LEGO’s Virginia AdVAntage

When the LEGO Group was considering an East Coast location for their return to manufacturing in the United States, Virginia offered a nearly shovel-ready site in a well-established industrial park in the fast-growing Richmond metro area. But what helped seal the deal was the opportunity to work with the Virginia Talent Accelerator Program, ranked as the No. 1 customized workforce training program in the United States.

The Talent Accelerator team began developing sophisticated recruitment tools for the LEGO Group weeks before the project announced to help the company leverage the announcement publicity to build its future talent pool. The response was undeniable—thousands of candidates applied within 36 hours, and the pool continues to grow each day as the company continues to hire for the facility in advance of the planned opening in 2027.

In addition to the LEGO Group, companies as diverse as GSK, Rocket Lab and Tyson Foods have benefited from the program’s world-class training and recruitment solutions, which are fully customized to a company’s unique operations, equipment, standards and culture. The program’s work, delivered in collaboration with the Virginia Community College System, is performed by a talented in-house team of video producers, instructional designers and 3D animators who develop highly customized visual media to expedite recruitment and accelerate new-hire learning.

Every Talent Accelerator project begins with an analysis of company processes, job roles, tasks, culture and existing recruitment and training processes. The process starts with data-driven recruiting campaigns featuring robust advertising and a range of services aimed at generating large pools of qualified candidates for positions at all levels of a company.

Once employees are in place, companies benefit from Talent Accelerator training services that include hands on training, simulations, broadcast-quality videos, illustrated work instructions, instructor-led classroom sessions, animations and e-learning modules. One of the Talent Accelerator’s greatest selling points is the expertise of its team, hired from the private sector with deep experience across a wide swath of industries. The technical training they provide is supplemented by modules in organizational development, operational excellence and leadership.

In addition to delivering fully customized workforce solutions, the Talent Accelerator team provides clients with direct access to the talent generated by Virginia’s world-class universities and community colleges. All program services are provided at no cost to qualified new and expanding companies as an incentive for job creation. All company-specific materials developed during the course of the project become property of the client, and all proprietary information is protected by a nondisclosure agreement.

The program has helped secure more than 13,000 jobs since becoming operational in early 2020. Through initiatives like the Virginia Talent Accelerator Program, Virginia provides companies with assistance throughout the life cycle of a site project to help deliver on the full potential of a new or expanded facility.