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 Aspen Institute report looks at five workforce organizations that were funded through Capital One Foundation’s Human Capital Innovation Fund (HCIF) to test new strategies and approaches to enhance the placement of low-income individuals for employment. Each program serves a different population and targets different industries. The objective of the report is to encourage, promote, and share lessons learned on the ways that grantees can leverage HCIF funds to build effective workforce approaches. The report also highlights areas which U.S. workforce development organizations typically find the most challenging, including developing and maintaining strategic partnerships with other organizations, engaging with employers, and delivering support service strategies tailored to the needs of training participants.

Community colleges have the potential to provide low-cost, high-quality training to students if they partner with local business and industry leaders. This toolkit from the Brookings Institution provides practical strategies for community colleges to use to build and maintain partnerships with local business leaders. The toolkit has three sections: creating a navigator for industry partners, key characteristics of productive partnerships, and practical steps for building relationships. Each section has recommendations that are based on research and conversations with business and industry leaders, community college leaders, and intermediaries.

This journal article estimates how three large sectoral employment programs in New York City affected the employment and earnings of participants. These Sector-Focused Career Centers (SFCCs) target occupations that offer competitive wages of at least $10 per hour, full-time jobs, advancement opportunities for workers, and high growth potential for businesses. Participants receive a variety of services, including resume review, interview skills development, job search assistance, and career advice. Results showed gains in employment levels and earnings for participants, and participants who received industry-specific training had the greatest earnings gains.

This report from the Department of Labor provides an overview of the evidence behind effective job training programs for youth and adults. For adults, the evidence supports post-secondary education related to an in-demand field, employer engagement, and job training that is closely related to a real job or occupation. There is less evidence on what works for youth, but early experience to career and higher education information and work experience can be beneficial. The report concludes with next steps to expand what works and fill the gaps in evidence.

This brief from the Urban Institute provides a framework for why workforce programs and employers must engage with one another. First, the brief presents the challenges that workforce programs may face when engaging employers. Employers may not see the value in partnering with workforce programs or may be wary of working with the government or nonprofits. Then, the brief discusses why employers become involved in workforce programs, why workforce programs engage employers, and how employers are involved in workforce programs. Employers can play a variety of roles in a workforce program, such as oversight, program design, program delivery, recruitment and hiring, and financial or in-kind resources. The report concludes by describing how employers can become partners with workforce programs under WIOA.

The Aspen Institute’s Workforce Strategies Initiative created this playbook to document lessons learned from the Communities that Work Partnership project. Seven regional teams were selected to participate in this project, which included workforce development leaders and representatives from private industry. Each team collaborated to advance a variety of industry-led workforce development strategies. The playbook includes information on building partnerships, collecting labor market information, business engagement and skills development, and additional strategies for improving the talent pipeline. Each play describes the strategy, includes an example of a site that used that strategy, and provides action steps for applying the strategy in regions.

This toolkit from the Heartland Alliance provides resources targeted toward organizations wanting to engage employers for transitional jobs or subsidized employment programs. These resources will help organizations plan and implement effective job development strategies, build relationships with employers, and serve participants with barriers to employment. The toolkit includes research briefs on six different topics, videos of employers describing how partnering with transitional jobs programs was good for business, and links to additional information by subtopic.

Work-based learning opportunities are a critical tool for filling skills gaps for positions that require some education or training past high school. This scan from the National Skills Coalition identifies the policies that all 50 states and the District of Columbia have implemented to encourage work-based learning opportunities. The authors found that 35 states had at least one of the following policies: expansion initiatives, employer subsidies, pre-apprenticeships or youth apprenticeships, secondary student work-based learning opportunities, or policies supporting postsecondary classroom instruction for apprenticeships.

This issue brief from MDRC highlights key findings about job training programs that lead to success with various populations, including youth and dislocated workers. Of particular importance are programs with employer engagement and programs that are career-focused, both of which have been shown to be effective when implemented correctly. The brief shares recent innovations in career training as well as lessons learned from successful programs.