Pearland Chamber and Pearland ISD strengthen workforce pipeline with soft-skills push

Jim Johnson, president of the Pearland Chamber of Commerce, described a stepped-up partnership with Pearland ISD to prepare students for local jobs by teaching workplace “soft skills” and aligning career-technical programs with employer demand.

“'If you were to ask businesses what some of their number one issues are, top three issues — I could tell you workforce, workforce, or workforce,'” Johnson said. “'These students need... soft skills, and that's where business and education work so closely together.'”

The chamber and the district are using recurring meetings with local employers, community colleges and K–12 CTE (career and technical education) leaders to identify the specific skills businesses want, Johnson said. He highlighted partnerships that bring employers into classrooms for mock interviews, workplace-writing practice and face-to-face communication coaching.

The podcast host, identified as the Pearland ISD superintendent, said the district is reviewing CTE program offerings in response to employer guidance — for example, considering adjustments to programs to respond to a growing biomedical manufacturing cluster in Pearland.

Johnson said the chamber convenes a cross-sector “triangle” of K–12 CTE, higher education and employers and pointed to recent gatherings that included Alvin ISD, Alvin Community College and San Jacinto College. “We have to bring K–12, higher education, those partners to the table and say, how can we work together to ensure we have a qualified workforce?” he said.

Pearland’s workforce push includes curricular and experiential work: district teachers and CTE instructors run mock customer interactions in auto and manufacturing pathways, and the chamber is helping place employers in advisory roles to refine course content. The host noted Pearland ISD’s strategic planning emphasized the chamber’s role as a “convener and connector.”

Johnson and the superintendent also urged local businesses to join the chamber or otherwise engage with schools. The chamber manages the Pearland Innovation Hub and offers free technical-assistance resources for entrepreneurs; Johnson said those resources can help entry-level hiring and small-business growth, which in turn supports local employment pathways.

The district and chamber framed the work as long-term and iterative: employers will continue to identify gaps, schools will adapt CTE pathways, and the chamber will act as a single voice to coordinate employer feedback.

For now, Pearland ISD and the Pearland Chamber of Commerce said they will keep meeting with industry and higher-education partners to adjust program offerings and expand soft-skills training for students.