GLOBAL TALENT

Symposium

November 12, 2026 | 11:00 a.m.–5:00 p.m. Eastern | Virtual

Rural communities across the country face persistent workforce shortages while internationally trained professionals often possess valuable education, credentials, and experience that remain underutilized. Rural Routes: Global Talent Symposium will bring together stakeholders from multiple sectors to explore practical strategies for identifying internationally trained professionals, addressing barriers to employment, strengthening career pathways, and building coordinated state and community systems.

A Partnership Between:

This symposium is designed for organizations and leaders who support ITPs, rather than as a direct-service event for internationally trained professionals themselves.

Attendee Outcomes

By the conclusion of the symposium, participants will:

1. Identify a concrete next step

for advancing or improving structured ITP pathways in their state or community, including identifying at least one person or organization with whom they will meet following the symposium.

2. Leave with practical tools and resources

to assess local needs, identify partners, locate funding, and develop solutions.

3. Build connections with peers and national experts

who can support continued learning and implementation.

4. Identify opportunities for continued engagement

through localized or state-based communities and future conversations.

November 12 Agenda

NOVEMBER 12 AGENDA

Understanding the Opportunity and Building the Pathway

Hector Martinez, COABE President-Elect & Kansas Director of Adult Education
Internationally trained immigrants bring significant professional experience, education, and perspective to our communities, yet too often encounter barriers that prevent them from fully contributing in their fields. This opening keynote will frame the symposium by examining the experiences of internationally trained professionals in the United States and the opportunity for rural communities to build stronger pathways to workforce participation and economic inclusion.
WES • COABE • Kansas Board of Regents • CareerLadder • Moderated by Hector Martinez
Communities across the United States face growing workforce shortages, and immigrants play a critical role in meeting current and future talent needs. This plenary will explore the opportunities and challenges shaping immigrant economic inclusion, including barriers to workforce participation and strategies for better aligning immigrant skills with local labor market demands. Panelists will discuss how employers, workforce systems, education providers, government agencies, and community organizations can work together to create pathways to opportunity, economic mobility, and shared prosperity. The session will establish a common foundation for the day’s breakout discussions and identify practical approaches to building stronger and connected workforce and integration systems that benefit communities.
Choose one concurrent track. All times are Eastern.
Track A — Building Rural Integration Capacity for Internationally Trained Professionals with a Healthcare Background
Led by WES
Rural states face critical healthcare workforce shortages. These challenges cannot be solved by domestic talent pipelines alone. Workforce integration capacity can be strengthened by incorporating integration into mainstream workforce systems, leveraging state and local insights, using data for decision-making, and investing strategically. Internationally trained professionals represent a vital, yet underutilized, resource. This 75-minute virtual session brings together strategies and innovative solutions, especially in rural and underserved areas. We will focus on the intersection of Rural Health Transformation (RHT) grants and internationally trained professionals, highlighting how some states have included international talent to fill needs via community health workers in their RHT initiatives. Attendees will leave empowered with a vision for how rural communities can strategically invest in internationally trained professional and Community Health Worker (CHW) integration as economic infrastructure.
Track B — English as Infrastructure: Expanding Rural Access for Internationally Trained Professionals
Julie Clark, Kansas Board of Regents • Alaina Rice, Seward County Community College/ROSA • Workplace English Program • Bryan Seck, Lincoln Literacy
English access can determine whether internationally trained professionals are able to navigate credentialing, enter training, communicate effectively in the workplace, and advance in their careers. This session will examine contextualized and workplace English strategies for rural learners, including Kansas’s ROSA model, local adult education programming, and technology-supported English instruction. Participants will consider how shared and virtual delivery models can extend services where local capacity is limited.
Track C — Earn, Learn, Stay: Apprenticeship Models for Talent Development
Led by CareerLadder
Apprenticeship and work-based learning can create flexible entry points for internationally trained professionals and other skilled workers in rural communities. This session will highlight innovative rural apprenticeship and education models, including veterinary apprenticeship and para-to-teacher pathways, and explore how virtual coursework and employer partnerships can expand access across large geographic areas.
Dr. Amy Garcia, Vice President, Kansas Board of Nursing–Interim
This keynote will connect the symposium’s morning discussions to the workforce realities facing rural communities, with particular attention to healthcare. The session will highlight why internationally educated professionals matter to workforce capacity and why successful integration requires coordinated pathways across education, employers, credentialing systems, and community supports.

Choose one concurrent track. All times are Eastern.
Track A — Centering States in Immigrant Economic Inclusion
Led by WES
Drawing on state and local innovation and insights from leaders across sectors, this session will explore how communities can advance immigrant integration while navigating federal constraints. Participants will learn about promising practices, scalable models, and a new framework that reimagines immigration and integration as interconnected parts of a single economic system. The discussion highlights the role of states and localities as drivers of innovation and co-architects of integration, demonstrating how investments in credential recognition, skills verification, and pathways to jobs that match individuals’ experience can serve as critical economic infrastructure, helping communities address workforce shortages and strengthen long-term economic growth.
Track B — Healthcare Pathways: From Workforce Need to Local Talent Pipeline
Led by Kansas and CareerLadder
Healthcare systems are developing new pathways to recruit, train, and retain workers in communities where traditional pipelines are not sufficient. This session will feature apprenticeship and workforce models from rural hospitals and health systems and examine how healthcare employers, education providers, and community partners can build accessible pathways that respond to local workforce demand.
Track C — Turning Employer Interest into Employer Action
Led by Anson Green, Former Sr. Manager at Tyson Foods & Executive Director at Guild.
Employers are essential partners in creating meaningful career pathways for internationally trained professionals, but engagement must move beyond general support to concrete practices. This session will explore rural employer engagement strategies, including approaches to skills recognition, training partnerships, technical delivery, and workforce integration, with examples from rural industry.
A brief transition break before the closing plenary.
Facilitated by National Skills Coalition
The closing plenary will connect the day’s discussions on immigrant integration, skills recognition, education, workforce systems, career pathways, and economic mobility. Guided by National Skills Coalition, participants will identify one concrete systems-level change they can pursue after the symposium. The session will close by outlining opportunities for continued engagement and localized follow-up so that promising ideas move from conversation to sustainable practice.

Symposium Toolkit

Each participant receives a digital implementation toolkit containing:

Partner Identification

Community Partner Inventory
State/local partner mapping worksheet
American Job Center locator
State Offices of New Americans/Immigrant Affairs resources
WES partner resources
Community-based organization directories

Needs Assessment

Community Needs Analysis Worksheet
ITP Identification/Intake Questions
Barrier Inventory Checklist
Local Workforce Data Guide
Community Demographic Scan
Employer Needs Interview Guide

Resource Alignment

WIOA resource guide
IELCE resources for internationally trained professionals
Adult education program opportunities
Funding source inventory
Resource Alignment Matrix

Career Pathway Development

WES Steps to Success resources
Career pathway planning template
Credential recognition resources
Case manager/career coach resources
Apprenticeship pathway examples
Profession-specific pathway examples

Employer Engagement

Employer conversation guide
Business case for hiring internationally trained professionals
Employer readiness checklist
ITP onboarding checklist
Mentorship framework
Workplace English resources

Action Planning

Rural Routes Action Plan
30/60/90-Day Implementation Template
Partnership Meeting Agenda Template
State/Community ITP Strategy Worksheet