WSI Publications

Despite a positive growth outlook for IT in Arizona, there is local concern that the state lacks qualified workers to support the future of IT and that talent is leaving the area for professional opportunities elsewhere. As a result, in 2014 the IT Sector Partnership was launched with the intention of engaging a wide range of stakeholders to address the state’s workforce gap. The partnership aimed to define the challenges facing employers—both within the IT industry and in other sectors employing IT workers—and then develop and implement strategies to meet those needs.

The “on-demand” or “1099” economy is reengineering how millions of Americans work, and California’s San Francisco Bay Area is at the forefront of these changes. Four members of the Bay Area team participating in the Communities that Work Partnership (CTWP) set out to understand this challenge and explore how the public workforce development system—the one-stop job centers, community colleges, and publicly funded community-based training programs—could meet the skills needs of freelancers, and the businesses that hire them, in the region’s 1099 economy.

The New York City Communities that Work Partnership is built on a long-standing collaboration among organizations that worked together to pass the New York State Domestic Workers Bill of Rights (BOR). The New York City partners are aware of how challenging it will be—given the uniquely private nature of domestic work—to enforce new labor regulations. Thus their work has expanded to consider how they can address challenges that affect both workers and their employers through workforce development strategies.

How can workforce development and immigrant-serving organizations work together?

Accelerating Opportunity aims to increase the ability of students with low basic skills to earn valued occupational credentials, obtain a well-paying job, and sustain a rewarding career.

Restore the Promise of Work: Reducing Inequality by Raising the Floor and Building Ladders encourages a broader community beyond workforce development to engage in initiatives that redesign work to expand economic opportunity and address growing social, political, and economic inequality

Raise the Floor and Build Ladders: Workforce Strategies Supporting Mobility and Stability argues for rebalancing workforce development strategies to improve the lives of low-wage workers.

This report looks at sector programs and the experience of a network of young adult and sector practitioners.

Seeking to boost student success in health sciences, Austin Community College’s (ACC) Biology Department set out to fundamentally change how students learn and master prerequisite course material.