Workforce Ecosystem Collaborative – 3^rd Convening @ CEA International 2025

August 2025
The Pivot: Creating Sustainable and Diversified Adult Education in the Workforce Ecosystem

On August 10, 2025, leaders from across the nation gathered in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, for the third convening of the Workforce Ecosystem Collaborative, held in conjunction with the Correctional Education Association (CEA) International Conference. This unique convergence of education, workforce development, reentry, and employer stakeholders created a powerful forum for exploring solutions at the intersection of adult education, workforce development, business and industry, and justice reform. Building on the foundation of prior convenings, this session deepened the Collaborative’s mission to reimagine the U.S. workforce ecosystem through cross-sector alignment, systems integration, and equity-driven innovation. The Pittsburgh gathering was particularly timely, taking place amid the suspension (and subsequent reinstatement) of WIOA Title II (AEFLA) funding, a major federal support for adult education and literacy, which added urgency to conversations about sustainability, diversified funding, employer engagement, and new models of service delivery.

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Workforce Ecosystem Collaborative – 2^nd Convening @ COABE 2025

May 2025
Advancing a Unified Workforce Development Ecosystem through Collaboration, Innovation, and Equity

The Workforce Ecosystem Collaborative was founded on the belief that a robust, inclusive workforce system depends on the coordination of education, correctional education, workforce engagement, economic development, and employer partnerships. The March 2025 convening, held at the COABE National Conference, built upon the December 2024 meeting by focusing on emerging “buds”— opportunities to address inequities, modernize systems, and scale impactful practices. Participants reviewed and ranked 13 innovation areas, discussed implementation strategies, and explored collective influence to drive change in the workforce ecosystem.

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Workforce Ecosystem Collaborative – 1^st Convening @ ACTE CareerTech Vision 2024

January 2025

Fostering Partnerships and Collaboration Between Stakeholders of the Workforce Ecosystem

The Workforce Ecosystem Collaborative Convening brought together ten national organizations to foster cross-sector partnerships and advance workforce development strategies. Held on December 4, 2024, in San Antonio, Texas, the convening explored key challenges and opportunities in talent pipeline development, education-industry collaboration, and equity in workforce access.

This white paper captures critical insights, highlighting successes in credential recognition and enrollment growth while addressing systemic barriers such as funding gaps and siloed structures. By strengthening collaboration, embracing innovation, and prioritizing equity, stakeholders can drive meaningful change and build a future-ready workforce that meets the evolving demands of the global economy.

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The New Possible: Innovative Workforce Development and Skills Maps for Tompkins County

February 2021

The New Possible: Innovative Workforce Development and Skills Maps for Tompkins County examines the economic disruptions caused by COVID-19 and their lasting effects on the region’s labor market. Through extensive research—including employer surveys, labor market data, and qualitative interviews—this white paper identifies shifting skill demands, workforce shortages, and systemic barriers to employment. It provides strategic recommendations for training providers, employers, and policymakers to develop equitable, high-quality job pathways, improve workforce coordination, and foster economic resilience.

This white paper examines key findings, shedding light on workforce development challenges, the evolving demands of employers, and the need for innovative solutions. By embracing data-driven decision-making and targeted workforce strategies, Tompkins County can build a more inclusive and future-ready labor market.

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Technology in Correctional Education: An Implementation Case Study

January 2019

The use of technology in correctional education settings has long been controversial. “The policies and practices of federal, state, and local corrections agencies, including the juvenile justice system, severely hinder the ability of correctional education programs to enable learning through technology.” Security drives the concerns with access to the internet instilling fear in legislators, corrections officials, and victims of crimes. Layered upon security issues is the cost of both hardware and software; which often includes ongoing maintenance expenditures. Lastly, policymakers often question the efficacy of use of technology in the delivery of training and education programs to those who are incarcerated.

Asia Pacific Roundtable on Workforce Education

January 2013

Why Asia Pacific?

The Asia-Pacific region represents one of the most dynamic growth areas of the world, with over 50% of the world’s economic output. To support this growth, businesses are ramping up talent management strategies and resources. As reported at APEC 2011 by Mr. Roger Crook, CEO of DHL Global Forwarding, Freight, “The biggest challenges that we face in the region are attracting, retaining and developing talent. In countries like China, you’ve got an aging population, while in Japan, for example, more and more women prefer to have a career and not have a family. All of these trends are having an impact on the availability of talent, and so it is critical that every company have a talent development program or talent identification and development program.”

COABE Journal: Technology, Innovation, and Adult Career Pathways

July 2018

The Workforce Innovation and Opportunities Act (WIOA) not only legislated a collaborative structure crucial for implementing adult career pathways (ACP) programming, it also clarified the role of technology in Adult Basic Education (ABE). New language embedded in Title II, the Adult Education and Family Literacy Act (AEFLA), resolved any ambiguity around the necessity for ABE to strengthen efforts in technology integration and distance learning. This made it clear that the very legislation designed to support ACP programming also specifically called for the use of information and communication technologies (ICTs) for the improvement of teaching, learning, professional development, productivity, and system efficiencies (WIOA, 2014). This public affirmation followed years of the development of innovative ACP programing for career minded ABE learners across the country (e.g., educational programming developed as part of the iBEST initiative in the state of Washington1 and MN FastTRAC in Minnesota2). However, just as ABE practitioners began to better use ICTs and to support digital literacy skill development, ICT innovation in the world of work moved even more quickly. The result is that employers are increasingly looking for potential employees who not only possess digital literacy skills but those who can nimbly apply those skills as they take on tasks requiring problem solving in the workplace.

Common Core State Standards – What Effect Could They Have on Adult Education

July 2012

It appears the much-heralded and long-awaited Common Core State Standards for K-12 education (CCSS) have become a reality. Many were skeptical when the Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO) and the National Governors Association Center for Best Practices (NGA Center) joined forces three years ago to launch this most recent push to establish Common Core State Educational Standards for K-12 students in the United States. In the recent past, others, including Presidents George H.W. Bush, George W. Bush, and Bill Clinton, had proposed some version of Common Core Standards; they failed to gain much traction. But, on June 10, 2010, almost one year to the day after the CCSSO/NGA Center standards were proposed, a full set of solid and unambiguous English language arts and math standards – crafted, evaluated and approved by experts – was released to the public.

Developing Human Capital – Meeting the Growing Global Need for a Skilled and Educated Workforce

December 2011

Business People from Mars? Educators from Venus?

There has traditionally been a disconnect between the business people who create jobs and the education professionals who provide high school students and others with the knowledge and skills they need to be successful as employees.

For the most part, business professionals and educators live and operate in two very different worlds. They speak different languages (e.g., the Department of Labor speaks of “Industries” while the Department of Education talks about “Career Clusters”). They have different criteria for success and are held to different standards of accountability. Educators are graded on how well their students perform on tests, not on how well they perform later in life. Business people are evaluated on how innovative and successful they are in running their enterprises, including creating and marketing their products and services; expanding their markets; how well their workforce performs; and showing a profit.

The one area where business and education overlap most is in the Career and Technical Education (CTE) sector. CTE students have more specific goals in mind for the education they are pursuing, which makes CTE providers more accountable to their “customers” in much the same way most private businesses are. This is decidedly true for post-secondary CTE students attending community colleges or trade schools, but it is also true for the majority of CTE students at the secondary level—they want to see value in exchange for the time and effort they are expending in focused study..

How Investment in Technology Can Accelerate Collective Impact in Adult Learning

2017

Technology is now part of almost everyone’s daily life. Many of us live on our devices, rely on them for information, directions, banking, restaurant reservations, etc. When our mobile phone is more than five feet from us, some of us may even get anxious and start looking for where we left it. It is often the first thing we look at in the morning and the last thing we put down at night. Technology drives our work, our play, and our engagement with others. It is required to be a fully-participating member of the 21st century. .

Improving Adult Education Teacher Effectiveness – A Call to Action for a New Credential

March 2012

Helping undereducated, underprepared adults to learn requires a targeted set of skills. The effectiveness of an adult education program depends on all instructional administrators, teachers and tutors, having those skills. Gone are the days when the teaching of adult basic education could rest upon a foundation of good intentions. There is a growing recognition that the performance of students can be predicted by the quality of instruction. The stakes for adult learners, and for the programs that support them, are higher than ever, as all must meet the needs for higher standards and greater complexity in the 21st century workforce.

Literacy, Technology, Community – The Importance of Smart Technology in Workforce and Adult Education

March 2016

Access to technology is no longer a privilege. Rather, it is a prerequisite for full participation in 21^st century, high-quality education and workforce training opportunities. Be they clients, candidates, participants, students, patients, emerging or incumbent workers, or businesses looking to maintain their workforce competitive skill edge, the ability to access educational material online is critical to moving the United States forward in terms of economic development and academic attainment. 

In today’s competitive global economy, the pace at which education and training is being delivered to students, young and old, is increasingly at an unprecedented rate. Students world-wide have access to Massive Open Online Courses (MOOCs), online resources and curriculum, and the ability to learn anytime, anywhere, and on any device. Consequently, the demands that are placed on our education and workforce systems require all stakeholders to teach to more rigid standards, incorporate programs of study that are industry aligned, and be driven by the local and regional needs of employers. As course and training materials shift to meet the acceleration demands of the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA), struggling students often find themselves further behind and tethered to the classroom.

Career Pathways in the Age of Technology and WIOA

2019

In a country where Walmart is now the largest private employer in 22 states and unemployment is at an all-time low, employers are looking for new ways to upskill the national labor force to make job applicants “career ready” and existing employees upwardly mobile. Layered on top of this is the fact that the Internet now dominates how we conduct our lives. More than half of the world’s 7.6 billion people use the Internet daily. More than 5 billion people access the Internet on mobile devices. These factors have created a new landscape for Career Pathways development and delivery.

NEDP – A Solution for All WIOA Titles

Adult education has long been recognized as a local and regional economic driver. It fosters academic and career pathways which lead to higher wages, sustainable income, and stronger generational support for education. Given the technology available today, adults can study and advance both in traditional classroom settings, and through distance learning programs. However, not all adults are suited to the traditional environment of classroom learning and high stakes tests.

Filling multiple roles in our daily lives, adult learners parent, work, engage in family and community activities, and juggle the demands of an increasingly busy life. Education alternatives, such as distance learning, have eased the ability to engage in the education pipeline, yet high stakes testing remains the norm, a norm that is not suited for everyone. The National External Diploma Program (NEDP), established in 1975, fills a vital need for adults seeking completion of a high school diploma, while building on the expertise, experience, and skills they have acquired through life.

New Approaches to Acquiring Skills and Building Careers in a 21st Century Global Job Market

2011

February is Career and Technical Education Month in the U.S., an annual celebration

sponsored by the national Association for Career and Technical Education (ACTE). The

event is designed to highlight the vital importance of technical training and career

development for U.S. job-seekers in today’s much more competitive, high-tech and

increasingly more inter-connected global employment market.

Given the rapid pace of technological development over the past few decades, combined

with the high unemployment rates that have hobbled the U.S. recovery since the start of

The Great Recession, it should hardly be necessary to promote the need for career and

technical education.

It should be clear to everyone that the nation’s future economic success depends to a

large degree upon a more comprehensive and inter-connected job skills acquisition

system – one that can match U.S. job-seekers seamlessly with the training and education

they need to obtain well-paying, family-sustaining jobs in today’s fastest growing

technology fields.

Portable, Stackable Credentials – A New Education Model for Industry-Specific Career Pathways

November 2012

The United States spends over $400 billion a year on post-secondary education.1 By most measures, the country is not getting a good return on this investment. Too many U.S. students emerge from our secondary and post-secondary educational institutions without the knowledge, skills, or credentials to meet the challenges of the 21st century’s increasingly global and technology-based jobs market. Innovators in education, business, and the government have begun to invent new ways of doing business. This paper concludes with a call to action for educational institutions, employers, and policymakers to come together to build on these beginnings and design a system of portable, stackable credentials embedded in transparent, more easily navigable career pathways.

Practices with Promise – California’s AEBG

2015

In 2014, California reorganized the structure and funding of Adult Education. This white paper profiles the innovative practices deployed by newly formed consortia and highlights the promising outcomes of the new delivery system.

The Return on Investment from Adult Education and Training

May 2011

The “Great Recession” began in December of 2007 and lasted a little more than a year

and a half; it ended officially nearly two years ago, in June of 2009.i But the after effects

continue to have a severe and debilitating impact on our nation. U.S. unemployment, for

example, still hovers at just over nine percent as we write this,ii not far below its 27-year

high.

In most cases, high unemployment would be a solid argument in favor of shifting more

federal dollars into adult career training and education programs. In fact, at the height of

the Great Recession, an additional $5 billion was provided to federal workforce programs

as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 (ARRA).

In the current fiscal climate, however, fierce budget battles are taking place in

Washington, DC, and state capitals across the country as legislators grapple with rising

deficits and struggle to make painful decisions about which government-funded programs

are essential and which can be reduced or eliminated altogether..

Youth Employment – Global Solutions

July 2014

Innovation requires an internationalist’s world view. Regardless of home country, domestic innovation can have its limits. Solutions exist and if we share a common labor market challenge, we must look beyond our own economy and incremental policy solutions to find them.