The Understated Value of Regional Intermediaries for Workforce and Economic Development

Across red and blue states, diverse industries, and regional contexts, workforce and economic development leaders face a shared dilemma: The most important drivers of success are often the hardest to see, measure, fund, improve, and sustain.

Training programs and job creation are tangible and measurable, so they often become the focus of policy and philanthropy. However, behind every successful training program or economic renewal project lies a complex and invisible web of relationships, resources, information exchange, and feedback loops, fueled by intermediaries that connect training institutions, employers, and job seekers within the context of economic dynamism, particularly during periods of rapid technological change.

Join New America’s Future of Work & Innovation Economy initiative in partnership with Strada Education Foundation and the Association for Community College Trustees for an exploration of the understated but critical value of regional intermediaries for workforce and economic development.

The event will highlight Strada’s Work-based Learning Intermediaries Framework and New America’s ongoing research around regional economic and workforce development intermediaries as well as a new partnership between New America and the Association of Community College Trustees to build community college capacity for economic and workforce development – an expansion of New America’s Accelerator for Community Colleges in the Innovation Economy, launched with the U.S. National Science Foundation.

The conversation will explore how different organizations are uniquely positioned as intermediaries, including community colleges and economic development agencies, and what is needed to scale this infrastructure.