As a follow-up to their 2024 Advancing Apprenticeships paper, the Indiana Fiscal Policy Institute (IFPI) has released an Indiana Employer Perspectives report – highlighting barriers, motivations and incentives for talent development across several industries and throughout the state.
While most employers are familiar with youth and adult training programs, engagement is limited – especially among smaller firms – primarily due to staffing capacity and financial concerns.
Takeaways for Small-to-Midsized AML Companies:
From Josh Rychtarczyk, Director of Strategic Insights
Cash is King – While there are often several barriers that companies are dealing with, smaller companies selected financial burden – rather than program compliance, staff availability or candidate quality – as the most common participation barrier to adult workforce training.
Keep it Simple – direct grants were selected by manufacturers as the most common preferred financial incentive. Over half of all small organization respondents selected wage subsidies, direct grants or reimbursements as “the most impactful” financial incentives to removing barriers.
Most manufacturers felt that the mid-tier financial incentive of $2,500-$4,999 per employee would be enough to remove training cost barriers.
Who Benefits vs. Who Pays – Manufacturers were roughly split on the belief that employers should cover most training costs vs. costs being evenly split with other entities.
Stretched for Staffing – Internal capacity is a formidable barrier, representing the most consistent obstacle across employer types. It’s easy to see how smaller manufacturing and logistics firms with limited internal scheduling flexibility could find challenges in supporting training efforts with the need to maintain production levels.
Trailing Large Agencies – When compared to organizations with over 50 employees, small organizations have lower levels of familiarity with (81% vs 85+%), and participation in (65% vs. 74%), adult workforce training programs.
Opportunity is There – Over 80% of employers said they would participate more in work-based learning if barriers were removed.
Conclusions and Policy Considerations
IFPI’s report recommends scaling financial incentives by sector and size, supporting intermediaries to handle compliance and coordination, and investing in dedicated talent development roles to strengthen Indiana’s manufacturing and logistics workforce ecosystem.
To that end, policies such as tailored grants, shared services, expanded intermediary organizations and other scaled incentive programs are highlighted as potential policy considerations – with a focus on assisting small employers facing relatively larger barriers in this space.
Emerging Resources
Indiana has several growing resources available to help companies navigate these challenges:
- Through its recently formed Industry Talent Association, Conexus Indiana collaborates with local intermediaries and statewide partners to expand employer access to training and work-based learning programs.
- The Indiana Chamber’s Indiana Work and Learn team administers the EARN program, which provides wage subsidies to employers who offer work-based learning opportunities to students from low-income households.
- Additionally, Ascend Indiana and the Richard M. Fairbanks Foundation have plans to announce new intermediary grant recipients to help further expand the work-based learning support infrastructure for employers across Indiana.