Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors, with support from a collaborative of funders led by Walmart.org, is proud to announce SkillsFWD — a first-of-its kind initiative to advance skills-based hiring and economic mobility through the development and application of digital Learning and Employment Records (LERs).
Donor Name: Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors
State: All States
County: All Counties
Type of Grant: Grant
Deadline: 11/08/2023
Size of the Grant: Up to $1.5 million
Grant Duration: 1 year 7 months
Details:
SkillsFWD will grant a maximum of eight teams up to $1.5 million each to bring to life interoperable LER ecosystems that use digital records to support equitable lifelong learning and working and address labor market demands
Grantees are expected to align their proposed intervention(s) and desired outcomes with the five objectives of the SkillsFWD initiative:
- Launch LER lifecycle infrastructure that successfully connects learners and workers to education and workforce opportunities, and lay the groundwork to scale lifecycle LER infrastructure across the learning and working ecosystem;
- Define and demonstrate a clear value proposition for one or more stakeholders to develop, issue, use and adopt LERs;
- Generate insights, outputs and outcomes to demonstrate the success of proposed LER ecosystem interventions, such as progress towards interoperability and progress through the lifecycle, from developing and issuing digital records to adoption and use;
- Identify outstanding needs for additional research, technical assistance and coordination to enable mass adoption of skills-based hiring systems that utilize LER tools; and
- Inform state and national policy changes needed to overcome barriers to equitable LER infrastructure adoption, such as recommendations related to quality assurance of digital credentials in career pathways, data interoperability, and increasing trust through policies about data privacy.
SkillsFWD is intended to serve as a catalyst for organizations that have already implemented foundational strategies and infrastructure around LER systems. Applicants are expected to build upon existing tools or systems to demonstrate how to make LERs more interoperable, increase awareness and capacity to scale adoption and use, or to work to expand access to a new user group.
For example, SkillsFWD is well suited to provide support to a community college system that has previously launched partnerships with regional employers to issue digital credentials, but has not yet engaged learners and workers to adopt said credentials or they need to scale beyond a pilot population. Applicants are expected to clearly articulate the problem they seek to solve, proposed interventions, resources and staff needed, project timeline and management plan, and outputs and outcomes to measure success.
SkillsFWD is an initiative of Rockefeller Philanthropy Advisors and receives funding support from the Charles Koch Foundation, Strada Education Foundation, Walmart.org, and other funders.
Funding Information
The grant period will begin in January 2024, and conclude in July 2025 — awards up to $ 1.5 million will be made to each team.
Eligibility Criteria
This opportunity is open to all U.S.-based entities that are leading cross-stakeholder partnerships to fill specific gaps in education and/or talent pipelines. All populations and parties participating in the demonstration project must reside within the United States. Entities that may be especially well suited to serve as a lead applicant include:
- Community-based organizations that work with populations who face systemic barriers to employment
- Employers and their vendor partners that are creating open and interoperable backend functionality in support of skills-based hiring or internal advancement
- Industry associations or sector partnerships
- K-12 entities and school districts
- Occupational licensing bodies
- State workforce agencies or local workforce development boards
- State postsecondary education coordinating agencies, community college systems or institutions of higher education
- Tribal entities
- Workforce development training providers
For more information, visit SkillsFWD.
