Inter-firm cooperation has emerged as a key element of competitive business strategy. Firms improve mutual understanding of their complementary competencies and combine them in better ways; improve access to new markets and advanced technologies; and learn more fully and quickly from each other. Challenges of work force development (WFD) can be met better through inter-firm cooperation. Training costs more and takes more time than many firms are prepared to devote. Common to new strategies to address WFD challenges is a shift toward the demand side of the labor market and a sharper focus on work as a way to develop job skills and career mobility. The idea is to pull people through skill development programs more customized to the real job requirements of the employers rather than push them into acquisition of skills without considering the context in which they will be used. Employer organizations and their partners in regional WFD systems can work together to build effective multi-firm collaboration. Key elements of organizing and managing training collaboratives are keeping the employers in charge; aiming for the right balance between breadth of participation and depth of commitment; trying to work through existing organizations; recognizing that leadership is all-important; assuming the firms must pay; using the right tools to get started; paying a lot of attention to choosing training vendors; and defining goals clearly at the outset. (YLB)