The University of Hawaii is helping the state retain top talent with Google AI

As the Hawaiian Islands’ primary higher education resource, the University of Hawaii (UH) System faces a unique challenge among U.S. universities: many graduates–including those with deep family roots in Hawaii – are soon confronted with a competitive job market, and struggle to land a fulfilling entry-level role and starting salary commensurate with Hawaii’s higher-than-average cost of living. This risks a continued outflow of skilled young grads from the Islands as they explore other career options on the mainland.

To bolster its mission of career readiness and workforce development, the UH System collaborated with Google Public Sector to rapidly prototype a new platform for Hawaii Career Pathways. Leveraging Google Cloud’s unified AI platform Vertex AI and BigQuery to analyze vast labor market data, this innovative AI-powered tool evaluates a student’s qualifications–including prior experience, current skills, education and certifications–along with their personal interests and career aspirations ...