Sustaining the Promise: Realizing the Potential of Workforce Intermediaries and Sector Projects
In the past decade, workforce development practitioners, policymakers, and funders have increasingly favored the development of complex workforce development projects managed by intermediaries. These projects, usually focused on one industry or sector, provide a wide range of education, training, and support services for low-income adults.
Two principal characteristics distinguish intermediary and sector projects from the generation of workforce projects that preceded them. First, the new approach recognizes that short-term training programs do not address the complicated set of factors preventing adults from earning family-sustaining wages. Second, workforce development practitioners increasingly recognize that focusing solely on the trainee ignores the essential role of the employer. The comprehensive, long-term, “dual customer” approach that the field has adopted strives to bridge the gap between what business needs to remain competitive (demand) and where potential or existing workers are in terms of skills and abilities (supply). Dozens of sector and intermediary projects have sprung up in the last decade, often seeded by substantial grants or contracts from a combination of public and private financing sources. Practitioners have experimented with various program models, tailored their approaches to the needs of particular industries or groups of workers, and innovated to widen their funding bases. The accomplishments to date are both impressive and nascent. The scope and complexity of the projects, and the initial outcomes for participants, are impressive; they offer a wealth of accomplishments and findings that are enriching the workforce development field. At the same time, these projects have only just begun, given the long horizon of operations necessary for participants to achieve the goal of economic stability. As the sector and intermediary field matures, and as the seed funding that launched many projects expires, a key question emerges: how can these projects be sustained so that they can fulfill the promise of meeting both worker and employer needs? This question embodies three principal types of sustainability challenge: financing, infrastructure, and operations.
© 2011 National Fund for Workforce Solutions