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Systems Change

How do sector initiatives help address structural issues in industry practices, education and training infrastructure and public policy that affect individuals’ ability to get skills training and quality employment? What are examples of systems change and the types of strategies programs use to pursue change?

While high quality training is an important component of almost any sector initiative, it is usually not sufficient to resolve the myriad of personal and systemic obstacles that low-income workers must overcome. Sector initiative leaders frequently must develop strategies to resolve structural issues that stand in the way of them achieving their mission.  We refer to these strategies as systems change, and they include actions, both large and small, that help to make industry practices, education and training systems or public policy work better for low-income workers trying to improve their skills and obtain higher quality employment.  AspenWSI has conducted a large amount of field-based research into the operations of sector initiatives and the environments in which they operate.  As part of this research we have learned of many ways in which initiative leaders have worked to change (or work around) obstacles represented by status quo operations of a variety of actors and agencies.  In this area visitors will find information about a wide variety of systems change strategies employed by sector initiatives in the form of reports and case studies.

Featured Resource

Systems Change: A Survey of Program Activities

By Maureen Conway, Amy Blair and Allison Gerber This publication explores ways sector...
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A Discussion on Social Media and Sector Strategies

Resource Type: webinar

From Facebook to Linkedin to Youtube, social media is now undeniably a huge part of our...
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Sectoral Strategies for Low-Income Workers: Lessons from the Field

By Maureen Conway, Amy Blair, Steven L. Dawson and Linda Dworak-Muñoz This publication...
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Update Issue 2: Building Communications Capacity: Sector Programs Share Their Experiences

By Maureen Conway with Ida Rademacher This edition of Update examines the experiences of...
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Working with Value: Industry-specific Approaches to Workforce Development

By Ida S. Rademacher, editor This report presents a synthesis of findings from the...
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Sectoral Workforce Development: Research Review and Future Directions

By Maureen Conway and others This report describes the proceedings of two meetings...
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