OHIO WORKFORCE COALITION

Big Insights From Small Businesses:
Why Employers Have to Say About
Hiring & Skills Challenges

Thursday, June 25, 2026 | 1:00-2:00pm

In June, Jeran Culina, Senior Manager of Business Leaders United (BLU) at the National Skills Coalition, will discuss findings from a national study gathering information on how small businesses approach hiring and skills assessment. In this session, you will learn:

• What employers need from workforce and public sector partners in order to increase skills-based hiring and understand short-term credentials,

• The information gaps businesses identified as barriers to skills-based hiring,

• How leading small businesses approach hiring and skills assessment,

• What you can do to improve your organization's hiring and skills assessment approach, 

• How workforce and education organizations can use findings from this study to evaluate potential employer partners, and

• What adults across the U.S. think about skills training.

Jeran Culina is the Senior Manager of Business Leaders United (BLU). BLU is a national business network comprised of leaders from small and medium-sized enterprises that represent  a range of industry sectors who are concerned about our nation’s skills mismatch and promote public investments in skills training and education that prepare America’s workers for jobs in the 21st Century economy. Jeran manages the implementation of engaging and expanding the BLU network..