This resource guide presents working models of successful employer engagement and lessons for securing and sustaining partnerships with employers. It was written to help education and training providers fully realize the value of strategic, long-term, and intensive partnerships with employers. The resource leads readers through a continuum of activities supporting these partnerships, with each level involving deeper engagement and integration of employers into the work:

1. Advising
2. Capacity-building
3. Co-designing
4. Convening
5. Leading

The continuum is flexible and adaptable, and suggests how productive relationships with employers might evolve, with activities at one level helping build trust, momentum, and leverage for more intensive activities.

The guide was developed for Accelerating Opportunity, an initiative to help students with low basic skills earn valued occupational credentials and rewarding careers, through the integration of Adult Basic Education and career and technical training. The step-by-step guide and tips are intended to be relevant to practitioners in workforce, career and technical education, and adult education.