Ask an Indiana CEO where the technology talent shortage hits hardest, and most point somewhere else — Indianapolis, a coast, a campus. Look closer. It's already inside your building.
By our analysis, 93% of Indiana's technology workers don't work for technology companies. They work for hospitals, manufacturers, banks, logistics firms, school districts, and county offices — the organizations that run this state. The analyst keeping a plant's supply chain honest, the specialist guarding patient records, the developer modernizing a claims system — these are Indiana's tech workers, and nearly every employer competes for them.
Artificial intelligence is widening that demand, not shrinking it. The popular story says AI means fewer people; Indiana's reality says the opposite. More than 82% of Indiana organizations have adopted AI — but 60% offer no structured training to use it well. We bought the tools and skipped the people. More AI means more demand for skilled people, not less.
Here's the hard part: you cannot recruit your way out of this. The senior talent everyone is bidding for is scarce and only getting more expensive. But the work itself is increasingly learnable — half of technology job postings no longer require a four-year degree, and the roles Indiana needs most have clear entry points and clear ladders.
That is why we built the technology track of INCAP — the Indiana Career Apprenticeship Pathway — and why Indiana is leading the nation in building it. This is not charity, and not a consolation prize for students who "aren't college material." It is a workforce strategy with a return: structured, employer-led apprenticeships that build job-ready talent for the roles you can't fill. High schoolers earn college credit and a paycheck while gaining skills that lead to a career. Adults gain high-value skills, college credit, and a path into a career — or the mobility to move into a high-demand field. They learn on real work, and they stay.
Indiana doesn't have to import its technology workforce. We can grow it — in every sector, in every region, starting with people already in our communities. The companies that treat the talent gap as theirs to solve, not someone else's to supply, are the ones who will win the next decade — and the ones who help build INCAP now will lead it.
The pipeline is ours to build. Partner with us, and let's build it.
Dennis Trinkle is President and CEO of TechIndiana, Indiana's employer-led talent engine for the AI era. Learn more about INCAP and read the full Indiana Tech Workforce Labor Market Survey at www.techindiana.org.
