Opportunity NOW is a coordinated initiative launched by Mayor Megan Barry to provide young people in Davidson County access to employment. In Nashville, we have seen fewer and fewer teenagers and young adults working during the summers and after-school. At the same time, Nashville employers across various industries are concerned about the lack of “soft” skills among their youngest employees—skills most readily learned through actual work experience.

The initiative was created based on recommendations from the Mayor’s Youth Violence Summit as a way to connect youth to opportunity and to hope. Opportunity NOW is designed to combat the growing gap in opportunity and will become the much needed system for delivering employment and employment-like opportunities for young people.

The Opportunity NOW Program runs on a completely supported implementation of Workbay’s fully comprehensive workforce development platform that includes career exploration, online training and educational resources that align with internship interests and an online portfolio builder.  The portal also provides internship posting capabilities and a full applicant tracking system for organizations in the community.

MemphisWorks, developed with the Greater Memphis Alliance for a Competitive Workforce (GMACWorkforce), was launched to bridge the employment gap in Memphis where there is an estimated 16,396 open jobs and yet 22,999 Memphis who remain unemployed.  

MemphisWorks links recruitment, skill building and career navigation into one comprehensive system reflective of the economic demand in the Greater Memphis Area.

MemphisWorks features Career Profile videos of people in Memphis working in the top 300+ in-demand careers, explaining their pathway in the booming local industries of Manufacturing, Health Sciences, Construction, Information Technology, and Transportation, Distribution & Logistics.

MemphisWorks includes a mobile iOs and Android app that allows job seekers to search and apply for jobs around their location, explore career pathways and take online and local classroom training that badges their resume.

MemphisWorks highlights local education and training opportunities that job seekers can explore based on their desired career pathway and based on the demand in their local community.

Join the movement to develop Middle Tennessee’s Tech Ecosystem! We Build Tech is an online platform designed to develop and connect the entire Middle Tennessee technology community. Businesses, job seekers, students, educators and other community members can use WeBuildTech.com to explore careers, discover opportunities, build skills, and grow networks. By combining discovery, training, and connection, We Build Tech will amplify our region’s tech industry.

The Nashville Technology Council develops, connects and promotes the Middle Tennessee technology community. Since its formation in 1999, the NTC’s membership has grown to more than 400 organizations interested in supporting the growth of technology businesses. With the technology sector serving as the leading area of growth in Nashville, the Nashville Technology Council and We Build Tech are committed to building the next generation of tech in Middle Tennessee. We’re excited the be a part of the movement to be the best place in the US for tech!

The Workplace Foundations for Leadership (WFL) program focuses on developing skills and attitudes that will help inform an employee’s readiness to be considered for promotion to a first-level management position. Our curriculum currently covers topics under the context of the Retail, Hospitality and Foodservice industries, including Supply Chain awareness. Hosted on the Workbay platform, our goal is to be the best place to recruit and retain hourly workers and help them grow into their next position.

The WFL program is beginning with a library of 30 hours of online content, available as personalized mobile learning, that will be published along with lesson plans integrated to school curriculum. The program builds on content that is informed by Workbay’s experience over many years of developing training for large Retail, Hospitality and Food Industry organizations. The content will be freely available online and through native Android and iOS apps.

As learners complete training through the program, they get badges on their resumes, and are guided to career opportunities with participating employers supporting the program.

Re-Entry to the Workforce 

Workbay offers an offline system that houses an entire database of learning, career exploration and portfolio building functionality. Content is provided by small internally-hosted offline servers whose data can then be transmitted to update the global system.

After release, individuals are able to access the online system and continue their journey while maintaining their previous data and training badges.

Workbay integrates with the job readiness training in the classroom to prepare inmates with the tools they need for successful re-entry to the workforce.