i'' in an engaging session that examines the topic through a dual lens.  First, we will share the voices and experiences of communities across the state, exploring how their insights shape our understanding of job quality. We will then examine the publicly available data that supports these community narratives, providing a comprehensive view of what makes a job "good" and its impact on both job-seekers and employers.

Understanding these distinctions through publicly available data can enhance our knowledge of the labor market, highlight equity of access to quality employment, and serve as a foundation for partnerships aimed at developing meaningful and sustainable employment across the state. Join us to gain a deeper insight into what creates equitable access to good jobs for all Hawai'i residents, and learn how these factors contribute to a thriving local economy. This interactive session promises to provide valuable perspectives on aligning job quality with the needs and aspirations of Hawai'i’s workforce.

Webinar Resources

In the realm of workforce development, additional layers of processes, forms, and records often inadvertently create hurdles for program enrollment. These “extra” barriers are sometimes rooted in unintentional yet personal biases, impeding equitable access and participation from the vulnerable communities for which these programs were intended to serve.

Explore how these obstacles arise, their impact on program enrollment, and strategies to counter and diminish biases within workforce development processes. Don't miss this chance to glean insights and tools for forging more inclusive and accessible pathways in workforce development.

Webinar Resources

Our first session, held on Thursday, March 28th, brought to the forefront an invaluable discussion on "Strategies for Skills-Based Hiring," featuring Vanessa Rogers, Associate Vice President of Workforce Development at the Chamber of Commerce Hawaiʻi.

This enlightening webinar provided attendees with a deep dive into the transformative approach of skills-based hiring. Vanessa Rogers led us through the intricacies of identifying, assessing, and selecting candidates not just based on traditional qualifications but their specific skills and competencies. This method opens new doors for employers and job seekers alike, fostering a more inclusive and dynamic workforce.

Highlights of the session included:

• Identifying Key Skills: Understanding what competencies are essential for success in your organization and how to pinpoint them.

• Overcoming Barriers: Discussing common obstacles to skills-based recruitment and strategies to navigate these challenges.

• Integrating Skills Assessments: Recognizing the value of incorporating skills assessments into the hiring process to identify the best candidates.

• Embracing Alternative Credentials: How to broaden your candidate pool by valuing diverse forms of qualification.

• Fostering Talent Development: Providing training and development opportunities to not only attract but retain top talent.

We extend our heartfelt thanks to Vanessa Rogers for sharing her expertise and insights, paving the way for a more skill-focused hiring landscape in Hawaiʻi.

Webinar Resources

On 12/7/23, HWFC had an opportunity to present the findings of our "A Good Job in Hawaiʻi" framework in a webinar hosted by Chamber of Commerce Hawaiʻi. We had the chance to share our learnings with employers, industry representatives, and training providers -- and we had the opportunity to engage these stakeholders directly on how we might all best support workers in finding and retaining the types of jobs they are asking for.

Watch the recording of the webinar to learn about our work — if you are a stakeholder who is already adopting some of these ideas, an employer that has questions about the things you can do to create the types of jobs described in the report, or if you just have comments or ideas about where this work can go next, please reach out to us.

Webinar Resources