Skills-First Practices
Our Vision for a Skills-First Colorado
The CWDC’s mission is to enhance and sustain a skills-based talent development network that meets the needs of employers, workers, job seekers, and learners for today and tomorrow. By working together across the skills ecosystem, we can:
- Equip individuals with the skills they need to succeed in a changing economy.
- Strengthen businesses by providing access to a pipeline of skilled talent.
- Build a more equitable workforce that provides opportunities for all Coloradans.
Skills-First Ecosystem Current News and Programs Resources
Building Skills Requires an Ecosystem
Colorado is committed to building a strong and dynamic workforce that meets the needs of our growing economy. We believe that a skills-first approach is essential to achieving this goal. But building skills doesn't happen in isolation. It requires a collaborative effort from a diverse ecosystem of stakeholders.
- What is a Skills-First Approach?
A skills-first approach focuses on identifying, developing, and recognizing the specific skills individuals possess, rather than relying solely on traditional credentials like degrees or years of experience. This approach benefits everyone:
- Learners and Workers: Can better understand and articulate their skills, access relevant training, and pursue career pathways aligned with their abilities.
- Employers: Can find the right talent more efficiently, reduce hiring barriers, and build a workforce with the precise skills needed to succeed.
- Education and Training Providers: Can design programs that are aligned with employer needs, ensure learners gain relevant skills, and provide clear pathways to employment.
- The Community: Benefits from a stronger economy, increased opportunities for residents, and a more equitable workforce system.
- Learners and Workers: Can better understand and articulate their skills, access relevant training, and pursue career pathways aligned with their abilities.
- The following stakeholders play critical roles in a building a skills-first ecosystem:
- Employers: Individual employers, industry associations, local workforce boards and chambers of commerce that describe the skills needed for jobs and adopt skills-based hiring and advancement practices.
- L/Earners: Including learners, workers, and job seekers, who develop skills and use them to fill critical positions.
- Intermediaries: Government agencies, intermediaries, sector partnerships, and local workforce boards that link employment, education, and skills data. They convene stakeholder groups to align goals and work streams around skills and train and promote skills-first practices.
- Navigators: Career counselors, case managers, parents, coaches and digital navigators who help learners and workers assess and describe their skills and match them with relevant opportunities and resources.
- Funders: Local and national philanthropists who incentivize practices that describe and center on skills.
- Policymakers: Legislators, accreditation bodies, and regulators who develop and promote policies that align a focus on skills across systems and build trust and confidence in skills.
- Education and Training Providers: Schools, colleges and universities, and community-based organizations that make skills visible in curricula and transcripts, provide evidence of skills or achievements for learners, and align skill descriptions with employers.
- Employers: Individual employers, industry associations, local workforce boards and chambers of commerce that describe the skills needed for jobs and adopt skills-based hiring and advancement practices.
- Learn more about skills-first initiatives in Colorado.
- Find tools and resources for implementing skills-first practices.
- Connect with partners across the skills ecosystem.
Current News and Programs
News
CWDC Announces Winner of Skills-First Local Workforce Board Challenge
The Colorado Workforce Development Council is pleased to announce the Weld County Workforce Development Board as the winner of the 2025 Skills-First Local Workforce Board Challenge.
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.
Resources
Unlocking Colorado's economic potential and creating equitable pathways to prosperity means prioritizing skills-first approaches in hiring and talent development. These resources equip employers, workforce development experts, and other partners with strategies to expand the supply of skilled talent, resulting in fulfilling careers for Coloradans and increased competitiveness for businesses.
- Take Action
SHRM Foundation - The future of work is skills-first. As hiring practices evolve, employers who adopt a skills-first approach gain access to untapped talent, drive growth, and create more opportunity. Skills First Future (SFF) equips organizations with the tools and guidance to adopt, scale, and sustain these strategies.
- Train on Skills-First Hiring and Advancement Practices
Jobs for the Future - Participants in the Skillful Talent Series will learn effective ways to attract, select, and retain workers that bring in-demand skills to your organization. Skills-based hiring practices effectively reduce hiring bias and improve employee retention, diversity, equity, and inclusion in the workplace.
- Learn more about Skills-First Practices from the Rework America Alliance
Rework America Alliance - Advancing opportunities for millions of workers in low-wage roles to move into quality jobs.
- Explore tools to advance Skills-First Talent Management Practices
Colorado FWD - ColoradoFWD is an 18-month pilot demonstration working to catalyze an equitable, skills-based ecosystem that uses learning and employment records (LERs) to address urgent talent shortages in behavioral health and direct care.
LER Explainer 1 - The LER Explainer Series is a 10-part series that introduces the key concepts, benefits, and building blocks of Learning and Employment Records to support a more connected and skills-based workforce system.
LER Explainer 2 - Explore the benefits of LERs to l/earners.
- Success Stories
To be announced
