Employers & Employees

Last weekend, the Southern Governor's Association held their annual meeting in Asheville, NC.  During the meeting, the National Skills Coalition released Driving Innovation from the Middle: Middle-Skill Jobs in the American South's Economy, prepared specifically for the SGA.

On August 16th, Laura Harmon of Greenville Works testified at a field hearing held by the U.S. House of Representatives' Subcommittee on Higher Education and Workforce Training.  Held in Greenville, SC, the Subcommittee looked for input from communities about local solutions to education and workforce needs.

A common refrain heard in discussions regarding the nation’s job shortage is that there are millions of job openings, but employers cannot find workers with the right skills to fill them.  With 25 million Americans looking for full time work how is that possible?

Fred Dedrick, Executive Director of the National Fund for Workforce Solutions, issued the following statement today welcoming the President's announcement of increased support for the

In a high rise building in the heart of downtown Seattle, Susan Crane, Executive Director of SkillUp Washington, is in her 13th floor office increasing coordination and building linkages between workforce partners.

The Workforce Solutions Collaborative of Metro Hartford passed along this success story:

If not for her impacted wisdom teeth, who knows where Danielle George would be today.

Why should foundations invest in efforts to “skill up” the American workforce?

This question provided the framework for a roundtable discussion and two site visits hosted by the National Fund for Workforce Solutions and the Job Opportunity Investment Network (JOIN)—the NFWS site in Philadelphia—at the Council on Foundations Annual Meeting, on April 11th.

Recently, we sat down with Jessica Mosier from the San Diego Workforce Funders Collaborative for this Q&A about the collaborative's work in San Diego.

Pretend we're a potential supporter of the collaborative. Give us your elevator speech about why we should support your work.

We were pleased today to listen in on an analyst call hosted by Root Cause regarding the Social Issue Report on Workforce Development produced by Social Impact Research (SIR), Root Cause’s independent research arm.

Seth Green, Director of the Job Opportunity Investment Network (JOIN), recently penned this blog post for the BCLC Blog discussing JOIN's success and unique approach to work development.

In this month's "In Case You Missed It," we highlight several reports on trends in workforce development, unemployment, and community colleges...

A recent report produced by the National Fund, Employer Engagement in the National Fund for Workforce Solutions, details how workforce partnerships identify and meet employer needs and what challenges they face in doing so.

The National Fund for Workforce Solutions is at a critical, exciting moment. The grant we received from the Corporation for National and Community Service as part of its landmark Social Innovation Fund is allowing us to expand the work of many of our current collaboratives and add six to eight new sites, primarily in the South and Southwest. At this critical moment, new leadership takes the helm of the National Fund.

The Social Innovation Fund supports high-performing organizations developing innovative solutions to social problems. Earlier this year, the National Fund was among the very first organizations selected to receive a grant through the Social Innovation Fund, highlighting the importance of our work and the potential it offers for identifying and bringing innovative workforce solutions to scale.

We have developed this policy roundup to update our readers on legislative issues that impact workforce development.

Community College and Career Training Grant (C3TG) Program

The Greater Cincinnati Workforce Network joined with 19 other community partners to provide $880,000 in local matching funds to secure a federal Second Chance Act Offender Reentry Demonstration grant of nearly $750,000, the Cincinnati Enquirer reported earlier this week.

At a time when concern about job growth dominates the economic news, the John S. and James L. Knight Foundation has awarded a new $1.1 million grant to the National Fund for Workforce Solutions to test local approaches to preparing jobseekers and workers for careers.