This fact sheet by the National Skills Coalition provides a succinct overview of the challenges faced by low-skilled service workers and their employers due to a lack of foundational and key skills with regard to job knowledge. The fact sheet outlines potential options for employers to boost worker skills, including industry partnerships, apprenticeships, work-based learning programs, and integrated education training. It provides informative tables and charts to illustrate how investment in upskilling workers can pay off for employers.

This article from Social Solutions looks at how understanding the employer perspective is a key to successful engagement between workforce programs and employers. Employers rely on workforce development organizations to help them understand and navigate services and programs; successful engagement with employers involves doing not just talking and discussing but more action and results. The article outlines five steps for building collaborative business services, including: proactively targeting businesses for outreach, listening to employers regarding the challenges or issues they are facing, sharing information with staff and partner organizations, identifying challenges and opportunities and developing services to address them, and working with employers to provide solutions in a seamless manner.

This working paper from the U.S. Partnership on Mobility from Poverty explores a variety of approaches to help move families out of poverty. One of the building blocks explored is community building and social capital (beginning on page 36). Relevant research is presented describing the importance and impact of social capital, and an overview of example programs is given. Additionally, the documented impact and funding for each example program is listed.

This reference guide from the U.S. Department of Labor provides promising practices regarding specific nondiscrimination requirements in Section 188 and the current Section 188 regulations. It was developed as a resource document for any organization that desires to ensure universal access to and equal opportunity for individuals with disabilities in the workforce development system. It is available for download from the web site.

This informational Health Profession Opportunity Grants (HPOG) Program video intends to assist grantees in establishing their own employer partnerships by highlighting established in-demand healthcare trainings used across 21 states to meet growing employer need. The video illustrates relationships between HPOG 2.0 grantees and their employer partners.

SNAP to Skills will host the webinar Better Jobs and Increased Incomes: Integrating SNAP E&T into Career Pathways Programs on March 22, 2018 from 1:00 to 2:30 p.m. EST. The webinar will focus on how career pathways can help SNAP participants upgrade their skills and advance to higher paying jobs by completing training and obtaining credentials in industries with strong employment opportunities. Webinar participants will learn how SNAP E&T can integrate with career pathways programs to create expanded opportunities for SNAP participants, leverage other funding, and fill service gaps to increase impact. It will include opportunities to hear from specific communities on how they have integrated SNAP E&T with career pathways to create opportunities for participants to obtain better jobs and increase earnings.

This blog by Lane Schonour, Goodwill Vice President of Learning and Development, looks at the challenges faced by many non-profits related to talent management in today’s economy. Mr. Schonour shares insights and lessons learned by Goodwill as a result of their work in this area and how Goodwill has had success with managing the talent pipeline by ensuring they have the right mix of skills and competencies to meet current and future business requirements.

This update from The Aspen Institute is related to 2015’s UpSkilling Playbook for Employers, a playbook designed to promote and highlight examples of employer-led programs and to encourage employer training and advancement practices for workers. Since the release of the Playbook, there has been a significant increase in upskilling among employers. Businesses are recognizing the importance of implementing upskilling programs, and investors are now looking at the importance of upskilling for both business and societal good. The update lists several upskilling programs that are providing positive results. A link to the Upskilling Playbook for Employers is included.

This article, published in the Juvenile Justice Information Exchange, describes programs designed to provide employment support to fathers who are in the criminal justice system. The T.O.R.I. Program and RIDGE Project are described in detail in their approach to provide assistance for reentry, particularly for fathers. The article also discusses grants provided by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services for fathers and resources available to help support employment and parenting of returning young fathers.

This brief from the Office of Planning, Research and Evaluation (OPRE) includes consultation with experts and a literature review to determine how to best invest in programs that serve low-income children and adults. It highlights the need for program implementation to integrate research and evaluation findings for programs that combine services for children and adults. Program leaders can also use rapid-cycle testing and collaborate with researchers to quickly inform the field of promising outcomes.