On September 12, 2014, the Aspen Institute’s Economic Opportunities Program and the Annie E. Casey Foundation hosted a one-day meeting of leading workforce practitioners to discuss how we can redefine employer engagement to mean influencing businesses’ human resource and training practices in addition to responding to pipelines needs. This paper summarizes that conversation.

As one of our nation’s strongest training models, apprenticeship provides individuals the unique opportunity to work and develop their skills at the same time through a mix of paid on-the-job training and classroom instruction. In this report, Aspen WSI examines completion and cancellation rates in construction apprenticeship, the challenges apprentices experience in completing their programs, and strategies that are being used to support the success of these individuals. The report is based on national and state-level analysis of apprenticeship completion rates and dozens of interviews and focus groups with apprentices, journey workers, union representatives, construction contractors, pre-apprenticeship program leaders, and other stakeholders in the industry.

This report provides a guide to an employee’s legal rights at work as well as a list of advocacy organizations that can assist in understanding and enforcing these rights in the workplace. This is a useful resource for worker advocates and other practitioners seeking to deepen their understanding of the statutes that address protected identities, wage theft, unemployment benefits, and more.

If a business owner is retiring or leaving the organization, transitioning to employee ownership is one avenue to sustain the business and workers’ jobs while strengthening job quality. This highly technical guide provides information for owners interested in selling their business to employees through an ESOP or co-op. Included are details about conducting a landscape analysis, legal rights, tax policy, and valuation of your business.

This publication examines the sectoral development field, explaining how it differs from other workforce development approaches, how it has grown over time, what it has achieved, and how it can be used to strengthen regional economies and business competitiveness. Content was drawn from interviews with workforce program leaders, program visits and survey responses from more than 225 workforce organizations. Included are brief case studies on dozens of innovative initiatives that illustrate key aspects of the sector strategy. The publication is geared not only to workforce professionals, but also to policy makers and funders who design and support programs, and/or develop regulations and guidelines related to these approaches. Those seeking an in-depth, up-to-date look at the sectoral employment development field will find much of value in this publication.