Guidelines

EMPLOYMENT

The overarching goal of the Employment Program is to establish the Midwest as the leader of the most innovative and effective employment education and training strategies in the country. Grant making specifically supports efforts to increase skill and credential attainment by low-income adult workers in three primary program areas:

Basic Foundational Skills: In order to provide under-prepared adults in the region with the basic foundational skills needed to be successful in 21st century work and technical training, the Foundation supports the evaluation and scaling efforts of promising adult education programs that build basic foundational skills, particularly in the context of work and occupations.

Industry Training Partnerships: In order to ensure that occupational education and training for under-prepared adults is valuable in the labor market, the Foundation supports efforts to:

• Expand partnerships between industry associations and educational organizations to create certifications, promote them within the industry, and build them into educational programs;
• Research return on investment from employer policies promoting employee education and skill development, particularly among entry-level and low-wage workers;
• Reform federal and state policy around enabling and incentivizing such policies ; and
• Align economic and workforce development and make workforce programs demand-driven through planning and coordination.

Innovation Fund: In order to create step-change improvement in pursuit of the program’s goals, the Foundation supports the development, testing, and promotion of new ideas.

The Employment Program supports some cross-cutting efforts such as those that aim to make quality improvements to workforce data collection and use, and city level strategies that would support progress on the program’s overarching goal. Target metropolitan regions include Chicago, Indianapolis, and Minneapolis/St. Paul.

The program does not accept proposals to support direct service programs.