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PRESS RELEASE Contact: Carmon Cunningham (617) 728-4446 ccunningham@jff.org      BOSTON NONPROFIT AND TWO NATIONAL EMPLOYER ORGANIZATIONS RECEIVE MAJOR FEDERAL AWARD Funds Will Help Employers, Workers, and Job Seekers Boston, MA, February 7, 2003     Workforce Innovation Networks—WINs—has been awarded federal funding totaling approximately $5 million for improving the economic prospects of job-seekers and workers while meeting employers' needs for skilled workers at the entry-level and above. WINs tests the proposition that local employer organizations can play a powerful "intermediary" role, helping their member firms find skilled workers while helping individuals, particularly those with little education and few marketable job skills, gain access to better job opportunities. WINs will distribute part of the funds to cutting-edge employer organizations around the country, improving their ability to serve their members and their communities. WINs will soon announce a process for local employer-led organizations and state partnerships to apply for this funding. "The basic principle is that public funding for helping individuals succeed must provide education and job training that meets employer needs for knowledge and high skills," says Marlene B. Seltzer, President of Jobs for the Future. "The U.S. Department of Labor has made a major investment in this effort to make workforce development more relevant and more efficient in meeting the needs of employers, job seekers, and workers—and especially in increasing opportunities for people to become self sufficient and able to support a family." Launched in 1997, WINs is a collaboration of Boston-based 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. The initiative works with local employer organizations, such as chambers of commerce, that are leaders developing skilled workforces. The new funds come from the Employment and Training Administration of the U.S. Department of Labor, leveraging foundation support that has enabled WINs to lay the groundwork for involving employers and their organizations in the public workforce development system. The WINs partners began by exploring the concept of the "employer intermediary," and then testing it in nine demonstration sites. WINs has also promoted its ideas to the members of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the National Association of Manufacturers, as well as to other employer organizations, policymakers, and the public. With the U.S. Department of Labor investment, the WINs partners will apply the lessons they have learned in three major ways: Improving public policy related to workforce development; Increasing the number of local employer organizations playing an intermediary role in workforce development; and Expanding these efforts to state-level partnerships.  As Congress addresses the reauthorization of the Workforce Investment Act and other federal legislation this year, it could increase the role of employers in workforce development substantially and improve the employment prospects of people needing jobs and work-related skills. The experience of the WINs demonstration sites and other employer-led intermediaries offers important lessons in this regard. The WINs partners are working with employer organizations and their member firms to develop practice-based policy guidance for Congress and the Department of Labor. "We see this effort as both informing WIA reauthorization in the near term and promoting more lasting improvements in workforce development," explains Ms. Seltzer. "The goal is to identify the types of regulatory, administrative, and legislative changes that will make a difference in involving employers in the publicly funded system." Another major area of activity will be to expand the number of WINs demonstration projects from nine to twenty-one. The WINs partners will select twelve additional employer-led intermediaries. Each will receive two years of support for its involvement in WINs, at $65,000 per year. Finally, the WINs partners have recognized the strong role that state governments play in both job training and welfare reform. WINs will fund three demonstrations to establish partnerships among state-level employer-led intermediaries, state workforce and welfare agencies, and others relevant to workforce development. WINs will select three such partnerships to receive $100,000 subgrants, and it will collaborate with them to implement ways to serve dual customers: employers and job seekers.   ###   Jobs for the Future seeks to accelerate the educational and economic advancement of youth and adults struggling in today's economy. JFF partners with leaders in education, business, government, and communities around the nation to: strengthen opportunities for youth to succeed in postsecondary learning and high-skill careers; increase opportunities for low-income individuals to move into family-supporting careers; and meet the growing economic demand for knowledgeable and skilled workers. For more information about Jobs for the Future, please visit the Web site at www.jff.org.