Hundreds of community leaders gathered Tuesday for Learn to Earn Dayton’s formal launch of a cradle-to-career educational initiative that aims to better prepare students for high-skilled jobs.

By the end of this decade, two of every three jobs will require some post-secondary education, officials said.

Learn to Earn Dayton, a nonprofit, has set a goal of increasing the percentage of Montgomery County students with college degrees or training certificates from career colleges from 34 percent to 50 percent by 2025.

“This might be one of the most important things we do in this community for a very long time,” Phil Parker, president and chief executive officer of the Dayton Area Chamber of Commerce, told about 400 civic, educational, business and nonprofit leaders who gathered at Sinclair Community College’s Ponitz Center for the luncheon.

Tom Lasley, executive director of Learn to Earn Dayton, said educational attainment and economic viability go hand in hand. The cradle-to-career concept targets key areas, including kindergarten readiness, third-grade reading achievement, successful transition to high school and from high school to completing college.

Lasley, a University of Dayton professor and former dean of education, said 62 percent of children in Montgomery County are not prepared for kindergarten, which causes them to lag behind their peers by third grade. Those children who are not reading proficient by third grade are four times more likely to drop out of high school, officials said.

Dayton Public Schools Superintendent Lori Ward said only 54 percent of third-grade students in her district are reading at grade level, which she called “a travesty.” Ward said they are working to improve that rate by getting parents more engaged and having quality teachers and principals in the schools.

Jamie Merisotis, president and CEO of the Indianapolis-based Lumina Foundation, the nation’s largest private foundation committed solely to enrolling and graduating more students from college, said an “all-hands-on-deck approach is the only viable way to bring needed systematic change.”

Mike Parks, president of the Dayton Foundation which has adopted Learn to Earn as one of its major community initiatives, told those gathered that there is a role for everyone.

Some community leaders spoke about how they’ve already stepped up. PNC Bank Regional President David Melin noted the company has committed $400,000 to help improve kindergarten readiness by partnering with ReadySetSoar, which is affiliated with Learn to Earn.

Joe Radelet, CEO of Big Brothers Big Sisters of the Greater Miami Valley, welcomed community leaders to serve as mentors and tutors to young children who are reading below grade level in their early years.

“You don’t have to be Mother Teresa or Albert Einstein,” Radelet said, adding that just one hour a week translates into a more motivated learner at school.