Describes the goals and focus of the National Workforce Assistance Collaborative, a national resource for technical assistance in workforce and workplace development supported by a Department of Labor grant. Indicates that the collaborative has developed two strategies for its dissemination effort: a national resource network and an electronic…

A learning consortium is a group of companies that come together to learn from each other to develop new capabilities, build the skills of their employees, and increase the productive capacities of their enterprises. Most undertake both work force and workplace development efforts. Although the key feature is cooperative learning, most learning…

States that are successfully integrating three development programs--economic, work force, and technology--are focusing on the results as the first step in the process and have an easier time developing, monitoring, and improving their strategies. To structure their integration efforts around results, states need to begin with a vision of a…

Studies have confirmed that there is a strong correlation between employees' levels of basic workplace skills and their productivity in the workplace. Programs to build basic workplace skills have been shown to yield the following positive results: more instances of employees using reading and writing on the job, higher employee participation in…

Describes how education and training providers can use organizational assessments to pinpoint a company's performance problems and deliver training services to help solve them. Assessments also help instructors understand the business context in which their company customers are operating, and to learn and use that business' particular "language."…

This document, which is intended for work force and workplace development providers, examines ways of reducing the costs of developing and delivering training to small and midsized companies. Listed first are the following strategies for cutting service costs: split the provider's development costs by delivering the same services to a number of…

The National Workforce Assistance Collaborative (NWAC) was established by the National Alliance of Business to provide assistance to community colleges and other organizations that offer programs to increase business productivity. The NWAC is charged with building the capacity of service providers that work with small and mid-sized companies in…

Small and mid-sized businesses must change their production and service delivery methods if they are to remain competitive in a global economy. According to businesspersons, service providers, and employees who participated in 18 focus groups in 10 cities throughout the United States, businesses are being forced to change their ways of doing…

This publication is designed to help service providers deliver high-quality workplace development services cost effectively to small and medium-sized businesses. The guide looks at five service delivery strategies: learning consortia, walk-in centers, distance learning, computer-based training, and trained volunteers. These five strategies offer a…