Policymakers and workforce leaders
Tools and resources for state policymakers and workforce system leaders shaping how the system represents, receives, and responds to employer voice.
From this site
Resources from the field
Resources from the field that inform or extend the recommendations.
Partnership for Learning — Industry recommendations for Workforce Pell
How industry voice can shape what's eligible for federal workforce-aligned investment. A model for the kind of employer-defined demand picture Recommendation 1 calls for.
Washington landscape analysis — Employer touchpoints
An audit of 65+ types of employer engagement across Washington's public workforce ecosystem — a working example of the kind of audit Recommendation 4 calls for.
"Too many tables, not enough signal"
An argument for right-leveling employer advisory work — moving strategic functions to sector bodies, reorienting local committees, and shifting compliance off individual employers. Relates directly to Recommendation 2.
"Scaling what works: building high-performing sector-led workforce systems"
Lessons drawn from Career Connect Washington's Sector Leaders on how to build durable workforce infrastructure anchored by credible employer-led sector intermediaries.
"So you want a vocational education system?"
As states embrace career education, the one thing to get right: industry — not projections or static lists — defines the occupations and skills that pathways target. The argument behind Recommendation 1, written for state leaders.
Sector intermediaries
Tools and resources for employer-led sector intermediaries working in and across public workforce systems.
From this site
Resources from the field
Curated resources from organizations developing tools, methodologies, and field knowledge for the practitioners doing this work.
Partnership for Learning — Industry associations: early talent development resources from the field
A practical, growing collection of resources for industry associations, employer coalitions, and sector partnerships developing early talent strategies — curated by Washington's Partnership for Learning and grounded in what's working in the field.
Browse the Partnership for Learning resources →SyncUp Colorado — Workforce Intermediary Toolkit
A shared framework for understanding and growing the intermediary role, built from the practices of 30+ organizations across Colorado — including a self-assessment survey and tools for deepening the work.
Open the SyncUp Colorado toolkit →Organizations playing workforce leadership roles
A starting list of organizations whose work demonstrates what employer-led sector intermediaries can be. Each represents a different model, sector, and stage of development.
FAME USA
Federation for Advanced Manufacturing Education — a manufacturer-governed network of 45 chapters training Advanced Manufacturing Technicians through community college partnerships across 17 states.
CEO Leadership Alliance Orange County
CLAOC's Healthcare Coalition turns regional CEO-level employer leadership into coordinated workforce strategy across Orange County's hospital systems — co-investing time and operational resources before public funding lands.
Talent Pipeline Management (TPM)
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation's methodology for organizing employers into industry-led collaboratives that articulate workforce demand and manage talent supply chains. TPM Academy is where most intermediaries begin.
SyncUp Colorado
Building employer-led sector coalitions to coordinate workforce development across Colorado statewide — including the in-progress cost study quantifying what sustainable intermediary infrastructure actually takes.
Funders
Investment guidance and priority opportunities for funders supporting the build-out of employer-led sector intermediaries as core workforce infrastructure.
From this site
Reflections and field thinking
Recent writing and analysis that informs how funders can position philanthropic investment to build durable employer-led infrastructure.
Washington landscape analysis
An example of the kind of audit funders could support the development of in other states — mapping the 65+ ways a public workforce ecosystem engages employers, so the duplication and fragmentation become legible and actionable.
Scaling what works — reflections on the Career Connect Washington sector intermediary model
An assessment of what Career Connect Washington's statute-funded sector intermediary model (Sector Leaders) has produced — and what funders should take from it about durable sector infrastructure: what the model gets right, what it makes hard, and what it suggests about how philanthropy should structure investment in this work.
True Scale in workforce development
The case for funding the connective tissue between programs and the populations they serve. Frames sector intermediaries as the employer-side parallel to the learner-side intermediaries the field already treats as core infrastructure — and lays out three concrete investment shapes for funders.
April 17, 2033 — Kelly Vedi
A speculative future where employer associations direct career education funding — exploring what shifts in employer engagement, program quality, and labor market alignment look like when funding authority moves from school districts to sector employers.