This guide is intended for education and training suppliers, manufacturing extension programs/centers, economic development institutions, and other service providers involved in helping companies become more productive. It explains how to organize and support learning consortia consisting of companies that have come together to develop new capabilities, build their employees' skills, and increase their enterprises' productive capacities. The guide is divided into nine sections each of which deals with one of the following issues in forming a learning consortium: creating a concept; building membership; creating an organization; establishing a mission and goals; assessing needs; developing a program; delivering the program; evaluating the consortium; and building sustainability. Appendixes constituting approximately 50% of the guide include the following: summary of approaches to addressing the nine issues in forming a learning consortium; sample contact information, mission statements, and assessment tools used by consortia; lists of high performance work practices, skills required for effective participation within a learning consortium, and the best practice guidelines of the National Workforce Assistance Collaborative (NWAC) best practice guidelines; lists of 3 resource organizations and 34 print resources pertaining to learning consortia; and lists of NWAC board and advisory group members and products/services. (MN)