We’re evolving school-to-work systems across Colorado

By Reanna Werner, Co-Founder & Chief Problem Solver, Savvion HQ When we talk about Colorado’s workforce challenges, the conversation often starts with hiring. Employers need more applicants. They need stronger applicants. They need people who show up, communicate, solve problems, stay through the hard parts, and grow into leadership. From my vantage point as co-founder of Savvion HQ, I spend much of my work alongside small business owners who are trying to grow responsibly while navigating real-time challenges in hiring, payroll, HR, compliance, leadership, and retention. I am also helping shape the Careers in Hospitality initiative in partnership with the Pikes Peak Workforce Center and Visit Colorado Springs, which has given me an even closer look at how these workforce pressures are playing out across one of our region’s most people-centered industries. What I see is this: hiring is not the whole story. Hiring is the symptom. The deeper issue is that our education, workforce, and employer systems are still too often operating in separate lanes, while employers are trying to navigate one very real, very connected road. That disconnect is especially visible in hospitality and tourism. Hospitality is one of the most people-centered industries in our region. It is also one of the most misunderstood. Too often, students and families see hospitality as a temporary job, not a career pathway. But those of us working closely with employers know the industry is full of opportunities in operations, management, sales, events, culinary, finance, maintenance, marketing, guest experience, and entrepreneurship. The challenge is that the pathway is not always visible. Through Careers in Hospitality, we are working to build a clearer education-to-workforce pathway for one of the Pikes Peak region’s most people-centered industries. This work is being modeled in part after Careers in Construction, a highly successful local program that has already shown what is possible when industry, education, and workforce partners come together around a shared talent pipeline. Their support and guidance have been invaluable as we think through how to adapt a proven framework to the hospitality and tourism sector. We recently had the opportunity to work with MBA graduates from UCCS who used our program as their capstone project. They surveyed hospitality and tourism executives and general managers across the Pikes Peak region to better understand workforce challenges, skill gaps, and employer interest in education-to-workforce partnerships. The report included 39 valid responses from hotels, attractions, event venues, food and beverage businesses, cultural and historic centers, sports and community organizations, transportation services, and other tourism-adjacent organizations. The results were not shocking, but they were clarifying. Employers identified wage competition as their top workforce challenge at 56%, followed closely by hiring qualified candidates at 51% and leadership pipeline concerns at 49%. Retention, attendance and reliability, and scheduling availability each came in at 38%. That tells us something important. Employers are not facing one isolated hiring problem. They are dealing with a layered workforce challenge that includes compensation pressure, readiness gaps, reliability concerns, and a shortage of emerging leaders. The skill gaps were even more telling. Employers reported that today’s applicant pool is lacking communication skills at 74%, time management and prioritization at 72%, customer service at 69%, and customer service techniques at 67%. On the behavior side, the top gaps were resilience at 74%, work ethic and reliability at 72%, service mindset at 72%, and resourcefulness and problem-solving at 72%. These skills are often referred to as soft skills, but that term no longer fully captures their value. Across education and workforce conversations, many organizations are now describing them as durable skills or power skills because they travel across roles, industries, and career stages. I prefer durable skills because that is exactly what they are: skills that hold their value even as technology, job duties, and industries change. In hospitality, communication is not soft. It is the difference between a frustrated guest and a loyal customer. Reliability is not soft. It determines whether a team can function during peak season. Problem-solving is not soft. It is what allows an employee to handle the moment when the reservation is wrong, the room is not ready, the event timeline shifts, or the customer is upset. And this is where AI becomes part of the workforce conversation, not a separate conversation. AI is already changing how employers think about entry-level work. Tasks that are repetitive, administrative, or easily standardized will continue to be supported or reshaped by technology. That does not mean entry-level workers become less important. It means the expectations for entry-level workers are changing. The young person entering the workforce now will need to be comfortable with technology, but technology alone will not make them successful. They will need to know how to ask better questions, interpret information, communicate clearly, adapt in real time, and use good judgment. In a service-based industry like hospitality, they will also need to do the human work that AI cannot replace: reading the room, calming a tense interaction, building trust, showing empathy, and creating an experience that feels personal. That is why durable skills are not secondary to technical training. They are the foundation that makes technical training useful. For employers, AI may eventually help with scheduling, guest communication, training, marketing, revenue management, and back-office functions. But if the workforce pipeline is already struggling with communication, resilience, reliability, and problem-solving, then technology will not solve the core issue by itself. In some ways, it raises the bar. Employees will need both digital confidence and human readiness. That gives education-to-workforce programs a clear assignment. We cannot prepare students only for the tasks that exist today. We have to prepare them for workplaces where technology is changing the task list, but human judgment still determines the outcome. The survey also showed where the pressure is greatest. The hardest roles to fill were maintenance and facilities at 51%, managers and assistant managers at 41%, front desk and guest services at 38%, housekeeping at 38%, and culinary roles at 33%. That matters because some of the most difficult roles to fill are also some of the most important for career exposure. Front desk employees often become the central nervous system of a hotel. Maintenance roles can lead to stable, skilled, well-paying careers. Housekeeping is essential to guest experience and brand reputation. Supervisors and assistant managers become the bridge between entry-level talent and long-term leadership. If students never see those roles as meaningful career pathways, we lose them before they ever enter the pipeline. At the same time, employers are being honest about their capacity. When asked how much time their organization could commit to a workforce development program, 51% said occasional participation, meaning one to two times per year. Another 31% said they could commit to quarterly engagement, while only 15% said they could support ongoing advisory, hosting, or mentoring. That is not a lack of interest. It is a reality check. Employers want to help, but many are running lean. Their biggest limitations were time constraints at 92%, staffing levels at 56%, and cost at 38%. For small and mid-sized businesses especially, goodwill is not the barrier. Capacity is. That means our workforce solutions have to be designed differently. If we want employers to participate, we need to meet them where they are. We need to reduce friction. We need to create clear, practical ways for businesses to contribute without asking them to take on another full-time project. We need to build models that respect employer capacity while still giving students meaningful exposure. One promising approach is project-based learning. Instead of asking an employer to build an entire program from scratch, the employer identifies a real business challenge. Students work on that challenge with guidance. The employer receives useful ideas, fresh perspective, and a tangible result. Students gain exposure to the industry, build durable skills, and begin to understand how classroom learning connects to actual work. That is the kind of partnership employers appear ready for. In the survey, 82% identified better job readiness as a priority outcome, 79% said a stronger applicant pool would matter most, 56% pointed to faster hiring, and 56% pointed to leadership pipeline development. The opportunity is there. The design has to be right. That is one reason the example set by Careers in Construction matters so much. They have helped demonstrate that career pathways become more real for students when employers are organized, educators are supported, and the program structure is clear. Careers in Hospitality is being developed with that same spirit: practical, employer-informed, and built around exposure, readiness, and real opportunity. For Careers in Hospitality, that means starting with attainable goals. We have to prove value early. We have to build trust. We have to show employers that their participation leads to better-prepared students, stronger applicants, and a clearer talent pipeline. It also means helping students see hospitality differently . One respondent said the region needs more awareness that careers in tourism exist beyond being a tour guide. Another pointed to the need to transform the sector from a temporary job model into a professional career pathway. Others highlighted advancement from front desk to management, operations, sales, marketing, maintenance, events, and leadership. That is the story we need to tell. Hospitality is not just a first job. It can be a first step. It can teach durable skills like communication, emotional intelligence, problem-solving, leadership, financial awareness, customer experience, and operational discipline. Those skills transfer across industries, but they can also build long-term careers right here in Colorado. What gives me optimism is that this is not an unsolvable problem. We have employers who care. We have educators who want students to succeed. We have workforce leaders asking better questions. We have students who are capable of rising when they are given exposure, guidance, and a real path forward. But we have to build the connective tissue. Employers need to be clearer about the skills they need and more willing to help shape learning experiences. Educators need stronger bridges to industry so students can see pathways earlier. Workforce leaders need to design programs that are useful, not just well-intentioned. Policymakers need to support flexible, local models that can respond to actual employer needs. Colorado’s workforce future will not be solved by one program, one policy, or one sector working alone. It will be built through practical partnerships that respect everyone’s reality. Students need clarity. Employers need capacity-conscious ways to engage. Communities need pathways that lead somewhere meaningful. If we do this well, we will not just fill open jobs. We will help young people see a future for themselves in Colorado’s economy, and we will help employers become active builders of the talent they hope to hire. Data points are drawn from the April 2026 Pikes Peak Region Hospitality & Tourism Workforce Development Survey Industry Needs Assessment Report and survey output charts.

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