From Post-Its & Papers to Possibilities: What Gen Z Wants in the Future of Work

What does Hawaiʻi’s future workforce want from their jobs?

How do we design jobs that truly speak to Hawaiʻi’s next generation?

In this session, we’ll explore how the Human-Centered Design tool known as the MoSCoW activity was used with Gen Z participants to imagine their “ideal job of the future.” By combining an empathy approach (listening deeply to what matters most to young people today) with a dream approach (inviting them to envision what work could look like), we surfaced insights that point to a more meaningful and inclusive future of work in Hawaiʻi. This interactive session highlights both the process (how MoSCoW can be used to co-design workforce solutions) and the insights (what Gen Z values most — from flexibility and meaningful work to career growth and balance).

What You’ll Learn

- How to use the MoSCoW activity to quickly gather insights in design sessions.

- What Hawaiʻi’s Gen Z participants told us about their must-have, should-have, and could-have job features.

- How empathy + dreaming can shift the way we design jobs and workforce pathways.

- Practical takeaways for integrating Human-Centered Design into workforce initiatives.

Who This is For:

-Employers and HR leaders seeking to create jobs that resonate with youth.

-Educators and career navigators who want to align guidance with Gen Z’s aspirations.

-Community organizations, funders, and policymakers looking for inclusive, youth-centered workforce strategies.

Meeting in the Middle: A Guide to Managing Hawaii’s Gen Z Workforce with Center for Tomorrow's Leaders (CTL).

Do you find recruiting and managing Gen Z to be baffling or even frustrating?

This session, presented by the Center for Tomorrow’s Leaders, is designed to help employers and managers better understand and engage Gen Z—the most connected yet complex generation entering today’s workforce.

Drawing from direct work with over 1,000 Gen Z students and alumni, along with national research, CTL unpacks four key paradoxes that define this generation.

Attendees will leave with practical insights, recruitment and retention strategies, and a roadmap to "meet in the middle" with this rapidly growing segment of Hawaii’s workforce.

Touch A Heart Hawai‘i is a nonprofit organization dedicated to empowering individuals who face barriers to employment. By offering vocational training in a healing and nurturing environment, they create pathways toward stability, dignity, and sustainable livelihoods. Through their Foodservice Vocational Training program and community-driven social enterprise initiatives, Touch A Heart has not only equipped people with skills — they’ve transformed families and strengthened communities across Hawai‘i. But Touch A Heart’s story goes far beyond job training. It is a story of transformation: of second chances reclaimed, confidence restored, and communities made stronger through compassion and opportunity.

Join us for this inspiring three-part series that lifts up the lessons learned, the strategies that drive lasting change, and—most importantly—the powerful voices of those who have lived this journey:

-Session 1: Oct 10 — Where We Begin: The Heart of Second Chances

-Session 2: Oct 17 — Inside the Kitchen: The Catalyst for Transformation

-Session 3: Oct 24 — Life After & Onwards: A Journey of Renewal, Restoration, and Hope

Our Presenters & Story-Tellers include:

Robin Kumabe - the Executive Director of Touch A Heart. A UCLA Design graduate and former entrepreneur, Robin founded one of Hawaii’s first certified B Corporations and now applies her branding and business expertise to lead the nonprofit’s mission of transformation through food.

Colin Kumabe - Director of Operations and Training at Touch A Heart. With over 20 years of restaurant management and training experience at Zippy’s, Colin developed Touch A Heart’s foodservice curriculum, equipping interns and apprentices with hands-on skills in a supportive environment.

📅 Dates: Fridays, Oct 10th, Oct 17th & Oct 24th
🕙 Times: 9:00 am - 10:00 am
📍 Location: Virtual – Zoom

🔗 Register here: https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/9-QN54yoTDCRP0XOi9T-CA#/registration

Touch A Heart Hawai‘i is a nonprofit organization dedicated to empowering individuals who face barriers to employment. By offering vocational training in a healing and nurturing environment, they create pathways toward stability, dignity, and sustainable livelihoods. Through their Foodservice Vocational Training program and community-driven social enterprise initiatives, Touch A Heart has not only equipped people with skills — they’ve transformed families and strengthened communities across Hawai‘i. But Touch A Heart’s story goes far beyond job training. It is a story of transformation: of second chances reclaimed, confidence restored, and communities made stronger through compassion and opportunity.

Join us for this inspiring three-part series that lifts up the lessons learned, the strategies that drive lasting change, and—most importantly—the powerful voices of those who have lived this journey:

-Session 1: Oct 10 — Where We Begin: The Heart of Second Chances

-Session 2: Oct 17 — Inside the Kitchen: The Catalyst for Transformation

-Session 3: Oct 24 — Life After & Onwards: A Journey of Renewal, Restoration, and Hope

Our Presenters & Story-Tellers include:

Robin Kumabe - the Executive Director of Touch A Heart. A UCLA Design graduate and former entrepreneur, Robin founded one of Hawaii’s first certified B Corporations and now applies her branding and business expertise to lead the nonprofit’s mission of transformation through food.

Colin Kumabe - Director of Operations and Training at Touch A Heart. With over 20 years of restaurant management and training experience at Zippy’s, Colin developed Touch A Heart’s foodservice curriculum, equipping interns and apprentices with hands-on skills in a supportive environment.

📅 Dates: Fridays, Oct 10th, Oct 17th & Oct 24th
🕙 Times: 9:00 am - 10:00 am
📍 Location: Virtual – Zoom

🔗 Register here: https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/9-QN54yoTDCRP0XOi9T-CA#/registration

Touch A Heart Hawai‘i is a nonprofit organization dedicated to empowering individuals who face barriers to employment. By offering vocational training in a healing and nurturing environment, they create pathways toward stability, dignity, and sustainable livelihoods. Through their Foodservice Vocational Training program and community-driven social enterprise initiatives, Touch A Heart has not only equipped people with skills — they’ve transformed families and strengthened communities across Hawai‘i. But Touch A Heart’s story goes far beyond job training. It is a story of transformation: of second chances reclaimed, confidence restored, and communities made stronger through compassion and opportunity.

Join us for this inspiring three-part series that lifts up the lessons learned, the strategies that drive lasting change, and—most importantly—the powerful voices of those who have lived this journey:

-Session 1: Oct 10 — Where We Begin: The Heart of Second Chances

-Session 2: Oct 17 — Inside the Kitchen: The Catalyst for Transformation

-Session 3: Oct 24 — Life After & Onwards: A Journey of Renewal, Restoration, and Hope

Our Presenters & Story-Tellers include:

Robin Kumabe - the Executive Director of Touch A Heart. A UCLA Design graduate and former entrepreneur, Robin founded one of Hawaii’s first certified B Corporations and now applies her branding and business expertise to lead the nonprofit’s mission of transformation through food.

Colin Kumabe - Director of Operations and Training at Touch A Heart. With over 20 years of restaurant management and training experience at Zippy’s, Colin developed Touch A Heart’s foodservice curriculum, equipping interns and apprentices with hands-on skills in a supportive environment.

📅 Dates: Fridays, Oct 10th, Oct 17th & Oct 24th
🕙 Times: 9:00 am - 10:00 am
📍 Location: Virtual – Zoom

🔗 Register here: https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/9-QN54yoTDCRP0XOi9T-CA#/registration

Journey mapping is more than a framework—it’s a human-centered tool that helps us listen deeply, surface hidden insights, and reimagine the systems that shape how people experience work. Flexible by design, journey maps can be tailored to reflect the needs of any organization, offering a clear way to understand both the employee experience and the job seeker’s career path.

This session invites funders, workforce leaders, HR managers, employers, and job seekers to explore how mapping the “journey” can unlock new strategies for more inclusive job design, equitable career navigation, and positive approaches to managing change. We’ll share practical steps and examples that illustrate how this tool can reveal what workers and organizations need to thrive.

You’ll hear powerful lessons from a local intern-led Healthcare Career Discovery Project, where journey maps captured the career stories of four of Hawai‘i’s healthcare professionals, and showed Gen Z jobseekers that pathways are rarely linear—but always full of delight, opportunity and further discovery. We’ll also look at national journey map examples that highlight how different experiences, when seen together, point us toward systemic change.

Together, we’ll reflect on big questions:

• How might we challenge our assumptions about workforce pathways?

• What does it take to shift narratives around career navigation and job quality?

• How can tools like journey maps spark meaningful change while centering people’s lived experiences?

This is not just a interactive session about tools and processes — it is an invitation to re-imagine what’s possible when we place people at the heart of systems change.

📅 Date: September 30th, 2025
🕙 Time: 2:00 pm - 3:00 pm HST
📍 Location: Virtual – Zoom 🔗 REGISTER HERE TO RESERVE YOUR SPOT TODAY

Looking to launch a meaningful career in healthcare without years of schooling?

The recently launched Academy for Healthcare Innovation (AHI) has created alternative pathways and new opportunities for local residents to enter high-demand healthcare fields through certificate programs that can be completed in just 8–40 weeks.

Join us as we explore how AHI’s training programs in Nurse Aide, Medical Assistant, Surgical Technology, and Sterile Processing are helping students gain in-demand skills, industry certifications, and real career pathways—all while staying rooted in Hawai‘i.

💡 Learn how certificate programs connect to higher degrees, how tuition assistance makes training more accessible, and how employer partnerships open doors to sustainable, higher-wage careers in our islands.

📅 Date: September 15th, 2025
🕙 Time: 2:00 pm - 3:00 pm
📍 Location: Virtual – Zoom

🔗 Register here: https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/Im9uFWVbTH2cUFAqk7xcQg#/registration

📅 Date: Thurs, August 21st, 2025
🕙 Time: 10:00 am - 11:00 am HST
📍 Location: Virtual – Zoom (link provided upon registration)

Join us for an inspiring conversation with Manasseh “Nass” Santos, Program Manager for the Hawaiian Trades Academy at CNHA (Council for Native Hawaiian Advancement). This session will explore how workforce training rooted in community needs and cultural values can create high-wage opportunities for Hawai‘i residents—and strengthen economic resilience in local households. Nass will share how CNHA’s Hawaiian Trades Academy is building pathways to certification in various trades, cultivating employer partnerships, and supporting learners beyond the classroom to unlock access to real, sustainable careers.

About the Presenter: 

In his current position as a part of the Hawaiian Trades Academy, Nass oversees the program and supervises two program staff members. Nass’ work also includes implementing workforce development training and certification classes, with the intent of strengthening Hawai’i’s workforce in different trade industries, and providing local people with the opportunity to live here in Hawai’i more comfortably by receiving higher paying jobs through the skills and certifications they earned through the academy. 

Nass also looks to develop relations with employers within industries that are relevant to the academies being offered. Although the academy does not provide direct-to-hire, the goal is to present our graduates with employment opportunities offered by companies, organizations, and unions within our employer network. Maintaining relations with applicants, students, and graduates is also a vital part of Nass’ kuleana that allows for the academy to constantly explore how we can better serve the community. Prior to CNHA, Nass was an All-Source Intelligence Analyst servicing on Active Duty within the Air Force. Nass has a Bachelor of Science in Sports Management from Grand Canyon University and an Associates Degree in Intelligence Studies from the Community College of the Air Force.

Don’t miss this chance to learn how education, equity, and opportunity go hand in hand in Hawaiʻi’s workforce future.

🔗 Register here: https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/vslnVhNjQ8eWlauLhhly1A#/registration

The NRSP: Strengthening Hawaiʻi’s Natural Resource Workforce Through Collaboration

🌿 Join Us to Learn More About Hawaiʻi’s Natural Resources Sector Partnership with Elia Herman 🌿

You're invited to an upcoming webinar showcasing an exciting movement in Hawaiʻi — the Natural Resources Sector Partnership (NRSP) — a collaborative effort between educators, industry professionals, and community leaders working together to prepare and inspire Hawaiʻi's students to meet the current and future demands of natural resource professions in Hawaiʻi.​ 

📅 Date: Monday, July 14th 

🕐 Time: 10:00 AM - 11:00 AM HST

🔗 Register here to reserve your spot: https://us06web.zoom.us/meeting/register/2WoIDDZBSpaHtIlOaBG6rA

The NRSP’s work has been focused on meeting both current and future workforce demands across conservation, environmental science, sustainable agriculture, cultural resource management, and more — all while centering local values and deepening connections to ʻāina.

What to Expect:

• Key updates and accomplishments over the past few years

• Emerging trends and workforce needs in Hawaiʻi’s natural resource sectors

• Insights from education and industry leaders on aligning classroom to career pathways

• Actionable next steps for building a sustainable, local talent pipeline

Check out the Natural Resource Careers Video🔗 and beautifully designed career posters🔗—perfect for inspiring the next generation of land stewards and environmental changemakers! 

Whether you're in education, conservation, land stewardship, or workforce development, this is a chance to learn more about taking action in shaping the next generation of local talent.