Find the Why! (FTW!) has launched as a workforce discovery platform that connects employer-defined requirements with demonstrated student performance, creating a scalable pipeline of visible, qualified young talent leading to five-star high school workforce recruits. Today, America’s talent pipeline is fragmented. Employers struggle to identify prepared young people, colleges face increasing pressure to link education with employment, and workforce leaders invest in programs that rarely produce the decision-ready talent data employers need.
The success of college football is based upon five-star recruits. FTW! brings that same approach to workforce development.
Young people earn visibility by showing what they can do. Employers and educational institutions define the qualifications that matter, drawing from FTW!’s proprietary bank of employer-valued micro-credentials, assessments including partner assessments, and real-world industry challenges. As students meet each requirement, FTW! unlocks employer-created opportunities. By the time employers meet FTW! students, they already know that these young people are completers who have demonstrated initiative and preparation.
“As employers, we’re looking for more than academic achievement,” said Katie Beach, SPHR, Vice President of People Strategy at Nebraska Medicine. “We want to see how young people solve problems, demonstrate initiative, and apply what they’ve learned in real-world settings. What makes this approach valuable is that it helps students tell a richer story about their potential while giving employers greater confidence in the talent pipeline of the future. It creates earlier, more meaningful connections between education, career exploration, and opportunity.”
For Montage Builders, FTW! solves a challenge shared by many companies recruiting younger talent. “We see FTW! as the new innovative way for us to move our talent recruitment into the high school space with efficiencies built around what matters most to Montage Builders. The challenge was reaching enough students and vetting them without being cost-prohibitive. This hurdle is faced by all companies recruiting high school students. The FTW! process allows us to build exactly what we at Montage Builders deem a perfect candidate, including earned micro-credentials, assessments that matter to us, background screening, and even training on our internal software platform before we interview and hire them. This allows us to stay focused on our daily business,” said Jerrica Panebianco, Director of Operations. The impact is visible in students like Monte, Montage Builders’ FTW! summer intern, whose experience illustrates how preparation leads directly to opportunity.
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Dell Nared Jr., Chief Workforce Excellence Officer at the Greater Omaha Chamber, sees this employer-school coordination as the foundation for regional scale. “The Westside solution represents a bold and necessary shift in how we prepare and connect our future workforce,” Nared said. “It delivers employers a new level of engagement and talent-pipeline development.”
For the Chamber, FTW! is more than a school initiative; it is a model for aligning education and industry around shared requirements, measurable development, and a visible pipeline of emerging talent. “It’s a model that aligns education and industry in a way that’s both sustainable and scalable,” Nared said.
At Westside Community Schools in Omaha, Nebraska, the model has moved beyond its pilot phase and will launch districtwide this fall. Students are not simply studying industries; they are producing evidence of their interests, learning capabilities, and potential workplace alignment.
“Even as a standalone classroom experience, these industry challenges are incredibly powerful, but the real magic happens when those challenges are connected to industry. Suddenly, great work can lead to recruitment for internships, company tours, and even careers. It creates opportunities students never knew existed and opens doors for every learner,” said Dr. Mark Weichel, Assistant Superintendent for Strategic Initiatives and Innovation.
Dr. Stacey Ocander, an expert in workforce and academic alignment, says, “FTW! ensures students are not simply coming to employers looking for a job—they are coming with a stronger understanding of who they are, what they bring to the workplace, and where they have an opportunity to grow. Employers can teach technical skills, but it is much harder to teach self-awareness, ownership, curiosity, and the willingness to grow. Find the Why! helps students begin developing those qualities before they ever walk through an employer’s door. We are ultimately helping them see themselves as part of the future of an organization and their community.”
In Omaha, Westside Community Schools, the Greater Omaha Chamber, and FTW! have built a coordinated model that starts with employer demand. Employers define what matters. Students demonstrate it. Schools connect it to foundational learning. Colleges extend the pathway. Workforce leaders measure the results. The launch of FTW! brings this model into a broader conversation about how workforce development can listen to employers first, giving students clearer opportunities to demonstrate what they can contribute to the workplace.