Connecting Talent to Opportunity (CTO) Challenge

Connecting Talent to Opportunity (CTO) Challenge is sponsored by U.S. Department of Education. Funds projects using AI to connect talent to opportunities via skills-based systems, with potential for AI therapist tools in education and workforce development.

Official opportunity description and requirements excerpt:

Connecting Talent to Opportunity: A National Challenge to Build Talent Marketplaces | U.S. Department of Education An official website of the United States government Official websites use .gov A .gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States. Secure .gov websites use HTTPS ) or https:// means you’ve safely connected to the .gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites. U.S. Department of Education U.S. Department of Education Higher Education Homepage Find a College or Educational Program Federal Student Aid (FSA) Career and Technical Education Information for Military Families and Veterans 8 Keys to Veteran Success Vocational Rehabilitation Adult Education and Family Literacy Act (AEFLA) Birth to Grade 12 Education Birth to Grade 12 Education Homepage Early Childhood Education Research on Early Learning Elementary and Secondary Education Locate a school or district Find Your State’s Performance Report Career and Technical Education Resources for Parents and Students Family Partnership and Engagement Student Records and Privacy Laws related to Preschool to Grade 12 Education Students with disabilities Teaching and Administration Homepage Lead and Manage My School Student Engagement and Attendance Center Safe Learning Environments Disaster and Emergency Response School Safety and Security Research-Based Practices (What Works Clearinghouse) Kids’ Zone Educator Corner Grants and Programs Homepage Pell Grants and Scholarships Getting Started with Grant Applications Grants for Birth to Grade 12 Grants for Higher Education Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education (FIPSE) Grants for Special Populations Students with Disabilities Economically Disadvantaged Students US Presidential Scholars Program Preschool to Grade 12 Education Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) Preschool to Grade 12 Education Policy Individuals with Disabilities Section 504 and 504 Plans Connecting Talent to Opportunity: A National Challenge to Build Talent Marketplaces Nick Moore, Acting Assistant Secretary, Office of Career, Technical, and Adult Education, U.S. Department of Education The United States is facing a defining workforce challenge: low labor force participation. The U.S. labor force participation rate peaked at 67.3 percent in March 2000 and now stands at approximately 62.5 percent. Returning to the high-water mark would add more than 10 million Americans to the labor force, which is enough to fill every open job in the country. Even a one-percentage-point increase would bring over 3 million people back into the workforce. Nationally, more than one in ten young people aged 16–24 are disconnected from both school and work, while many adults face barriers to reentry due to credential opacity, benefits cliffs, or misalignment between education and employer needs. Low labor force participation and skills gaps are especially

Application snapshot: target deadline rolling deadlines or periodic funding windows; published funding information $15,000,000 total available; eligibility guidance Postsecondary education institutions and related organizations

Use the official notice and source links for final requirements, attachment checklists, allowable costs, and submission instructions before applying.

Connecting Talent to Opportunity: A National Challenge to Build Talent Marketplaces | U. S. Department of Education An official website of the United States government Official websites use .

gov A . gov website belongs to an official government organization in the United States. Secure .

gov websites use HTTPS ) or https:// means you’ve safely connected to the . gov website. Share sensitive information only on official, secure websites.

U. S. Department of Education U.

S.

Department of Education Higher Education Homepage Find a College or Educational Program Federal Student Aid (FSA) Career and Technical Education Information for Military Families and Veterans 8 Keys to Veteran Success Vocational Rehabilitation Adult Education and Family Literacy Act (AEFLA) Birth to Grade 12 Education Birth to Grade 12 Education Homepage Early Childhood Education Research on Early Learning Elementary and Secondary Education Locate a school or district Find Your State’s Performance Report Career and Technical Education Resources for Parents and Students Family Partnership and Engagement Student Records and Privacy Laws related to Preschool to Grade 12 Education Students with disabilities Teaching and Administration Homepage Lead and Manage My School Student Engagement and Attendance Center Safe Learning Environments Disaster and Emergency Response School Safety and Security Research-Based Practices (What Works Clearinghouse) Kids’ Zone Educator Corner Grants and Programs Homepage Pell Grants and Scholarships Getting Started with Grant Applications Grants for Birth to Grade 12 Grants for Higher Education Fund for the Improvement of Postsecondary Education (FIPSE) Grants for Special Populations Students with Disabilities Economically Disadvantaged Students US Presidential Scholars Program Preschool to Grade 12 Education Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA) Preschool to Grade 12 Education Policy Individuals with Disabilities Section 504 and 504 Plans Connecting Talent to Opportunity: A National Challenge to Build Talent Marketplaces Nick Moore, Acting Assistant Secretary, Office of Career, Technical, and Adult Education, U.

S. Department of Education The United States is facing a defining workforce challenge: low labor force participation. The U.

S. labor force participation rate peaked at 67. 3 percent in March 2000 and now stands at approximately 62.

5 percent. Returning to the high-water mark would add more than 10 million Americans to the labor force, which is enough to fill every open job in the country. Even a one-percentage-point increase would bring over 3 million people back into the workforce.

Nationally, more than one in ten young people aged 16–24 are disconnected from both school and work, while many adults face barriers to reentry due to credential opacity, benefits cliffs, or misalignment between education and employer needs.

Low labor force participation and skills gaps are especially acute in manufacturing, construction, and other skilled trades, where for every five workers who retire, only two replacements enter the workforce. By 2030, an estimated 2. 1 million skilled trades jobs could go unfilled, with potential economic losses reaching $1 trillion annually.

In sectors such as shipbuilding, nuclear energy, aerospace, and artificial intelligence, closing the skills gaps is not only an economic imperative, but also a matter of national competitiveness and national security. To tackle this growing crisis, the U. S.

Department of Education is launching the Connecting Talent to Opportunity (CTO) Challenge , a state-led national competition and capacity-building initiative, which officially launches today, January 13, 2026. This challenge will help states design, build, and scale integrated Talent Marketplaces that connect learning to employment and make skills visible, verifiable, and portable.

What the CTO Challenge Is Designed to Do The CTO Challenge is a national call to action for states to build stronger, more connected education-to-workforce systems through interoperable Talent Marketplaces.

These marketplaces integrate credential registries and Learning and Employment Records (LERs) and leverage artificial intelligence to connect job seekers, employers, and education and training providers through skills-based job descriptions. At their core, Talent Marketplaces allow skills to be translated, transcribed, and transacted as machine-readable, industry-recognized competencies.

By making learning count wherever it occurs – whether through degrees, certificates, apprenticeships, military service, or on-the-job experience – the CTO Challenge will support skills-based hiring, expand access to high-quality career pathways, and strengthen labor force participation.

Talent Marketplaces are designed to save employers time and money during the hiring process, and Talent Marketplaces also make postsecondary education and training more affordable for Americans by allowing individuals to translate and transact skills they have already earned towards advanced standing in training and education programs including registered apprenticeships. What Is a Talent Marketplace?

Under the CTO Challenge, a Talent Marketplace is defined as a publicly available platform that include the following integrated components: LERs to allow individuals to develop and share verified, portable resumes; Credential registry to make degree and non-degree credentials transparent and to link them to verified competencies; Skills-based job description generators to enable employers to define jobs based on required skills rather than proxies such as degrees alone; and Artificial intelligence tools to connect learners, workers, employers, and education and training providers.

Together, these components form the infrastructure for a national skills currency, enabling education and workforce systems to speak a common language of competencies. The launch of the CTO Challenge marks the beginning of a multi-phase national competition and capacity-building effort.

Participating states will: Engage in informational webinars and technical briefings; Assemble interdisciplinary teams spanning education, workforce, industry, and technologists; and Develop action plans that demonstrate strong collaboration, governance, and interoperability commitments.

As the Challenge progresses, semi-finalists and finalists will receive: Tailored technical assistance; Direct engagement with technologists, standards bodies, and employer partners; and Participation in a national community of practice to share lessons learned and scalable solutions.

The CTO Challenge will award up to $15 million in prizes, incentivizing innovation while supporting system development, long-term sustainability, and statewide adoption. The goal is to surface the strongest, most scalable Talent Marketplace models that expand opportunity, improve transparency, and strengthen national labor force participation. The CTO Challenge is intentionally state led.

Governors serve as the official eligible entrants, reflecting the need for executive-level leadership and cross-agency coordination.

Required state team members include: The State Perkins state agency or the Adult Education and Family Literacy Act (AEFLA) state agency to serve as fiscal agent; The State Workforce Agencies; The State Workforce Board; and Novices, building a new Talent Marketplace from the ground up, or Scalers, enhancing and expanding an existing system.

Building a Future Where Skills Open Doors With nearly two million unique credentials offered by over 130,000 credential providers nationwide, the need for transparency, interoperability, and shared standards has never been greater.

The CTO Challenge provides states with a structured pathway to integrate degree and non-degree credentials, advance credit for prior learning, enable skills-based hiring, and help learners and workers clearly communicate what they know and can do.

The CTO Challenge is helping to build a future where verified skills open doors, career pathways are clear and accessible, and every learner and worker can succeed in a rapidly evolving economy. Nick Moore, Acting Assistant Secretary, Office of Career, Technical, and Adult Education, U. S.

Department of Education Nick Moore is Acting Assistant Secretary for OCTAE at the U. S. Department of Education.

He previously served as Director of Governor Kay Ivey’s Office of Education and Workforce Transformation, where he helped launch the Alabama Talent Triad initiative. Office of Communications and Outreach (OCO) Page Last Reviewed: January 13, 2026 Partnering with the Department of Labor to Create a National Skills Currency In this Homeroom Blog post, Nick Moore shares how ED and the U. S.

Department of Labor established an Interagency Agreement to streamline Perkins V and WIOA Title II program administration and create a "national skills currency." Restoring Trade Skills to Liberal Education In this Homeroom Blog post, guest author Dr. Jacob Imam discusses the benefits of combining liberal arts and an an education in the trades to build more skilled and well-rounded graduates.

Expanding Meaningful School Choice Through CTE and Work-Based Learning In this joint Homeroom Blog post, Nick Moore and Dr. Henry Mack of the U. S.

Department of Labor share how school choice, CTE, and work-based learning gives students the flexibility to pursue individualized journeys toward success. IEPs (Individualized Education Program) School Safety and Security Report Fraud, Waste, or Abuse Report a Civil Rights Violation Student Privacy Complaint Forms Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs) Site Notices and Privacy Policies U. S.

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