New York, New York, December 11, 2024: Corporation for a Skilled Workforce (CSW) is pleased to announce the 2025 Workforce Benchmarking Network (WBN) New York City (NYC) cohort, with support from The Pinkerton Foundation, The Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation, and Deutch Bank, and in partnership with New York City Employment and Training Coalition. The 2025 cohort builds upon the success of the 2024 WBN NYC cohort, which successfully engaged more than 80 practitioners representing 15 workforce development organizations for an eight-month peer learning community.
WBN cohorts are a proven mechanism for building staff data acumen, strengthening organizational data culture, and improving and achieving more equitable participant outcomes. The 2025 WBN NYC Cohort, like the 2024 Cohort, will explore longstanding and emerging issues affecting workforce development programs, with a focus on participant recruitment and retention, employer and alumni engagement, and the evolution of impact assessment amidst a rapidly changing world of work.
“The launch of the second cohort of the NYC Workforce Benchmarking Network represents a significant stride in our mission to enhance workforce development in New York City. This initiative, made possible by the generous support of The Pinkerton Foundation and other funders, underscores our commitment to fostering data-driven insights and best practices that drive exceptional outcomes for both workers and employers,” said Gregory J. Morris, CEO of the New York City Employment and Training Coalition (NYCETC).
The 2025 WBN NYC cohort will provide an opportunity for 15 NYCETC members to participate in monthly workshops, coaching calls, and peer mentoring activities which explore the use of qualitative and quantitative data in understanding their impact beyond required programs measures. This better equips members to identify gaps and opportunities within their services and to make immediate and long-term strategic changes to their programs. The 2025 WBN NYC cohort will run from January to June 2025. Interested organizations should register for the December 11th information session and are required to submit a letter of interest by the December 31 deadline.
“Being part of the 2024 WBN NYC cohort has been a rewarding experience. Sharing ideas with peers from different industries and learning about their best practices has helped us translate new approaches to our work. The coaching sessions also challenged us to evaluate our data collection practices, helping us improve how we measure impact and make decisions that drive meaningful change.” – Keisha Katz, Senior Director of Workforce Partnerships at Reel Works.
“The WBN cohort is aligned with the Foundation’s priority to support sector-based workforce development providers in using data to better understand their outcomes and impact relative to local and national peers,” said Marci Hunn, a senior program director at the Weinberg Foundation. “The WBN will help provide consistent performance benchmarks throughout the field, and we are excited to learn alongside the participating organizations.”
Laurie Dien, Vice President and Executive Director of The Pinkerton Foundation stated, “The success of WBN New York City validated my sense that NYC Workforce Development Training Programs knew that they needed to better capture their program components with data. I am thrilled that Cohort One completed their cycle finding it so valuable they want to keep on meeting. And the continued interest from so many other organizations in joining Cohort Two is equally exciting.”
The 2025 WBN NYC information session will take place on Wednesday, December 11th, 2024 at 2:00PM ET, on Zoom. The registration link is here. Organizations interested in participating in the 2025 WBN NYC cohort must submit a letter of interest by 11:59 PM on January 8th through this link. Organizations will be notified of their acceptance into the 2025 cohort by January 10, 2025.
About Corporation for a Skilled Workforce (CSW): Corporation for a Skilled Workforce (CSW) is a national workforce policy non-profit that partners with government, business, education, and community leaders to cultivate good jobs and the skilled workers to fill them. Since 1991, CSW has catalyzed change in educational and labor market systems, focusing on scalable improvements in worker skills, job quality, and access to opportunity. CSW provides services across five strategy areas: Competencies & Credentials; Improving Practices & Outcomes; Federal, State, & Local Systems Change; Research & Evaluation; and Trauma & Resilience at Work. CSW advances policies and practices which increase economic mobility, particularly for people of color and others historically excluded from success.
About the New York City Employment and Training Coalition (NYCETC): The NYC Employment & Training Coalition (NYCETC) works to ensure that every New Yorker — especially those who have been historically marginalized and disenfranchised and cut off from workforce opportunities — has access to the skills, training, and education needed to thrive in the local economy, and that every business is able to maintain a highly skilled workforce. Our members create jobs and connect underserved New Yorkers — primarily New Yorkers of color, New Yorkers with low- or moderate-incomes, New Yorkers with multiple barriers to employment, and New Yorkers who have been left out of the growing economy due to systemic and historic marginalization — to opportunities so they can support their families and give back to their communities.
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