This toolkit is designed to help states create career pathways systems that integrate and expand partnerships between state human service agencies and community and technical college systems and institutions.

This toolkit was created to guide adult learners in building employability skills in response to the 2006 study by The Conference Board, Corporate Voices for Working Families, Partnership for 21s Century Skills, and the Society for Human Resource Management, “Are They Really Ready to Work?”

The goal of this clearinghouse is to inform the public workforce investment system about the value, development, and uses of competency models. A competency model is a collection of competencies that together define successful performance in a particular work setting, from Personal Effectiveness Competencies, such as ‘initiative,’ to Occupation-Specific Requirements, such as ‘Process patient admission or discharge documents.’ Competency models are a tool for Career Pathways stakeholders to communicate clearly about the competencies required for specific jobs, job groups, organizations, occupations, or industries, and a framework to develop educational offerings.

This toolkit was developed to offer insight and suggestions on strengthening existing regional workforce funder collaboratives, as well as information on creating new collaboratives. The toolkit has information on:
• The overall purpose and power of regional workforce collaboratives;
• The strength of sector initiatives and the role that the collaboratives play in strengthening these initiatives;
• Practical tips on starting, sustaining, evaluating, and growing a funder collaborative, and,
• Tips on how established collaboratives can change direction.