Local Employers

Consider contacting other successful local employers and have them mentor your efforts in employee basic skills training and development. 

Alternatively, you can access information about the experiences, successes and challenges of other employers in the United States and Canada through findings from major national research projects about workplace education programs.

You can learn about hiring, preparing, retaining, and advancing of low-skilled, low-wage workers in the workplace through the Workforce Innovation Networks (WINs). Through WINs, The Center for Workforce Preparation supports peer-to-peer leadership development and capacity building of local chambers through technology and other resources.
   URL: http://www.uschamber.com/CWP/Projects/default.htm

A new report by the Council for Advancement of Adult Literacy shares the views of adult education practitioners and researchers on tools and standards for building and assessing quality adult literacy programs.
     URL: http://www.caalusa.org

The Awards for Excellence in Workplace Literacy showcase exemplary workplace literacy programs in Canadian organizations.  Look in the Ideabooks for past winners and top contenders in small, medium and large business categories.
    URL: http://www.conferenceboard.ca/nbec/literacy.htm

This recent report on joint labor-management educational programs uses best practice examples to show the key design elements as well as the benefits and impacts for organizations, unions and individual workers.
     Success by Design  (pdf, 258 KB)

A new report from WINs on hiring, retaining and advancing front-line workers serves as an HR guide for small and mid-sized employers. The report, based on real company experiences, is available for free from the Jobs for the Future web site, under Workforce Development.
     URL: http://www.jff.org/jff

One company shares its training success story using e-learning. In addition to saving $1 million on training during the first year e-learning was implemented, the company says that the real value came from improved customer service.
     URL: http://www.workforce.com/archive/feature/23/27/95/232798.php

The Small Business Training Network, sponsored by the Office of Entrepreneurial Development, is a virtual campus housing free training courses, workshops and knowledge resources designed to assist entrepreneurs.
     URL: http://www.sba.gov/training/

Incentives to train: Ensuring employer engagement is a UK research report (40 pages) looks at findings from interviews and a roundtable discussion. Participants evaluated existing provision to incentivise training for employers, identifying the major areas of concern and proposing recommendations for change.
    URL: http://www.nationalskillsforum.org.uk/Incentives_to%20Train%20(2).pdf

Profiting from Experience is a new research report that explores how governments and employers in the U.S. and other countries are responding to aging workforce issues.
     URL: http://www.aarp.org/research/work/issues/intl_older_worker.html

Making the Connections is a guidebook designed to help employer associations serve their members in workforce development needs. This guidebook focuses on workforce development for entry-level positions.
     URL: http://www.jff.org/Documents/MakingConnect.pdf

For problems or questions regarding this web site contact campbell@conferenceboard.ca.
Last updated: March 14, 2008.