1 Everybody WINS: Employers and Workforce Development

2 Linking Worker Advancement with the Skill Needs of Employers

3 New Guide for Youth-Serving Intermediaries

4 Local Intermediaries and National Industry Associations

5 Aligning Economic and Workforce Development

6 Building Pathways to Advancement

7 Future @ Work Moves Forward

8 Developing Worker Skills for Information Technology Jobs

9 Who's Who at Jobs for the Future

10 HELP US HELP YOU

1 Everybody WINS: Employers and Workforce Development

Everybody WINs: Effectively Involving Business in Workforce Development Everybody WINs is the first in a series of policy papers for Workforce Innovations Network—WINs. For the past three years, WINs has supported and promoted the efforts of employer organizations to help low-wage and less-skilled workers advance in the labor market. Jobs for the Future, the Center for Workforce Preparation of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, and the Center for Workforce Success of the National Association of Manufacturers created WINs to test and advance the idea that local employer organizations can play productive roles in this arena. Through the efforts of the local entrepreneurial organizations taking part in WINs, it has become clear that public policies play an important role in the ability of employer groups to serve members and assume higher-impact roles in the evolving public-private workforce system. details how existing policies create obstacles to more aggressive and expansive roles for employer organizations in activities that can benefit low-income individuals—and it describes policy innovations that can help overcome those barriers. 

 

Click here for more information about WINs and to download Everybody WINs

2 Linking Worker Advancement with the Skill Needs of Employers
Another new WINs publication is Employer-Led Organizations and Skill Supply Chains: Linking Worker Advancement with the Skill Needs of Employers. This Issue Brief introduces employer organizations and their potential partners to the benefits of developing and utilizing Skill Supply Chains. The Skill Supply Chain model joins employers, community colleges, and non-profit partners in the field of workforce development and education to create pipelines to qualified new workers for employers and pathways to family-supporting jobs for low-wage workers.

Click here for more information about WINs and to download Employer-Led Organizations and Skill Supply Chains: Linking Worker Advancement with the Skill Needs of Employers

 

3 New Guide for Youth-Serving Intermediaries

The School-to-Work Intermediary Project has released the revised edition of The Intermediary Guidebook: Making and Managing Community Connections. This comprehensive guidebook and its accompanying CD-ROM draw on lessons, research, and tools collected during the first two years of the School- to-Work Intermediary Project, as well as the experiences of the many local organizations that are part of the Intermediary Network. The project is a joint initiative of Jobs for the Future and New Ways to Work.

 

To read more about the project and to download The Intermediary Guideboo in PDF format,  Intermediary Project Web site: www.intermediarynetwork.org/whatsnew.html.

 

4 Local Intermediaries and National Industry Associations

Also available from the School-to-Work Intermediary Project is Finding Common Ground: Local Intermediaries and National Industry Associations. Local school-to-work intermediaries and national industry associations share a goal: to organize employers in order to improve learning and career opportunities for young people. This Issue Brief looks at how these two types of groups can better achieve their potential for mutual benefits—and the obstacles they face to collaborating more closely.

 

To read more about the project and to download Finding Common Ground: in PDF format, the Intermediary Project Web site: www.intermediarynetwork.org/whatsnew.html

5 Aligning Economic and Workforce Development

Aligning Ecomonic and Workforce Development Activities in Baltimore: Research Findings summarizes Jobs for the Future's research into "best practices" for improving the alignment between workforce and economic development activities. Jobs for the Future undertook this research to inform similar efforts to be undertaken by the City of Baltimore. The report draws on research conducted by Jobs for the Future, with funding from the Open Society Institute and the Abell and Annie E. Casey Foundations.

 

Download Aligning Ecomonic and Workforce Development Activities in Baltimore

 

6 Building Pathways to Advancement

With funding from the U.S. Department of Labor, Jobs for the Future has launched a new project, Building Pathways to Advancement: Low-Wage Worker Advancement, Backfill, and One-Stop Workforce Training Pilot. This project is piloting a model that enables One-Stop Career Centers and TANF agencies to partner with employers and training providers to advance entry-level former welfare recipients through career ladders—while at the same time filling their vacated entry positions. After designing and piloting the model, Jobs the Future will make it available for replication nationwide.

 

7 Future @ Work Moves Forward

As part of the U.S. Department of Labor's Welfare to Work program, Jobs for the Future and the Manpower Demonstration Research Corporation worked closely with ten large cities over two years to help develop their capacity to undertake successful labor market retention and advancement efforts for inner-city residents moving off welfare and into employment. As a next step, Jobs for the Future\ is supporting intensive, action-oriented, peer learning opportunities for the five Future @ Work sites that were most successful in developing and implementing inner-city resident retention and advancement initiatives.

 

8 Developing Worker Skills for Information Technology Jobs

On June 27, JFF Vice President of Technology and Communications Carmon Cunningham will speak on "Programs to Develop IT Skills in Workers." The panel is part of the National Policy Association forum, "Crossing the Digital Divide to Digital Economic Opportunity: Upgrading TodayÕs Workers for Tomorrow's IT Work." Designed for those interested in information technology and workforce development, the forum will take place in Boston. The National Policy Association brings together businesses, unions, and other key institutional leaders to identify solutions to emerging economic and social challenges. NPAÕs Digital Economic Opportunity Committee is presenting this conference.

 

For more information on the conference and NPA, go to: www.npa1.org.

 

9 Who's Who at Jobs for the Future

Jobs for the Future brings to its projects a diverse staff with a nationally recognized depth and breadth of experience in workforce development, economic development, and education. At the senior level and throughout the organization, our staff members bring expertise bridging the boundaries that usually separate these fields, and they draw on many years of work expanding economic and educational opportunities through practice in the field and through the policies of federal, state, and local governments. If you'd like to know more about who we are, the Jobs for the Future Web site now includes brief introductions to all our staff members.

 

Click here to read about us

 

10 HELP US HELP YOU

Our thanks to those of you who have already sent us up-to-date contact information. If you haven't returned the postcard request or did not receive the mailing, please e-mail your address, title, and e- mail address to info@jff.org. Thank you.