State Workforce Development, Pt. 4: Partnerships

In my experience, too many workforce partnerships are built on individual relationships and personalities that mesh, as opposed to being systematized and formalized, striving for shared outcomes. So what happens is one of the partners moves on, and the program between organizations falls apart. This hurts students and institutions. You start from scratch every time.

The goal should be scaled sector-focused partnerships that deliver measurable returns. State workforce councils are meant to galvanize partners from higher education, private industry, government, and the nonprofit sector, in an attempt to unify efforts across a state. Tighter coordination, better communication, and stronger alignment of efforts and resources should be expected and partners should be held accountable. Private industry partners should take a more prominent lead and show greater investment of resources while also actively working to create opportunities. Data-driven initiatives with tangible, measurable goals and outcomes should be established by sector and industry need with the right partners and stakeholders. The disparate network of initiatives that overlap, duplicate, and ultimately yield small results after large investments, must be unbundled and rebuilt. And socio-economic factors that impact workforce engagement must be addressed.

Some examples of state partnerships and programs that work:

• Alabama’s AIDT, Ohio TechNet, and Arkansas’ ACCESS programs demonstrate the power of employer-driven design.

  • Alabama’s AIDT Program model provides no-cost, pre-employment training to ensure workers are job-ready from day one. It involves deep partnerships where companies help develop the training plans to match specific operational demands.

• Montana’s 406 JOBS Initiative is a unifying framework designed to create "zero barriers to work" across six high-demand sectors, promoting pathways across career, college, and military sectors.

• Delaware, Arizona, and Nevada integrate work-based learning and co-created corporate training models.

• Several states, including Maine, Delaware, Illinois, Arizona, and Massachusetts make specific, sustained investments in adult, continuing, and incumbent learners—with particular attention to programs that intentionally target individuals with some college credit but no degree (SCND) or working adults seeking reskilling/upskilling.

• Multiple states explicitly address childcare, housing, and reentry barriers as workforce strategies, not social policy add-ons.

Recommendations for Strong Partnerships

1. Scale Employer-Led Sector Partnerships

   1. Prioritize in areas such as advanced manufacturing, healthcare, bioscience, clean energy, and digital infrastructure.

   2. Require bi-annual reporting.

   3. Require employer co-investment and clear hiring commitments.

2. Expand Work-Based Learning and Apprenticeships

   1. Incentivize paid internships, registered apprenticeships, and incumbent-worker upskilling across public higher education.

      1. Apprenticeships are often mentioned and discussed, but seldom clarified in a transparent and meaningful way.

      2. Lead models/examples:

         1. North Carolina (The "ApprenticeshipNC" Model)

            1. The state mandates that local workforce boards spend at least 6% of federal funds on apprenticeships, creating a guaranteed financial pipeline.

         2. Wisconsin (The "Youth Apprenticeship" Leader)

            1. The system is built on a massive scale of employer participation, engaging over 7,400 different employers in 2025.

         3. New Jersey (The "GAINS & PACE" Model)

            1. The state uses two distinct programs: GAINS (for registered apprentices in growth sectors) and PACE (pre-apprenticeships that remove barriers like childcare and transportation costs).

         4. Missouri (The "Teacher Apprenticeship" Pioneer)

            1. Through Missouri State University, they developed the "Tigers to Teachers" program, which allows paraeducators to earn full teacher certification while staying employed in their local K-12 classrooms.

         5. Washington (The "Career Connect" Model)

            1. Washington has pioneered the expansion into "non-traditional" healthcare roles, growing from zero active Medical Assistant apprentices in 2020 to over 440 by 2025.

3. Create state-wide “Some College-No Degree” program that incentivizes return to college.

   1. In every state there are hundreds of thousands, if not millions, of people with some college but no degree. These are individuals that, with the completion of their degrees, can become stronger contributors to the workforce with more socio-economic impact in their communities.

4. Integrate Wraparound Supports

   1. Embed childcare, transportation, and reentry supports directly into workforce grants and program design.

   2. These are major hurdles to workforce engagement for significant portions of the state.

      1. Without addressing these barriers, the already marginalized and minoritized will continue to struggle to enter the workforce in an impactful way, and the state’s greater goals will not be achieved.

5. Reentry Programs for the Justice-impacted

   1. Follow the lead of states like California and Arizona as leaders; and Re-entry 2030 cohort states like Washington, North Carolina, Nebraska, New York, Alabama in establishing a statewide reentry program for the justice impacted.

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