Documenting Demand Side Outcomes and Networking the Field of Industry-Based Workforce Development

About this grant

The Documenting Demand Side Outcomes (DDSO) project, built on the work of the Workforce Strategies Initiative at the Aspen Institute, involves a learning cluster to develop and test a practical methodology for assessing employer benefits from sector training. The long-term goal of the project is to improve the quality and stability of industry-specific workforce development programs by introducing the use of demand-side performance measures to assess performance in relation to the health-care and manufacturing industries.Funding will enable Aspen to complete the project; disseminate key lessons learned to a wide audience of workforce development professionals and policymakers; and build the capacity within the National Network of Sector Partners (NNSP) to support programs that are applying DDSO tools. Specific objectives include meeting with policymakers and advocates regarding the findings of the project and its implications for federal policy; organizing at least one interactive audio conference to disseminate findings; presenting project findings in various forms; and working with NNSP to provide workshops on using DDSO tools and on measuring employer value.During the past year, the project developed and tested a practical method for documenting the results experienced by employers participating in two industry sector initiatives – health care and manufacturing.