A History of Building Workforce Partnerships

The strategies of the National Fund for Workforce Solutions derive from strong evidence that workforce partnerships or intermediaries approaches work. This National Fund brief summarizes this evidence.

This collection of papers, compiled and prepared by JFF and several partners, explores how workforce intermediaries can use existing or new funding sources to finance their core functions.

The National Fund, which builds on years of important work by many people and institutions both national and local, has the potential to play a major role in improving how workforce development services are funded and delivered.

This report looks at what SkillWorks, a Boston-based workforce funder collaborative, can tell us about the formation of partnerships, engaging employers, aligning resources around a common goal, and the challenges in advancing low-skilled adults toward family-supporting careers.

This report identifies design issues that should be taken into account when developing a rural-focused element to the National Fund's grantmaking program, as well as “sites of excellence” or promise from which to learn.

Complex workforce development projects managed by intermediaries, usually focused on one industry or sector, provide a wide range of education, training, and support services for low-income adults. As this field matures, and as the seed funding that launc

This tool is designed to help education and employer partners determine how well the they have implemented work-based learning. The tool also suggests steps for strengthening current practices. The tool was created for Jobs to Careers, which supports part

Careful planning is critical to the success of any project; partners can use this tool to guide their efforts to develop effective work-based learning methodologies. By mapping out key elements and activities, partners create a shared vision for work-base

The National Fund for Workforce Solutions has prepared information sheets on ways to address four common barriers to labor market success for low-skilled workers: criminal records; driver’s license suspensions; lack of access to affordable and convenient

These tools will help two types of partner assess their readiness for implementing innovations in the area of work-based learning and career pathway initiatives for frontline health care workers. One tool is for employers to use; the other for educational

The nation’s rising demand for health care is creating a need for more frontline workers who provide direct services to patients. Effective training programs for medical assistants, social workers, receptionists, and those in other frontline occupations a

States establish and enforce regulations to protect the public interest. Yet state rule-making can impose unintended barriers to innovation because regulators cannot anticipate all the changes to an industry. Jobs to Careers, a national initiative that is

The National Fund for Workforce Solutions believes that high-quality workforce partnerships are among the most fundamentally sound strategies for helping low-wage workers succeed in today’s competitive economy while at the same time improving the competit

The need has never been greater to ensure that people are productively employed—not simply in any job, but a job with a future. This is the goal of the National Fund for Workforce Solutions, a public-philanthropic initiative dedicated to creating,

The National Fund for Workforce Solutions is an unprecedented national partnership testing new ways to address a critical problem: the large gap between the skills many workers have and the skills many employers need to compete. At the center of

Each regional collaborative in the National Fund for Workforce Solutions invests in local workforce partnerships that organize key stakeholders, mobilize service providers, and secure local resources to help workers to gain the skills they need and employ

The quality of our nation’s health care depends on the quality of our frontline workers. Those who are well compensated, well supervised, and well trained stay in their jobs longer and perform better. Similarly, better care results when frontline workers

While many employers offer tuition reimbursement, few lower-income employees can afford to pay that cost up front and wait to get the money back. Also, most reimbursement programs cover only study toward a Bachelor’s degree or higher, again leaving out

The National Fund is an unprecedented initiative of national and local funders whose goal is the career advancement of low-wage workers using a model of substantial employer engagement to increase the potential for successful outcomes. Since 2007, this du

Community-based organizations around the country prepare workers for entry-level green jobs that have opportunities to advance to jobs that are higher level, higher skilled, and higher paid. Union apprenticeship programs are an excellent option for career

This report brings together the experience and lessons of this six-year, $15.8 million initiative Jobs to Careers , sponsored by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation in collaboration with the Hitachi Foundation and the U.S. Department of Labor. The report a

When it comes to training workers for local in-demand jobs, workforce collaboratives are key to pooling and getting the most out of local resources. The Milwaukee Area Workforce Funding Alliance is a national example of how regions can start collaborative

The skills gap in the US workforce is by now well documented. Real-time labor market data can help identify new trends in job content and skill demands.

Strikes Spotlight Need for Better Routes to Family-supporting Jobs

Cowritten by Rachel Pleasants McDonnell & Deborah Kobes In JFF's Building Economic Opportunity Group, we're focused on increasing access to family-supporting jobs, and work with a number of programs across the country that do a good job of training partic

Workforce Innovation Fund: Lessons Learned So Far

Over the past several months, a group of five workforce development intermediaries have engaged with representatives of the twenty-six Workforce Innovation Fund grantees, in order to initiate a comprehensive program of technical assistance (TA) services.

Last week the House Education and the Workforce Committee considered a bill, H.R.4297, the “Workforce Investment Improvement Act of 2012,” that would dramatically reform the nation’s workforce investment system by consolidating over 20 federal employment

JFF programs and partners help low-skilled workers gain the experience, credentials, and confidence to improve their economic opportunity. Here is one story of a hard-working American doing just that with the help of ANEW, a GreenWays-funded pre-apprentic

This week is National Adult Education and Family Literacy Week . JFF applauds its organizer, the National Coalition for Literacy , for drawing the connection between adult literacy and economic stability. We too are committed to helping adults gain the

Lisa Cortes had scraped thousands of breakfast, lunch, and dinner trays in an Ohio hospital kitchen when a supervisor recommended her for a new training program that could lead to full-time medical work with benefits. Cortes, a 42-year-old high school

Workforce Trainers’ Need for Real-time Labor Market Information

By using traditional labor market information, workforce training programs are making advances that best serve their regional economies. JFF's GreenWays partners and Credentials That Work initiative support this kind of development.

At a three-day peer learning meeting, practitioners, consultants, and site leads discussed employer engagement strategies, focused on employer advisory panels. This is a brief recap of some of the lessons offered up.

Originally Published by POLITICO.com By Jamie Dimon and JFF's former CEO Marlene B. Seltzer on January 05, 2014 Today, nearly 11 million Americans are unemployed. Yet, at the same time, 4 million jobs sit unfilled. This is the “skills gap”—the

Organizational Readiness for Implementing a Work-Based Learning or Career Pathways Program Access the Educational Institution and Workforce Intermediary Self-Assessment Tool This tool will help educational and workforce intermediary partners assess their

Access the Pink to Green Toolkit The Pink to Green Toolkit was updated in 2017, revised by JFF as part of the Delivering the TDL Workforce Initiative. The toolkit’s presentations, trainings, webinars, curriculum guides and modules, briefs, templates, tip

By Mary Gardner Clagett and Van Nguyen This blog celebrates CTE Month 2014. In the month of February, we are given the opportunity to celebrate the nation’s Presidents, Black History Month, and even St. Valentine’s Day—but did you know that

This brief explores one promising on-the-job training model: the Boeing Manufacturing On-the-Job Training Project, funded by The Boeing Company and managed by the National Fund for Workforce Solutions.

Frontline Healthcare Workers are Key to Making ACA Work

By Jan Hunter , Director, CareerSTAT, and Dr. Randall Wilson , Senior Project Manager Originally posted on the Huffington Post Blog on March 12, 2014 Healthcare consumers aren't the only ones impacted by the implementation of the Patient Protection and

The Fight Against Unemployment Should Begin with Inclusive Data

The issue of unemployment persistently remains one of our government’s greatest challenges. Policymakers are well aware that economic growth is largely dependent on finding gainful, sustainable employment for as many people as possible.

The US Departments of Education, Health & Human Services, and Labor jointly released a request for information to advance the development of high-quality career pathways systems.

The Changing Landscape of Workforce Intermediaries: Insight Gained from the National Fund for Workforce Solutions

By Marlene Seltzer , Fred Dedrick , and Richard Kazis Ten years ago, in a widely read book entitled Workforce Intermediaries for the Twenty-First Century , the sector-based approach to workforce development was tapped as a highly promising strategy for

To become a competitive health care organization in the post-Affordable Care Act enactment era, start investing in your frontline workforce.

By Marlene Seltzer, Richard Kazis, and Fred Dedrick The National Fund for Workforce Solutions is one of the nation’s most ambitious national philanthropic efforts to prepare lower-skilled adults for advancement through sector initiatives. Operating in 35

What comes to mind when you think of apprenticeship? Maybe you recall that Ben Franklin was a printer’s apprentice. Or, maybe you think of Donald Trump’s TV show. Unfortunately, most people don’t immediate think of apprenticeship as a viable pathway

Labor market information can provide great insight into a region's economic landscape of a region. It's also so versatile that it is sometimes hard to know where to get started.

A New Framework for Solving Youth Unemployment

It’s encouraging to see some good news emerging on the unemployment front lately. The overall unemployment rate, which peaked at 9.9 percent in April 2010, fell to 6.1 percent in August 2014. But for 16-24 year olds looking for work,

As discussed in previous blogs, there is a storm of activity following the passage of the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) and the release of the Vice President’s Ready to Work: Job-Driven Training and American Opportunity report . Last

The Walmart Foundation has awarded a $3 million grant to Jobs for the Future to improve job training programs in the Transportation, Distribution, and Logistics industry—a critical underpinning of the retail industry.

This report informs health care leaders, policymakers, and practitioners about the implications of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act for frontline workers, including changing skill sets and roles required to implement new models of delivering care.

Yolonda Morrison knew nothing about forging metal or operating massive mobile machinery when she first donned a hard hat at a high-tech titanium manufacturer last winter. Yolonda, a 43-year-old single mother from Martinsville, VA, had spent years churning

Since its inception in 2003, NoVaHealthFORCE, a coalition of health care employers, educators, and community leaders, has sought to identify and address health care workforce challenges in Northern Virginia.

Partnerships Matter: Green Jobs Innovation Fund Outcomes

In April 2011, Jobs for the Future was one of six organizations in the country to receive a Green Jobs Innovation Fund (GJIF) grant from the U.S. Department of Labor’s Employment and Training Administration. At $8 million, JFF’s grant was

Tell More Young Adults, “You’re Hired!”—Here's How

Stocking shelves, flipping burgers, or looking for work, millions of young Americans are still reeling from the recession. The downturn had a particularly devastating effect on young people of color, youth from low-income backgrounds, and those without a

This resource guide presents working models of successful employer engagement and lessons for securing and sustaining partnerships with employers, in addition to helping education and training providers fully realize the value of such partnerships.

One way to improve women's economic security is creating sustainable pathways into construction careers—an industry where women are underrepresented. This briefing highlights how Maryland and Oregon are improving diversity in the highway construction workforce.

In this article, guest writer Adrian Benepe explores how innovative pollution control, playground, and storm mitigation projects have expanded our understanding of green infrastructure.

Anna Shipp, the project manager for the Green Stormwater Infrastructure (GSI) Partners initiative at the Sustainable Business Network of Greater Philadelphia, offers her thoughts on green infrastructure.

Jobs for the Future Participates in White House Convening on Business and Industry Engagement in STEM High Schools

Last week, I represented Jobs for the Future at a White House discussion focused on STEM high schools and business and industry’s role in supporting young people in their STEM and career-focused learning. Convened by Change the Equation (CTEq), I

With the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act, Congress took a step toward improving the connections between workforce and federal assistance programs. With this piece of legislature, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families is a mandatory partner in state and local workforce systems.

Communities across the US are working to rebuild their economies and seeing signs of success, but persistent challenges remain. These reports on the New Skills at Work initiative offer specific steps to develop career pathways systems.

Nastassia Scott, a graduate of the Pathways to Manufacturing Initiative offered by Our Piece of the Pie, discusses her background, journey through the program, and goals for a career in the manufacturing industry.

“Helping the World Run Better” is no small feat, but that is what the largest worldwide independent software manufacturer, SAP, endeavors to do with its products and services.

The National Fund for Workforce Solutions and JFF launched the Youth/Industry Partnership Initiative (YIPI) to learn how employer-led industry partnerships could addressing the crisis of youth unemployment.

While employment rates in the U.S. are improving, young people seeking to enter the workforce continue to be disproportionately unemployed. JFF joined forces with the Aspen Forum for Community Solutions and a powerful coalition of leading companies to expand economic mobility for young adults.

Educators and employers often seem to speak different languages. But when it comes to preparing people for work, they have the same objective—helping learners gain the skills they need to succeed.

The National Fund for Workforce Solution’s Young Adult Initiatives aim to test and implement new strategies for targeting and investing in America’s young adults so that employers and workforce development can tap into this workforce.

Manufacturing Day Showcases Work-Based Innovations in Kentucky

For Manufacturing Day, JFF explored innovative education programs as part of the Jobs to Manufacturing Careers initiative and learned about the keys to partnerships between employers, colleges, and workers.

No workforce development strategy has the same track record as apprenticeship, which has proven to be one of the most effective ways to connect education to work since the middle ages. In recent years, this age-old model of training has

The Board of Governors of the Federal Reserve System recently hosted a panel discussion in Washington, DC focused on important topics addressed in the publication, Transforming U.S. Workforce Development Policies for the 21st Century . The panelists inclu

This brief highlights major policy and program solutions explored during a summit convened by JFF and partners to address the manufacturing skills gap and how to generate the robust talent pipeline needed.

This week, over 2,000 learning professionals gathered at Learning 2015 in Orlando to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Elliott Masie’s annual conference focused on workplace learning. The group represented leading companies committed to innovative emergin

This is a case study of Iowa's UnityPoint Health and its effort to transform care, develop frontline workers, and fully align these objectives in its Des Moines hospitals and outpatient clinics.

These resources are intended to support leaders who are implementing and scaling up work-based learning in states and regions across the Pathways to Prosperity Network.

As the numbers of youth disconnected from the workforce continue to rise, the National Fund for Workforce Solutions aims to test and implement new strategies for targeting America’s young adult workforce.

This series highlights key issues and best practices around creating career pathways that best equip underprepared youth and adults to access and succeed in postsecondary education and the workforce.

There's been an increase in employers using their resources and creativity to upskill their workers, but there is much work to be done. Will you help us up the ante?

CareerSTAT's report, Building Career Ladders in the Age of the Affordable Care Act, documents how major New Jersey health care provider Jersey City Medical Center-Barnabas Health works with regional partners to develop its frontline workers.

This report standardizes the National Fund's systems change approach, providing numerous examples of successful instances and offering suggestions on how to achieve, measure, and document systems change.

This toolkit is a guide for training providers, workforce development organizations, community colleges, other educational institutions, and community-based organizations deliberately integrating employer engagement into the core decision making for a successful program. It offers strategies for educational institutions and workforce development organizations in the early stages of launching a new relationship and building a strategic partnership.

Work-Based Learning in Action is a series of case studies highlighting effective models of work-based learning.

(And Why Experts Are Serious When They Say That) By Mary V.L. Wright, Senior Director, Jobs for the Future, and Kristin Wolff, Thinkers+Doers, Associate (Adjunct), Social Policy Research Associates When reviewing the news and reports related to preparing

Information technology jobs are among the fastest growing occupations in the country, yet over a half million IT job openings are unfilled. The TechHire initiative helps stakeholders develop a pipeline of diverse talent to meet employer needs.

Work-based courses are an innovative way to bring college to the production line by using the job as a learning lab. This toolkit provides guidance on bringing work-based learning models to colleges.

Transportation, Distribution, and Logistics is a critical sector to the US economy, employing over 4.6 million workers. Through a two-year JFF initiative, 10 regions can scale up their training programs in this sector.

Work-based learning helps alleviate a common issue for jobseekers: meeting a "relevant work experience" prerequisite that is hard to gain outside of the workplace.

Seven Ways Intermediaries Help Develop Apprenticeship Programs

Apprenticeship—a paid, credentialed, work-based learning approach that combines on-the-job training with classroom instruction—is gaining momentum in technical fields across the US.

Who Cares? What's Unfair about How We Treat Our Health Care Workforce

According to the latest Bureau of Labor Statistics data, women made up the majority of the nursing assistant, home health aide, and personal aide workforce. But these caretakers regularly struggle to support their own families.

New Paths to Professional Nursing (NPPN), funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation’s New Jersey Health Initiatives program, demonstrates that it is possible to create a pipeline of nursing candidates who live in and resemble the communities they serve.

At JFF, it's in our DNA to connect decision makers, shape conversations, create partnerships, develop systems and programs, and influence practice-informed policy.

Creating a Buzz with the New Hampshire Manufacturing Partnership

What does the future of New Hampshire's manufacturing industry look like? Several key collaborative partnerships are in place to ensure the future is bright and strong.

The rural counties of Region 7, a sub-state area designated by the state of Alabama to address workforce development issues, has yet to fully recover from the 2007 economic recession. This report outlines Region 7's education and workforce needs.

By 2030, Florida will need to create two million net new jobs to accommodate an additional six million residents. At the same time, rapid technological innovation is shifting the skills and competencies required for jobs.

A Step Closer to High-Quality, Industry-Aligned Career and Technical Education Programs

Recently, the House passed the bipartisan H.R. 2353, “ The Strengthening Career and Technical Education for the 21st Century Act,” which updates the Carl D. Perkins Career and Technical Education Act.

Preparing the Workforce of the Future by Doing What Matters

By Van Ton-Quinlivan , vice chancellor for workforce and economic development of the California Community Colleges Today’s job market is tough for the average college-educated American—but for someone without skills, it can be nearly impossible. And if we

In Monday’s Wall Street Journal , Peter Cappelli makes some compelling points in his article entitled “Why Companies Aren’t Getting the Employees They Need.” His take on the long running debate on whether there is in fact a skill shortage

A Long-Term Leg Up for Entry-Level Workers

By helping entry-level workers move into middle-skill positions, we’re giving them a leg up on a long-term career.

This table is a comprehensive resource that describes the child labor laws and workers’ compensation statutes for each state. The information within this table is intended to help mitigate liability concerns related to youth employment.

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