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Providing Business Services: A "How To" Manual

From 1997 through 2007, Workforce Innovation Networks (WINs) worked with local employer organizations across the country that are on the cutting edge of workforce development, testing the proposition that they can play a unique intermediary role in achieving a dual goal:

• Improving the economic prospects of disadvantaged jobseekers and workers; and
• Meeting the needs of their member firms for employees at the entry level and above.

Providing Business Services: is one of four "how to" manuals published at the conclusion of the WINs initiative. It positions employer intermediaries to provide business services through the local workforce system—and using this new position as a tool to grow both association membership and the number of employers who use and benefit from that system.

The other three manuals are also available for download. They are as follows:

• Building Employer-Responsive Workforce Systems at the State Level: State-level employer intermediaries organize and facilitate task forces of key stakeholders to make state workforce systems more effective and responsive to employer needs and to better align state economic and workforce development policies and programs.
• Creating Community Advancement Intermediaries: Implementing a model that enables employers to move entry-level, low-skilled workers up career ladders, at the same time creating vacancies for new workers entering the job market.
• Partnering with One-Stop Career Centers: Advice for businesses on collaborating with One-Stop Career Centers in strong public-private partnerships to train both incumbent workers and new entrants to the labor force.