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This publication summarizes research from [Aspen Institute's Workforce Strategies Initiative] AspenWSI's Courses to Employment project, which studied how six community college-nonprofit partnerships work together to help low-income adults succeed in the classroom and the labor market. The report provides an overview of the approach and strategies these partnerships use, how these partnerships are structured in terms of institutional roles and responsibilities, what factors influence how these partnerships are structured, and describes the education and employment outcomes participating students achieved during the Courses to Employment project. This publication is geared towards policymakers and investors who are interested in supporting models that increase the success rates of adults in community college and to workforce development leaders who are interested in building or sustaining collaborative efforts to support workers in their labor markets as well as learning about innovative approaches to curricula, training and instruction, employer engagement strategies, and support services. This in-depth look at Courses to Employment (C2E) strategies will be useful to those already engaged in this work as well as to newcomers to this field of practice. Courses to Employment was funded by the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation.

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This issue looks at the challenges adult learners face as they attempt to enter community college, persist to completing a certificate or degree, and successfully transition to employment. The report shares detailed examples of these challenges including how some adult learners struggle with financial aid and registration processes, inadequate career counseling, insufficient support services and a lack of professional networks they need to get a job after college, among others. The report also offers numerous examples of strategies nonprofit-community college partnerships use to help adult learners overcome hurdles such as these. The publication draws on findings from Courses to Employment, a three year demonstration project funded by the Charles Steward Mott Foundation that [Aspen Institute's Workforce Strategies Initiative] AspenWSI conducted to investigate how six community college-nonprofit partnerships work together to support the success of low-income adults.

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This issue looks at how Northern Virginia Family Service, a nonprofit organization, and Northern Virginia Community College partner together to provide Training Futures, a six month training program designed to help low-income adults in Northern Virginia start new careers in office administration and advance towards degrees and certificates in college. [The authors] share information about participants and the education and employment outcomes they achieve, program design, recruitment strategies, curriculum, training approach, services provided, employer involvement and funding. [They] also discuss the history of the program and partnership, partners' roles and responsibilities, key staff members, planning processes, data management, and key innovations and lessons learned from the partnership. This case study builds on research done through Courses to Employment, a demonstration project funded by the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation that investigated how community college-nonprofit partnerships can help low-income adults succeed in college and the labor market.

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This publication shares research from site visits conducted to construction pre-apprenticeship programs in [the US cities of] Baltimore, Hartford, Milwaukee and Portland [Oregon] (OR). Findings from the site visits, which included interviews and focus groups with pre-apprenticeship program staff, public officials, philanthropic leaders, construction industry leaders and employers, and pre-apprenticeship participants, showed programs in these cities to be of high value to workers, employers and other stakeholders in the their regional construction labor market. The publication reviews how programs target a variety of education and employment outcomes for workers and use industry networks and staff expertise in order to meet a wide range of worker and employer needs in the construction industry. [The authors] also makes several recommendations about how pre-apprenticeship programs could be better supported to help their participants achieve outcomes that are aligned with participants' interests and needs as well as the realities of the labor market. This research was supported by the Annie E. Casey Foundation as part of a project investigating how pre-apprenticeship programs are used to train low-income and disadvantaged adults for careers in construction.

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