This is certainly the age of shortages. As we’ve progressed through the pandemic, we’ve faced shortages of toilet paper and disinfectant wipes, then computer chips and bicycles and used cars, then baby formula. Ask any hiring manager — we’re also experiencing shortages of qualified candidates in many fields.

{{RELATEDLINKS}} That makes workforce development programs more important than ever. You can choose a location that is right in every other way, but if you can’t hire enough trained, well-qualified employees, you’ll get nowhere. Our panel of location selection experts have told us which states are best at finding solutions.

What you’ll find in many of these states are highly responsive, customized training programs with a mission of having the right people in place from Day 1. There may also be a recruitment component, to help companies attract workers and prescreen to identify the best ones to put through training. These programs are often connected with technical college systems, and they have a strong track record of helping companies succeed. Here are just a few examples from the top five states on the list:

• The Quick Start program in Georgia offers job-specific training along with various kinds of education to enable continuous improvement, efficiency, waste reduction, and team-building. Among this program’s latest developments is the Georgia Advanced Manufacturing Training Center, a 50,000-square-foot, well-equipped facility with computer labs and equipment to help workers become more proficient in such areas as mechatronics, control systems, automation, robotics, and networked wireless systems.

• The Virginia Talent Accelerator Program has similar offerings and is a collaboration between the Virginia Economic Development Partnership and the Virginia Community College System. It handles both training and recruitment, also customized to the needs of each company requesting help. Training is hands-on, some instructor-led, some through simulations and videos, and companies walk away with not just great new hires but ownership of any customized, company-specific materials that were created.

• South Carolina adds some interesting twists to the workforce development picture. Like other states, it has customized training programs (readySC) and other initiatives supporting on-the-job training, but it adds in some focused efforts targeting important subject matter — cybersecurity, for example. The state’s Department of Employment and Workforce and its Manufacturing Extension Program have created training to help manufacturers improve their cybersecurity and avoid hacker nightmares. The department also has a cybersecurity internship program aimed at developing skills that participants can then take to Virginia companies needing to add IT security expertise.

• Alabama excels at the workforce development game through such programs as AIDT, with customized technical training offered for free to employers and trainees alike. The program recruits and screens candidates, develops training, and delivers it through classrooms as well as more than three dozen mobile training units. It was the nation’s first state workforce training organization to earn ISO certification of its quality management.

• Louisiana employers (and potential employees) benefit from the similarly highly regarded LED FastStart program from Louisiana Economic Development. The program examines companies’ immediate needs, as well as long-term workforce plans, and responds with customized programs that fill both the now and later requirements. The training is customized and comprehensive, but that’s only part of the picture. Before putting candidates through training, you’ve got to find the candidates. LED FastStart offers valuable recruitment and pre-hire evaluation services that feed potential employees into the training.