Giving Compass' Take:

• Mona Mourshed and Ali Jaffer share six lessons from Generation's efforts to improve workforce training and job placement. 

• How do local stakeholders, including schools and employers, need to be engaged to create successful work training programs? 

• Learn more about the need for workforce training in the U.S.

Here are six hard-earned conclusions about what it takes to do work training and placement right. While Generation is primarily focused on young people, we believe these lessons are equally relevant for programs focused on reskilling mid-career employees:

1. Return on Investment (ROI) Is Essential, but It's Not Everything: In our experience, demonstrating ROI is not enough to get employers to buy in. Before they will commit, most employers also need to answer at least one of the following questions in the affirmative: First, have they tried, and failed, to crack this nut before? Second, is the company leadership committed to the communities in which they operate? And last, are they willing to embed a new program inside their own recruitment and training programs?

2. Industry Context Shapes Employers' Willingness to Experiment with Training, Re-Skilling, and Hiring: In our work with some 2,400 employers, we have found that companies facing worker scarcity—such as technology or high-end manufacturers—are quicker to sign up for our program than companies dealing with high turnover.

3. Measure Value, Not Just Cost: Many programs and funders focus on inputs, such as spending, rather than outputs, such as students’ long-term outcomes. As a result, they don’t know if they are delivering value for money.

4. Speed Matters: Most of our learners do not have the luxury of taking time off to study for months or years, so our programs are short (4 to 12 weeks), intensive, and practical.

5. Motivation Matters More Than Degrees: Participants with very different backgrounds and levels of education are successfully completing the program and gaining stable employment, proving their motivation by navigating the application process and intensive bootcamp.

6. Training Is Only the Start: Many of our participants have one or more personal challenges, such as a difficult family situation, poor educational record, or fragmented work history.

Read the full article about work training and employment by Mona Mourshed and Ali Jaffer at Stanford Social Innovation Review.