The Kenan Institute Grand Challenge is a yearlong effort to examine and drive solutions to complex issues facing business and the economy today.
Our 2025 Grand Challenge tackled one of the most urgent obstacles facing US businesses today: the critical skills gap confronting today's workforce. Driven by technological breakthroughs, demographic shifts and cultural changes in the workplace, the deficit has left many jobs unfilled, while workers with outdated skills navigate reskilling to remain competitive. Through published insights and commentaries, videos, roundtables and discussions at our annual Frontiers of Business Conference, we examined what skills are most in demand and which solutions hold the greatest promise of bridging the divide.
Take a look back at our Grand Challenge with this video highlighting the key moments of 2025.
Skills form the foundation of our modern economy, fueling productivity and innovation that benefit everyone. When there's a mismatch between the skills businesses need and those available in the workforce, the costs are significant. A skills gap not only hampers businesses by limiting their access to necessary talent but also disadvantages job seekers and workers who lack the qualifications that employers are seeking.
Addressing this challenge is especially urgent in today's rapidly evolving economic landscape. That made it a compelling choice as the Kenan Institute's 2025 Grand Challenge.
To gain a deeper understanding of the nation's growing skills gap and explore ways to address it, we convened a range of perspectives — including leading research faculty from UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School and a 2025 class of three Distinguished Fellows. Over the past year, we hosted roundtable discussions and one-on-one conversations with prominent business and policy leaders, fostering a dynamic exchange of ideas that ensured our thought leadership remained both innovative and grounded in real-world relevance.
Over the past year, I've gained invaluable insights from conversations with many leading experts, and I'd like to share some of the most important takeaways. The skills gap is driven by three major factors: technological advancements, demographic shifts and structural changes in our economy. Grasping how these forces interact is crucial for crafting effective solutions to bridge the gap and better equip workers for the challenges ahead.
Through this Grand Challenge, I've come to better understand how these forces are reshaping the skills landscape. Technological progress — especially the rapid rise of AI — is transforming which skills hold value and creating both uncertainty and opportunity for workers who must continually adapt. At the same time, demographic shifts are tightening talent pipelines, as an aging workforce and fewer young workers decrease the transfer of knowledge and talent development. And as our economy continues its shift toward service-sector work, the demand for high-order skills like communication, problem-solving and analytical thinking has never been greater. Taken together, these forces underscore why bridging the skills gap is, in every sense, a grand challenge — and why meeting it will require focus, collaboration and a commitment to readiness for the future.
Tackling the skills gap calls for a comprehensive strategy and the dedication of all stakeholders. Ultimately, bridging this gap will rely on partnership, innovative thinking and adaptability — ensuring both workers and businesses are prepared to meet the challenges of the future.
This report marks the culmination of our yearlong initiative, bringing together our written content, event highlights, Kenan Insights and commentaries. The depth and quality of our findings are a testament to the expertise contributed by leaders in academia, industry and policy, as well as the commitment of the Kenan Institute staff. Together, their collective efforts have significantly advanced our understanding of the multifaceted nature of skills gaps.
As you review our findings, we invite your engagement. Your feedback is invaluable to us — please feel free to contact me or any of my colleagues to share your thoughts and continue this vital conversation.
Over the past year, we partnered with leading UNC Kenan-Flagler and universitywide faculty and named three 2025 Distinguished Fellows, each chosen for their deep expertise and alignment with this year's theme. We also brought together top business and policy leaders in roundtables, workshops and individual conversations to keep the work grounded in the real-world challenges facing businesses today.
Faculty members from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and beyond helped push the work of the Grand Challenge forward by writing insights and commentaries, presenting at business roundtables and speaking at the Frontiers of Business Conference. Their participation allowed the institute to bring a variety of research to bear on the Grand Challenge topic.
Professor of the Practice of Strategy and Entrepreneurship, UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School
Dean, The Graduate School at UNC-Chapel Hill
Duncan MacRae '09 and Rebecca Kyle MacRae Professor of Public Policy, UNC-Chapel Hill
Executive Director, Kenan Institute of Private Enterprise, and Professor of Finance, UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School
Chief Economist, OpenAI, and Mark Burgess & Lisa Benson-Burgess Distinguished Professor of Business and Public Policy, Duke University
Dean, UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School
Associate Professor, UNC School of Information and Library Science
Director, Center for Economic Security and Opportunity, The Brookings Institution
Chief Economist, Kenan Institute of Private Enterprise
Clinical Associate Professor of Management and Corporate Communication, UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School
Director of Research, Kenan Institute of Private Enterprise, and Boyd White Harris Jr. Distinguished Professor of Finance, UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School
We appreciate the contributions of others from the Kenan Institute, its affiliated centers and additional organizations who lent their expertise throughout the year, particularly at the Frontiers of Business Conference.
Director, Shelton Leadership Center
Vice President of Product Development, The Center for Leadership Studies
Associate Director, Shelton Leadership Center
Senior Associate, Client Skills Training, J.P. Morgan Private Bank
State Director, ApprenticeshipNC
CEO & President, myFutureNC
Senior Associate Director, Shelton Leadership Center
CEO, Road to Hire
Research Analyst, Kenan Institute of Private Enterprise, and 2025 Luther Hodges Scholar
Senior Vice President, External Affairs, NC Chamber, and President, NC Chamber Foundation
Managing Partner, Leeds Illuminate
Global Chief People & Purpose Officer, Deloitte
Director of Workforce Competitiveness, NC Chamber Foundation
Vice President, Human Resources, Albemarle Corporation
Chief Economist, Fifth Third Commercial Bank
CEO, Arosa
CEO, The Michael Thomas Group Inc., and former president, North Carolina Community College System
President, Institute for Advanced Learning and Research
Vice President, HR People Systems and Analytics, SAS
Director, Lowe's Foundation
President, Mid-Atlantic and Midwest Regions, Citizens
Managing Director, HR Business Partners, Duke Energy Corporation
Chief Strategy Officer & Head of Consumer Product, Fifth Third Bank
North Carolina General Assembly
CEO, Revlon
Founder & CEO, Hope Renovations
Director of Accreditation, Workforce Development and Customer Service, National Center for Construction Education and Research
As part of the Kenan Institute's Grand Challenge exploration of the labor market skills gap, our Corporate Roundtables offer an opportunity to hear directly from industry leaders. These small-group discussions capture on-the-ground perspectives that help inform our research and refine our thinking, surfacing emerging trends and illustrating how workforce challenges are unfolding across sectors.
In 2025, the Kenan Institute convened business executives, academic experts and policy leaders for a four-part series of participatory conversations hosted at the Kenan Center in Chapel Hill. Each session was moderated by Sekou Bermiss, Kenan Institute Distinguished Fellow and UNC Kenan-Flagler Business School associate professor, and conducted under the Chatham House rule, which allows participants to freely use the insights shared without attributing them to specific individuals or organizations. This approach fostered open, candid dialogue and built trust among participants over the course of the year as they tackled some of the most pressing questions shaping the modern workplace.
Across the series, participants surfaced shared challenges and promising solutions, offering insights that continue to inform the Kenan Institute's understanding of America's evolving skills gap.
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Participants examined how shifting attitudes toward ambition, success and loyalty are transforming employee-employer relationships. The discussion highlighted new expectations around career growth, purpose and balance — and what these changes mean for long-term retention and engagement.
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This session explored how education, business and policy can better align to prepare workers for the skills the modern economy demands. Participants shared examples of partnerships and innovative training models that are designed to close the gap between learning and labor market needs.
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Conversations focused on the impact of artificial intelligence in reshaping work. Leaders weighed productivity gains and efficiency improvements against pressing questions of equity, opportunity and how to ensure technology benefits the full workforce.
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The series concluded with a discussion on hiring challenges, including “experience creep,” where entry-level roles require mid-level experience and create barriers for seasoned workers —highlighting gaps in hiring and retention and the collaborative solutions needed to close them.
Our dynamic conversations would not have been possible without the invaluable contributions of business leaders from the following organizations:
We invite you to be a part of our continued journey. For more information about joining next year's roundtable series, please reach out to
Assistant Director of Business Development Shannon Chen at [email protected].
Appointed on an annual basis, the Distinguished Fellows support the Kenan Institute's exploration of its Grand Challenge theme. As part of the institute's 2025 focus on bridging America's skills gap, this year's Fellows participated in comprehensive Q&A discussions, sharing their insights and expertise on the evolving relationship between education, work and economic opportunity.
This important work is made possible through the generous support of Bruce and Katie Van Saun.
The Frontiers of Business Conference: Bridging the Skills Gap convened more than 275 business practitioners, researchers and policy leaders to examine the skills in demand and share objective, evidence-based solutions for bridging America's skills gap.
Read: Frontiers Top Takeaways
The future of work is accelerating, and these two videos break down what it will take to stay ahead. Cross-sector leaders share insights on AI's impact, the evolving skills gap, and why soft skills, adaptability and continuous learning are becoming essential. Tap into their expert perspectives and prepare for what's next — watch both videos below.
A heartfelt thank you to our 2025 Frontiers of Business Conference sponsors.
