Building a Connected Workforce Development Ecosystem

Why it matters‍

In every region, there is no shortage of workforce development activity. Most regions have organizations focused on building technology career pathways, expanding work-based learning, delivering wraparound supports, engaging employers and expanding access to training. But these efforts frequently operate in parallel, with each organization measuring its own piece without a shared view of how the system is functioning as a whole. The result is that critical gaps persist and go unaddressed, with real consequences for workers who can't access opportunity and businesses that can't find talent.

What it takes

Moving from “program-level” to “systems-level” thinking requires a different set of tools. This piece introduces a functional lens for assessing workforce ecosystem health, one designed to reveal the white space: where essential activities are missing, underdeveloped, or poorly connected.

Workforce development leads from across National Science Foundation (NSF) Regional Innovation Engines constantly wrestle with a core dilemma: the work that most determines whether a region can deliver a reliable talent pipeline is often the least visible. Training programs are tangible and easy to measure. But behind every successful training program lies a complex and invisible web of relationships, information exchange, and feedback loops that link education and training institutions, employers, and jobseekers. This web is especially important in emerging technology industries where workforce needs are evolving, and training partners need accurate, real-time ways to understand dynamic labor market needs. The strength of this web determines whether or not programs succeed. More fundamentally, it determines whether or not a region can reliably deliver a talent pipeline that connects people to jobs and businesses to talent. 

But most workforce development actors are incentivized to focus on delivering programs rather than tending to the invisible infrastructure that makes those programs work. Nearly every workforce development organization talks about the importance of forging partnerships with employers and building a seamless, aligned talent development system. But their core incentives tell a different story. Community colleges are funded based on student enrollment and credential completion. Similarly, workforce development boards measure credential attainment and job placement, often on narrow time horizons. These outcomes matter. But they often take attention and energy away from the slower, less visible work of building the networks that ultimately determine whether a workforce ecosystem can sense emerging opportunities and achieve results at scale. 

This blog captures the discussion at an NSF Engines Workforce Builder Group session, which began with a simple metaphor to describe this tension, borrowed from Aimee Durfee of CenterState CEO in Syracuse, New York: 

• Program land is where most workforce organizations operate, focusing on design and delivery of training programs, enrollment, credential attainment and job placement. This work is tangible, measurable and fundable. 
• System land, on the other hand, is where ecosystems are built. It’s where strategic relationships with employers are cultivated and sustained, where training providers coordinate and align offerings across institutions, and where shared infrastructure and trust make collaboration possible. The work in “system land” is slower, harder to quantify, and often difficult to fund. But this is where real, sustainable change takes root.

The problem isn’t that one is better than the other. It’s that, too often, regions try to solve system problems with program tools. 

How Healthy is Your Workforce Ecosystem? A Tool for Self-Assessing

There are plenty of ways to measure progress in "program land": enrollment, job placement and retention, to name a few. But measuring success in "system land" is another story. How do you know how effectively the component parts of a workforce system are working together?

We introduced a simple but powerful framework for self-assessing the health of your workforce ecosystem. This framework centers on workforce development functions instead of institutions or programs. The functional lens helps regions understand how well essential activities are being carried out — and where the white space is: areas where important work may be missing, underdeveloped, or poorly connected.

Step 1: Who is performing each function in your region?

Consider the six core workforce development functions below. For each one, ask: which organizations are involved, and how effectively is this function being performed?

• Career Awareness & Recruitment: Coordinated campaigns to raise awareness of high-demand career paths and connect people to training and job opportunities.
• Training: High-quality education and training programs that place students in good jobs through industry-relevant curriculum, work-based learning, and placement services.
• Program Alignment: A regular, transparent process for bringing educators and employers together to assess programs against labor market needs and to develop, expand, or deprioritize offerings accordingly.
• Wraparound Supports: Coordinated support services (i.e. transportation, childcare, financial assistance) that help people complete training programs and succeed in the labor market.
• Convene & Engage Firms: Active, formalized partnerships that bring together a critical mass of business leaders to define shared talent needs, shape the talent development system, and evolve hiring and retention practices.
• Outcomes Tracking & Research: A centralized mechanism for tracking student and worker outcomes, shared with employers and training partners to drive continuous improvement.

Step 2: Where do connections across functions most need to be strengthened?

Once you have a picture of who's playing in each function, the next question is how well those functions are connected to one another. Strong connections are what turn a collection of programs into a functioning system. For example: career awareness efforts that feed directly into training enrollment; employers who shape not just hiring practices but program design and wraparound support; outcomes data that flows back to educators and employers and actually changes what gets offered.

As you review your region's landscape, ask: where are the handoffs between functions breaking down? Where are organizations doing good work in isolation that could have more impact if better connected? Where are the gaps that fall between organizations, and that, as a result, belong to no one?

Insights from NSF Engines Workforce Leads

Every region has a different set of ecosystem challenges, whether weaknesses in core functions or disconnects across those functions. But the NSF Engines Builder Group identified consistent themes across technology ecosystems after talking through the self-assessment: 

• Building a functioning workforce system doesn't happen as a byproduct of running good programs. Several participants described just how time-intensive this work is — understanding institutional incentives, building trust across organizations, and cultivating genuine employer partnership. This is especially challenging in emerging industries where workforce needs are still being defined and where education and training institutions may not yet recognize the sector's significance. But without this investment, regions are left with a collection of programs rather than a system."

• Rural and urban regions face different—but equally complex—challenges. While large metro areas struggle with coordination across a crowded field, rural regions often face gaps in capacity, funding, and infrastructure. Ecosystem-building looks different in these two different contexts and promising models that work in one setting may not apply in another. 
• Clarity and focus prevent overwhelm. Building a comprehensive workforce ecosystem doesn’t mean solving everything at once. Focus on where stronger connections could unlock the most value and build from there.

Building a connected workforce ecosystem means more than running good programs — it requires weaving together key functions, fostering strong relationships, and establishing feedback loops between employers, training providers, and educational institutions. None of this is easy or fast. But “system land” isn’t about searching for quick wins. It’s about playing the long game, continually identifying what’s missing and aligning actors around common goals in spite of sometimes divergent incentives. 

This post is the third in a series of six blogs describing key elements of ecosystem-building, with an emphasis on system-building, grounded in the experience of engines. The series is authored by Ryan Donahue and Francie Genz, who have spent years studying the essential capabilities that allow regions to change their economic future by getting organized across public, private, and nonprofit sectors.

These blogs are designed to highlight some of the most essential and difficult aspects of ecosystem-building, describing key strategies as well as what they look like in practice, drawing from examples within the engines network and beyond.

‍