Alternative Table: Skills-First Ecosystem
The Colorado Workforce Development Council (CWDC) is pleased to announce the Weld County Workforce Development Board as the winner of the 2025 Skills-First Local Workforce Board Challenge.
The Challenge, launched in April 2025, invited Colorado’s local workforce boards to apply a local board governance approach to increasing awareness and adoption of skills-first practices. The Challenge also invited the boards to explore the potential of deploying digital Learning and Employment Records (LERs) as a strategy to increase skills validation, skills recognition and skills visibility among local talent.
Composed of business leaders and representatives from education, economic development and labor organizations; Local Workforce Boards are well-positioned to advance a strategic, place-based approach to elevating and refining skills-first practices throughout Colorado.
Participants in the challenge:
- Attended a Skills-First & LER Roundtable where they explored state and national best practices on skills-first hiring and advancement practices and LERs
- Informed the development of a Skills-First & LER Toolkit that will be published in October and used as a resource to guide ongoing board implementation and knowledge sharing
- Identified how to integrate the language of skills into local communications and service delivery
- Adopted local policies to adopt skills-first practices that align with the priorities and strategies of the local board.
Local boards also had the option to go further by providing feedback on guiding principles for LER adoption and developing a local plan to guide the adoption of skills-first practices. Weld County Workforce Development Board’s plan emerged as the strongest plan from among the eight local plans submitted. The actions, taken by local boards, build on momentum from intentional efforts by the Governor-appointed members of the state workforce board (CWDC) who are committed to modeling and promoting skills-first practices within their respective companies.
In addition to being recognized at the September CWDC Council Meeting, the Weld County Workforce Development Board will receive a $10,000 grand prize for its plan to accelerate the adoption of skills-first practices.
Weld will support employers by reviewing job descriptions, identifying opportunities to remove unnecessary degree requirements, and refining postings into skills-based profiles. Weld will also use success stories from Bright Futures and Golden Aluminum to introduce new employers to skills-first practices. Weld will be hosting job readiness workshops and individualized case management that will incorporate structured tools to help participants identify and clearly articulate their transferable skills. Weld will also explore allocating discretionary or training resources toward programs that explicitly support skills-first outcomes. Finally, each Weld County Workforce Development Board member will be asked to identify one way their organization can test or pilot a skills-first approach, such as reviewing a job posting for skills-based language, piloting a skills-focused interview process, sharing lessons learned during a panel, or supporting employer learning sessions such as lunch-and-learns.
Participating Local Workforce Boards Include:
- Adams County Workforce Board
- Arapahoe/Douglas Workforce Development Board
- Boulder County Workforce Development Board
- Denver Workforce Development Board
- Larimer County Economic & Workforce Development Board
- Pikes Peak Workforce Development Board
- Colorado Rural Consortium Workforce Board
- Weld County Workforce Development Board
Congratulations to the Weld County Workforce Development Board for submitting a successful plan to accelerate the adoption of skills-first practices.
CWDC extends a huge thank you to all of the State and Local Workforce Board members who participated in this year’s Challenge. Your leadership is critical to elevating skills-first strategies across Colorado and accelerating their adoption. A special thank you to CWDC Council members Andrew Bercich, Cori Streetman and Peter Brissette for their thoughtful review of local area plan submissions.
To learn more about the skills-first practices underway in Colorado, or to find out how to take action to implement these practices in your organization, please visit CWDC’s Skills-First Practices webpage.