Authored by Prince Ohilebo Garuba, Executive Director, Ohio Association of Goodwill Industries, Columbus, Ohio
In my earlier article, I wrote that talent is the new infrastructure. The next question is: how do cities build it? When the interstate system was conceived, it did not happen overnight. Cities and states began with a master plan, mapping routes, setting standards and coordinating designs so that local roads connected seamlessly to a national network. The same must be true for workforce systems. Cities need a talent master plan, a blueprint that aligns education, employers and training systems so that local pathways connect to regional and national opportunities.
If talent is infrastructure, then we must ask: how do we build it? Like the construction of highways, building “human infrastructure” begins with a clear and intentional blueprint.
The Blueprint
When President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed the Federal-Aid Highway Act into law in 1956, one key provision required every state to submit a connected, standardized plan before receiving federal funding. This requirement ensured accountability, as the federal government wanted to see a clear return on investment. Economically, it also spurred competition among the states, since those that could demonstrate the greatest impact of federal investment on economic growth, commerce and mobility were more likely to receive funding.
The process required states to plan strategically, collaborate regionally and engage key stakeholders, from engineers and local governments to private contractors and community planners. The result was one of the most coordinated and transformative infrastructure projects in American history.
Now, let’s frame this in the context of talent and workforce infrastructure. Cities today must develop a comprehensive workforce blueprint that cuts across industries and sectors. In the workforce development field, we often talk about the “workforce ecosystem,” but the true test of an ecosystem is how seamlessly its parts connect. If cities want to remain competitive, the public sector, education systems at both the K–12 and higher education levels, community-based organizations and businesses must come together to create a shared and actionable blueprint.
This blueprint should outline the distinct yet interconnected roles of each stakeholder, clarifying who provides technical assistance, who drives innovation and who scales programs most effectively. A well-designed blueprint does not simply reflect collaboration, it demonstrates shared investment and strategy. When cities can show not just coordination, but genuine mutual investment in this new form of infrastructure, state and federal agencies are far more likely to invest in them. It signals readiness, vision and long-term impact, the same factors that once determined where highways were built.
One of the best real-world examples is Columbus, Ohio, known for its “Columbus Way.” A Harvard Business School case study coined that term to describe how public, private, nonprofit and academic actors in Columbus collaborated around shared goals. This cross-sector partnership helped catalyze major initiatives in downtown development, mobility and innovation. According to Brookings, Columbus transformed a $50 million U.S. Department of Transportation Smart City Challenge awarded over $500 million in coordinated investments, largely through alignment among civic and business leaders.
Rethinking Funding
Programs cost money, but the return on investment is often far greater than the original expenditure. According to the Ray Marshall Center at the University of Texas (PDF), the five-year net return on investment for workforce programs is approximately 600 percent, meaning every public dollar invested yields about six dollars in return. Over a ten-year period, that figure rises to roughly 800 percent, or eight dollars for every dollar spent. This evidence underscores why cities must rethink how they fund workforce development, not only to sustain training pipelines but also to remain competitive in an evolving labor market.
It is no secret that many states and cities rely heavily on the nation’s largest workforce funding source, the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA), which has supported one-stop centers and job training programs for decades. While these programs have proven effective, sustaining them demands creative and sustainable funding strategies. Within every talent blueprint, there must be a well-structured, long-term funding plan that clearly defines how the public sector, businesses and philanthropic organizations contribute to the system.
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation’s 2020 report, “Talent Finance: A New Consensus and Return-on-Investment,” highlights that private sector investment in workforce training has steadily declined over the years, even as employer demand for skilled labor has risen. The study calls for a new public–private “talent finance” model that engages employers as co-investors in talent development, shares financial risk between sectors and rewards measurable outcomes rather than one-time program activities.
Recent data reinforce the urgency of this shift. A 2022 Urban Institute analysis found that while state spending on workforce development more than doubled between 2011 and 2020, federal investment in employment and training programs declined during the same period. This growing imbalance underscores the need for local innovation and diversification in funding strategies. When paired with foundational support from programs like WIOA, these public, private and philanthropic investments can stimulate not only workforce talent but also regional economic development by creating a consistent stream of well-trained workers ready to meet the demands of emerging industries.
Adapting Education to a Shifting Labor Market
A consistent critique of the nation’s education and workforce systems is that they make career shifts difficult and costly for workers. According to a McKinsey Global Institute analysis, as many as 12 million U.S. workers may need to transition to new occupations by 2030 due to automation and technological disruption. More recent research from McKinsey & Company found that up to 30 percent of hours worked in the U.S. could be automated by 2030, accelerating these labor shifts. Yet fewer than half of workers report access to affordable, flexible training that would enable such transitions.
This gap reveals a fundamental weakness in how we prepare people to move fluidly across industries as the economy evolves. The question cities must now answer is this: how can we, in collaboration with our local schools, create an education system that is primed for labor shifts at every stage of the economy? The emergence of artificial intelligence has brought this question to the forefront. AI is reshaping industries faster than traditional training and credentialing systems can adapt, exposing how rigid many local education-to-employment pathways have become.
Cities must work closely with K–12 districts, community colleges and universities to design systems that build both foundational and transferable skills so that workers are prepared not just for their first job but for their next one. This means embedding lifelong learning opportunities into the fabric of local education systems and aligning them with regional labor data. A city’s ability to attract and retain employers will increasingly depend on how quickly its residents can retrain and redeploy their skills as industries evolve.
Bringing It All Together
Building talent as infrastructure requires more than vision; it demands structure, alignment and investment. Just as the Federal-Aid Highway Act reshaped America’s economic landscape through coordinated planning, sustainable funding and continuous maintenance, cities must now take the same disciplined approach to developing human capital. A clear blueprint, coupled with innovative financing and adaptable education systems, can transform local economies, strengthen regional competitiveness and ensure that opportunity moves as freely as commerce once did along America’s highways.
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