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Developing Guidance on the American Workforce System
- Self-Funded by Nexight
Nexight created a comprehensive primer designed to help those engaging in federal, state, or local level workforce development issues make future decisions on workforce development policy.
The Challenge
Insufficient Understanding of the Funding Ecosystem Supporting Workforce Development
The U.S. workforce development ecosystem is multi-layered and complex, and workforce development is a major focus of labor economics as well as the beneficiary of labor-related economic policy. Policy makers must have a clear understanding of all aspects of the system and how they interact to make effective workforce policy decisions. To date, there has been no single source of easily digestible information that captures all the components of how funding is allocated at the federal, state, and local levels to support workforce development efforts.
Our Solution
A US Workforce System Primer
Nexight Group recognized the need for guidance that could offer a comprehensive view into the funding structure of the nation’s workforce system. The resulting document—A Guide to the American Workforce System—is essentially a workforce primer, establishing a common vocabulary and presenting a visual guide to how the federal government interacts with its agencies, the private sector, nonprofits, educational institutions, and other organizations to support the development of the nation’s labor force.
To develop the primer, the Nexight team:
- Conducted open-source research and interviews with subject matter experts to understand the entire U.S. workforce development system
- Synthesized that research and created a visual summary of the overall workforce system, which was validated by subject matter experts
- Categorized concepts related to workforce development (e.g., workforce development models, policies, stakeholders) to make the guidance document easier to navigate
Impact
- The Guide to the American Workforce System provides a comprehensive, accessible way to gain a clear understanding of all aspects of the system and how they interact to make effective workforce policy decisions.
- That understanding can enable more effective decision making and make it easier to identify weak interactions that should be reformed to enable the system to better serve its main stakeholders—American workers and employers.
- The guide also offers the American public a way to better understand how federal funds are used to support and further the American workforce system.