NLET “Talent Markets Institute”

Extraordinary people work together to build coherence and technology-enhanced solutions across education, training, personal learning, and employment. Focused on the individual learner, we transform institutions and organizations towards equitable student access and success and well-paying, in-demand jobs.

States, agencies, institutions, workforce boards, and employers can no longer rely on a mixed bag of locally developed tools, licensed solutions, and varying data systems to coherently grow, connect, and track talent. Millions of job openings coexist with millions of individuals who cannot find clear pathways to stable employment — not because of a lack of programs, but because the architecture of the system is wrong.

Education, workforce development, and employment operate as three separate establishments with distinct rules, incentives, and data systems. Individuals are expected to navigate between them without a unified interface. Employers cannot signal demand clearly. Policymakers cannot see what is working.

Consumer expectations have been permanently reset by platforms like Expedia, Amazon, and LinkedIn. These systems organize complexity behind the scenes and give individuals full agency. Human capital systems have not made this shift — and AI is accelerating the gap by reshaping job roles faster than institutions can respond.