Declining economic mobility is one of the defining challenges of our time. The path to better jobs through good training and workforce programs is narrower now than ever before. But we’re seeing a promising response across the country: innovative, accountable workforce partnerships that are delivering results for U.S. workers and businesses.
These partnerships—often between government agencies, employers, and training institutions—suggest a broader realignment in how we prepare the future workforce. They carefully balance incentives—making sure, for example, that training institutions have a stake in student outcomes, or that programs making progress on policy goals have a pathway to scale. They often link funding to results, defining success in advance and measuring progress along the way. And they work to expand access to education and training opportunities while fairly allocating the risks and benefits of training across partners.
Workforce Realigned: How New Partnerships Are Advancing Economic Mobility is a book from Social Finance and the Federal Reserve Banks of Atlanta and Philadelphia sharing 19 case studies and nascent ideas on how to reboot economic mobility in America—from leaders including U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo, former Speaker of the House Paul Ryan, Governor Charlie Baker, and former FDIC Chair Sheila Bair.
Dr. Raphael Bostic, President and CEO, Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta; Dr. Patrick Harker, President and CEO, Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia; and Tracy Palandjian, CEO and Co-Founder, Social Finance
Dr. Stuart Andreason, Assistant Vice President and Director, Center for Workforce and Economic Opportunity, Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta; Sarah Miller, Senior Adviser, Center for Workforce and Economic Opportunity, Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta; Ashley Putnam, Director, Economic Growth and Mobility Project, Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia; Jake Segal, Vice President, Social Finance; and Meredith Segal, Associate Director, Social Finance
5. Outcomes Funds for Economic Mobility
Sir Ronald Cohen, Chairman, The Global Steering Group for Impact Investment and author, Impact: Reshaping Capitalism to Drive Real Change
13. Could Outcomes Funding Work in Rural America?
Dr. Mark Rembert, Head of the Rural Innovation Network and Aidan Calvelli, Research and Communications Analyst, Center on Rural Innovation
Student Payment
14. The Emergence of Income Share Agreements
Dubravka Ritter, Advisor and Research Fellow, Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia and Dr. Douglas Webber, Associate Professor of Economics, Temple University
15. Back a Boiler Brian E. Edelman, President, Purdue Research Foundation
18. Consumer Protections for Income Share Agreements Sheila Bair, former Chair, Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and Preston Cooper, Visiting Fellow, Foundation for Research on Equal Opportunity
Workforce Realigned is a special edition of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta’s Economy Matters podcast featuring innovative ideas about how to reboot economic mobility in America, such as using new financial tools to shift from paying for uncertain training programs to paying for measured outcomes.
Episode 8: How Merit America is using Google Career Certificates Training to Create a More Equitable & Inclusive Job Market
Connor Diemand-Yauman, Co-Founder and Co-CEO, Merit America
Rebecca Taber Staehelin, Co-Founder and Co-CEO, Merit America
Michael Grossman, Managing Director of Impact Investments, Social Finance
Workforce Realigned brings together innovative ideas from a diverse set of leading thinkers to build smarter, more accountable partnerships that place worker outcomes at the center.
Dr. Raj Chetty
William A. Ackman Professor of Public Economics, Harvard University
Workforce Realigned argues for building a more successful and inclusive economy including improving access to training, lifelong learning, and opportunity.
Penny Pritzker
Former U.S. Secretary of Commerce; Founder and Chairman, PSP Partners
Innovative ideas, like the case studies presented here, provide a roadmap for business leaders as they adapt to a fast-changing economy and uncover better ways to find and retain great people.
Lata Reddy
Senior Vice President of Inclusive Solutions, Prudential Financial; Chair, The Prudential Foundation
Workforce Realigned provides a blueprint—grounded in real-world examples—of a dynamic and equitable new system that promises to ensure that the tremendous public and private investment we make is well-spent.
Jim Shelton
Chief Investment and Impact Officer, Blue Meridian Partners; Former Deputy Secretary, U.S. Department of Education
Workforce Realigned provides real-life examples of investments that scale equitable opportunities for skill building and addresses systemic inequities and inefficiencies in the marketplace.
Carla Thompson Payton
Vice President for Program Strategy, W.K. Kellogg Foundation
National Launch Event
The national launch event of Workforce Realigned featured a conversation with U.S. Secretary of Commerce Gina Raimondo, Ford Foundation President Darren Walker, and Bank of America Chairman of the Board and CEO Brian Moynihan, moderated by Social Finance CEO Tracy Palandjian.
Advisory Committee
Gayatri Agnew, Former Senior Director, Opportunity, Walmart.org
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government agencies, employers, and training institutions—suggest a broader realignment in how we prepare the future workforce. They carefully balance incentives—making sure, for example, that training institutions have a stake in student outcomes, or that programs making progress on policy goals have a pathway to scale. They often link funding to results, defining success in advance and measuring progress along the way. And they work to expand access to education and training opportunities while fairly allocating the risks and benefits of training across partners.
![Workforce Realigned Episode 2 cover](https://socialfinance.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Copy-of-SOCIAL-Workforce-Realigned-900-×-900-px-3.png")
![Workforce Realigned Episode 3 cover](https://socialfinance.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Copy-of-SOCIAL-Workforce-Realigned-900-×-900-px-4.png")
![Workforce Realigned Episode 4 cover](https://socialfinance.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Copy-of-SOCIAL-Workforce-Realigned-900-×-900-px-5.png")
![Workforce Realigned Episode 5 cover](https://socialfinance.org/wp-content/uploads/2022/11/Copy-of-SOCIAL-Workforce-Realigned-900-×-900-px-7.png")
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