It’s becoming increasingly difficult to anticipate and predict changes in the labor market. The rapid pace at which jobs are evolving and shifts in the way people are preparing for them makes it difficult to develop responsive on-demand services that meet the unique needs of learners and workers.

Creating systems and infrastructure to collect accurate, reliable, and timely data across a wide range of services and operations helps workforce boards stay ahead of emerging trends. Combined with improved analytics and insight, future-focused workforce boards and training providers can identify areas for improvement to maximize organizational outcomes.

JFF and Google.org are responding to this challenge with the Outcomes for Opportunity (O4O) initiative. This two-year pilot program enables workforce development boards and nonprofit job training providers to make better use of outcomes data. O4OI will increase the availability, accessibility, aggregation, and analysis of data and information as a means of improving economic opportunity for workers nationwide. This people-centric approach will enable workforce professionals to put user needs at the center of data collection, product development, and system design. Ultimately resulting in co-created data products that solve universal problems for the workforce development and job training field.

JFF will be recruiting additional workforce boards to be a part of this exciting initiative with Google.org. If you represent a workforce development board and are interested in being considered as one of these future pilot sites or if you would simply like to know more about this work as it evolves, please sign up here to receive more information.