What Is a Work-Based Learning Intermediary?

A work-based learning intermediary is an organization—or a collaboration of several organizations—that coordinates across stakeholders for effective and efficient design and implementation of work-based learning programs.

Intermediaries are often industry associations, joint labor-management organizations, community colleges, workforce boards, chambers of commerce, or community-based organizations.

How Intermediaries Support Work-Based Learning

Intermediaries convene key stakeholders, such as industry partners, educational institutions, labor unions, and community-based organizations, to broker relationships and arrange for the provision of services. They conduct outreach to industry, aggregate employer demand for work-based learning, and broker placements for work-based learning participants.

Intermediaries may also support the implementation of work-based learning programs by, for example, helping employers write job descriptions, offering guidance to the employees who will supervise work-based learning participants, and working with educational institutions to help them prepare students for work-based learning experiences. Intermediaries also research, document, and advocate for best practices, and they can build public and political support for apprenticeships and other work-based learning programs.

Finally, they serve as the administrative leaders of programs to reduce the workload for other partners. In the case of Registered Apprenticeships, playing the lead administrative role can mean serving as the program sponsor or as an expert partner that can assist with the state or federal registration process.