Technical Assistance

The CWDC provides assistance to our network partners to advance talent development initiatives in their communities. Explore the opportunities below to receive technical assistance from the CWDC.

2024 Summer/Fall CWDC Technical Assistance Modules - Learn more

Sector Partnerships - Convener Mentorship and Skills Assessment - Learn more - Applications Closed - Currently Ongoing
Working with New Americans - From Recruiting to Upskilling - Learn More - Register by April 17, 2024
K12 - Leveling Up Employer Engagement for Student Success - Learn More - Register by May 8, 2024
Understanding and Implementing Racial Equity Impact Assessments - A Guide for Training Providers - Learn More - Register by June 4, 2024
Developing a Web Presence for Your Sector Partnership - Learn More - Register by June 6, 2024
Promising Practices - Work-based Learning: What Works and How to Make it Happen - Learn More - Register by July 23, 2024
Customizing a Quality Jobs Training through Industry Partnership and Talent Cohorts: A Project-based Workforce Development TA Module - Learn More - Register by July 2, 2024

2024 Summer/Fall CWDC Technical Assistance Modules

The following technical assistance (TA) modules have been created in an effort to streamline training and support offered through the CWDC to our talent development network partners. The intent of the CWDC technical assistance modules is to:

Build comprehensive skills and capacity for talent development stakeholders
Create networks for ongoing support in adopting and implementing proven talent development strategies
Support work across partners and stakeholders
Increase impacts across Colorado’s talent development system

The technical assistance modules currently open for registration are listed below. Email Tony R Smith, Senior Consultant for Innovation and Effectiveness, at tony.smith@state.co.us with any questions or needs.

Note: Most modules are available for registration via Zoom. For any modules that indicate that you must apply using the technical assistance portal, please follow the link and either log in to the portal or create a log-in if you are a first-time visitor. Use the following steps to get started:

Use your work email address as your username
Create a unique password
Click ‘apply’ if you are interested in applying for a module.

Sector Partnerships - Convener Mentorship and Skills Assessment

Applications Closed: Module Currently Ongoing

This technical assistance module for sector partnership conveners will include:

Defining and measuring the need for mentorship
Exploring and assessing skills for success in the convener role
Mentor/mentee breakout sessions
Goal setting for future success

Additional Details

4 sessions; each occurs right before a community of practice call

Who should attend?

Eligibility: Sector partnership conveners within the Colorado Sector Partnership Network
Requirements/Prerequisites: Participants must commit to all four 90-minute sessions and agree to potential follow-up from the facilitators for continued support.

Timeframe

First Session: Tuesday, March 12
Second Session: Tuesday, March 26
Third Session: Tuesday, April 23
Fourth Session: Tuesday, May 7

Working with New Americans - From Recruiting to Upskilling

Registration Deadline: April 17, 2024

A three-session module geared toward employers focusing on immigrant and refugee (New American) workforce integration. Participants will learn and apply concepts that will aid in recruitment, onboarding, management, and upskilling approaches for employers from small to large. This module will incorporate lectures and interactive learning.

Additional Details & Registration Links

Session 1: Introduction and Recruiting - Register here
Session 2: Applications, Interviewing, and Onboarding - Register here
Session 3: Managing and Upskilling - Register here

Who should attend?

Eligibility: This module will provide resources and learning opportunities for employers focused on immigrant and refugee (New American) workforce integration. Business and Career Service professionals from Colorado Workforce areas may also join in this learning experience.
Requirements/Prerequisites: Participants must have a willingness to learn about the concepts that will aid in the recruitment, onboarding, management, and upskilling approaches of immigrant and refugee (New American) populations.

Timeframe

First Session: April 24, 2024
Second Session: May 7, 2024
Third Session: May 15, 2024

K12 - Leveling Up Employer Engagement for Student Success

Registration Deadline: May 8, 2024

K12 education engages with employers for program development, curriculum review, work-based learning partnerships, and more. In this series, you will learn strategies for "speaking business" to make your outreach and partnership building student-centered, effective, and scalable.

Additional Details & Registration Links

It is encouraged to invite multiple staff from your school community. Consider inviting CTE teachers, counselors, building staff and/or administrators, work-based learning coordinators, and intermediaries (non-profits) who support your work. To accommodate staff that do not work during the summer, we are offering one session in May before the end of the school year. Recordings of sessions and content will be available for all registrants.

Session 1: Finding employers, approaching them, and getting commitments. How to "speak business" when talking about your programs. - Register here
Session 2: Elevating employer relationships to scale programs - Register here
Session 3: Where are the good jobs in the state? Labor market data for emerging industries, preparing students for the future labor market. - Register here

Who should attend?

Eligibility: Must be involved directly with K-12 education such as CTE teachers, counselors, building staff and/or administrators, work-based learning coordinators, and intermediaries (non-profits) who support your work. To accommodate staff that do not work during the summer, we are offering one session in May before the end of the school year.

Timeframe

First Session: May 15, 2024
Second Session: June 6, 2024
Third Session: June 26, 2024

Understanding and Implementing Racial Equity Impact Assessments - A Guide for Training Providers

Registration Deadline: June 4, 2024

A four-session module exploring a proven model for expanding access and outcomes of programming to marginalized/under-represented community groups. Participants will learn about playing key roles in successfully implementing and supporting communities with Racial Equity Impact Assessments.

Additional Details & Registration Links: Session 1: Explore and Learn - An Introductory Session - Register here
Session 2: Deep Dive - Unpacking Questions and Learning from Those Using REIAs - Register here
Session 3: Project-based Scenario Group Discussions - Register here
Session 4: Project Presentations - Register here
Who should attend?: Eligibility: Employers, workforce professionals, and members of the Colorado Talent Found Network are invited to participate.
Requirements/Prerequisites: Participants will be required to have a willingness and ability to apply concepts of racial equity in an impactful manner in their day-to-day work.
Timeframe: First Session: June 11, 2024
Second Session: July 11, 2024
Third Session: August 20, 2024
Fourth Session: September 17, 2024

Developing a Web Presence for Your Sector Partnership

Registration Deadline: June 6, 2024 - Register Here

This training for leaders/conveners from active sector partnerships will help participants learn how to create and maintain a Google Site for their sector partnerships. The CWDC will provide a step-by-step guide and present a template that participants can use as a foundation for their partnership’s new website.

Additional Details: Websites are a common need for sector partnerships. Local public partners and industry teams can leverage Google Sites as a convenient, no-cost solution for communicating the work of their regional sector partnership. During this training, the CWDC will share guidance and best practices for creating a Google Site and provide partnerships with the tools they need to create and maintain their own sector partnership website.
Who should attend?: Eligibility: This training is for sector partnership leaders/conveners from active sector partnerships who want guidance for creating an online presence for their partnerships. The training is only available to active partnerships who have been recognized by the CWDC via the Sector Partnership Acknowledgement Form.
Timeframe: June 13, 2024 from 11 a.m. - 12:30 p.m.

Promising Practices - Work-based Learning: What Works and How to Make it Happen

Registration Deadline: July 23, 2024

This three-session module will work from the quality standards of work-based learning (WBL) to share and explore promising practices of WBL across our workforce ecosystem. This module will showcase how strengthening talent access for employers is crucial to a diverse labor market. Participants will learn how workforce professionals are building and implementing quality WBL experiences and how it changes people's lives.

Additional Details & Registration Links: Session 1: Laying the Groundwork for Quality and Success - Register here
Session 2: Showcasing What's Working Across the State - Register here
Session 3: WBL Panel and Q&A - How WBL is Changing the Landscape and People's Lives - Register here
Who should attend?: Eligibility: Employers, workforce professionals, and members of the Colorado Talent Found Network are invited to participate.
Timeframe: First Session: July 30, 2024
Second Session: August 27, 2024
Third Session: September 24, 2024

Customizing a Quality Jobs Training through Industry Partnership and Talent Cohorts: A Project-based Workforce Development Module

Registration Deadline: July 2, 2024

This three-session, project-based workforce development TA module will experientially guide participants in the customization of job quality. Participants will design and implement the Job Quality Framework in practical means. There will be a project that participants will complete over the three-session module.

Additional Details & Registration Links: Session 1: Job Quality Foundations and Implementation - Promising Practices for Workforce Professionals - Register here
Session 2: Job Quality Process Plans and Cohort Work Session - Register here
Session 3: Job Quality Cohort and Industry Partner Impact Sessions - Register here
Who should apply?: Eligibility: Workforce Professionals within the TalentFOUND Network (Workforce Center Leadership, Workforce Board members, Workforce Center Professionals working with and/or interested in Job Quality)
Timeframe: Session 1: July 9, 2024
Session 2: August 6, 2024
Session 3: September 10, 2024

Past Opportunities & Resources

Click the drop down menus below to explore previous TA modules and training opportunities and related resources.

2023-2024 Winter/Spring CWDC Technical Assistance

Sector Partnerships - Annual Launch | Nov 2023- Feb 2024

This was an annual technical assistance module for partners interested in launching a sector partnership.

Session 1: - Getting Started: Regional diagnostic (data, partner engagement, industry desire/need) - View Recording
Session 2: - Learning and Engaging the Next Gen Model - View the Recording and Slides
Session 3: Digging into partners, roles, and needs for support - View Recording and Slides
Session 4: Employer/Industry Engagement - Identifying Champions - View Recording and Slides

Storytelling for Workforce Development Professionals | Dec 2023 - Feb 2024

This three-session module provided the how, what, and who of developing storytelling skill sets for workforce professionals. Participants learned the guiding principles for creating stories, how to develop a culture of storytelling, free and low-cost tools for capturing stories, strategies for sharing stories, and the experiences of storytelling experts from across the state.

Session 1: Creating a culture of storytelling - View Recording and Slides
Session 2: Communicate data through storytelling: Stories that persuade, motivate, and inspire - View Recording and Slides
Session 3: Telling Your Story Workshop - View Recording and Slides

Artificial Intelligence and Workforce Development: Adopting and Implementing AI into the Colorado Workforce Ecosystem | Jan - March 2024

Artificial intelligence (AI) is being discussed in nearly every industry, and discussions of its benefits and dangers are now common in everyday life as well. By now you’ve likely heard of some AI systems (ChatGPT, OpenAI) and you may have even tried one of them out for yourself. Beyond hearing about pay-for-service systems as they relate to workforce development, how can we truly understand, adopt, and implement AI in the Colorado workforce ecosystem while also being intentional about equity, inclusion, and end-user experiences? This technical assistance module will dig deeper into issues of equity and inclusion while exploring how those in the Colorado workforce ecosystem are implementing AI.

Session 1: AI and Workforce 101 - View Recording and Slides
Session 2: Equity and Inclusion - Ensuring AI is Truly a Resource - View Recording and Slides
Session 3: Education and AI - More than the Concerns of Plagiarism - View Recording and Slides
Session 4: Industry (Sectors Focus) and AI - What is the landscape? - View Recording and Slides
Session 5: Workforce (Implications for Job Seekers) and AI - What are the best practices happening now? - Slides

Job Quality for Career Seekers | Jan - March 2024

This technical assistance module explored job quality through the job seeker lens. Participants will learn about job quality features in My Colorado Journey and discuss how to connect job seekers and employers through job quality.

Session 1: Introduction to job quality for job seekers - View Recording and Slides
Session 2: Using job quality features as a learner outcome in MCJ - View Recording and Slides
Session 3: Connecting job quality for job seekers and employers to improve recruiting and retention - View Recording

Credentialing, LERs, and Talent Finance: Exploring Resources to Address Talent Shortages

Many Colorado employers continue to work to fill vacant positions with skilled talent. At the same time, many Coloradans face resource constraints that prevent them from acquiring the needed skills through training and education programs. This technical assistance module will explore ways to provide more equitable access to training and education through talent finance. Talent finance strategies and tools help rethink and restructure funding for training and education so that more people can gain the skills needed by employers in high-demand occupations and sectors.

Session 1: Talent Finance: definitions and tools - View Recording and Slides
Session 2: Talent Finance Workforce Use Cases - View Recording and Slides
Session 3: Providers of Talent Finance Tools - View Recording and Slides
Session 4: Workforce training issues identified by TA module participants for which talent finance tools could be used - View Recording and Slides

2023 Spring/Summer TA Modules

Skills-based Hiring Module - Transforming HR Practices to Reach Organizational Success | July- Aug 2023

This module consists of three 90 minute sessions of facilitated learning discussions, employer panels, and cooperative learning breakout sessions. Participants will learn to define/articulate organizational impacts of skills-based hiring, use of skills-based hiring as a recruitment strategy, and skills-based hiring as a selection strategy.

Sector Partnership Module - Engagement and Retention for Success - Regional Teams Model | April- May 2023

This module will help sector partnerships build engagement to achieve partnership goals. The first session will guide you through a self-assessment of your regional team to identify opportunities to strengthen the regional team behind your sector partnership. The second session will give you a practical understanding of how to help public partners identify and play constructive roles in support of sector partnerships, not as an add-on activity, but as a way of fulfilling their core mission more effectively.

Work-based Learning Module - Developing and Implementing High Quality Experiences | June - Sept 2023

As support for work-based learning (WBL) evolves and grows across the state, new resources continue to be developed to support initiatives. Using best practices, quality standards, and subject matter experts, this technical assistance module will provide the latest resources and network connections to increase quality in work-based learning experiences and their development.

Disability Support Navigation Module | June - Sept 2023

As the world of work continues to evolve post pandemic, opportunities for increasing access to employment (in person, hybrid, and virtual) for people of all abilities are abundant. This module will provide resources for support, networking, and more to support these growing opportunities. Participants will break down barriers, reduce stigma, and learn the benefits that job seekers with disabilities bring to the workforce.

Engaging Economic Development Councils | July - Sept 2023

Successful relationship development with economic development partners is a key skill for talented local area workforce business services professionals. As the world of work continues to evolve, so does the landscape for economic development in the state. Participants will learn from experts in economic development about best practices for relationship development. Participants will also have an opportunity to develop action plans with experts to further develop their connections and collaboration with economic development partners in the state.

2022-23 Winter/Spring TA Modules

Integrating Job Quality and Equity Into Business Services | Nov. - Dec. 2022

Job quality and equity are critical components of a thriving and robust state and local talent development ecosystem. Join this training to explore approaches to integrate job quality and equity into your core business services approaches. The virtual sessions will ground business services staff in approaches to accelerate local priorities informed by approaches that help to strengthen the availability of quality jobs within the local job market.

Session 1 - The What and Why of Job Quality - View Recording and Slides
Session 2 - Assessing the Quality of Jobs in your Local Labor Market and Adopting a Local Job Quality Strategy - View Recording and Slides
Session 3 - Talking to Businesses About How Job Quality Impacts Current and Future Workers - View Recording and Slides
Session 4 - Equipping Employers with Insights into the Worker Experience - View Recording and Slides

Sector Partnerships Module: Convening, Supporting, and Sustaining National Next-Gen Sector Partnerships (Training Series with the Institute for Networked Communities) | Nov. - Dec. 2022

The CWDC is contracting with the Institute for Networked Communities (INC), the national organization behind the Next Gen Sector Partnership model, to host a three session training series for regional sector partnership teams, new sector partnership conveners, or those interested in a reset/refresh. The training series will provide a refreshed understanding on the Next Gen model, what makes it distinct from other approaches, what success looks like, and what is required to build and sustain effective sector partnerships. Participants will learn from effective sector partnerships throughout the country and will have access to monthly coaching calls with Institute for Networked Communities January-May 2023.

Rework America Alliance - Activator Training Series (Skills-based Hiring Module) | February & March 2023

On behalf of the Markle Foundation and the Rework America Alliance, we invite you to attend an Activator Cohort Training to provide you with additional tools and resources in your ongoing engagement with employers. This training will help you become an Activator who drives the adoption of inclusive, skills-based practices in your community. An Activator enables employers in their community to leverage the abilities of current employees and expand their talent pools to increase diversity and productivity. Find more information on our upcoming Activator Trainings below. Learn more about becoming an Activator in this video.

My Colorado Journey Module: Implementing My Colorado Journey | February - March 2023

Learn how My Colorado Journey (MCJ), a free online state resource, makes it easy for educators and career counselors to walk alongside students and job seekers as they explore career, education, and training opportunities. This five-week module will demonstrate avenues for people to align personal aspirations with education and career pathways, explore Colorado’s top jobs, and tap into personal and financial support services. Don’t miss this informative introduction to Colorado’s one-stop shop for students, job seekers, and those who advise them.

Focused content will be provided for those who work with students and for those who work with adults who are unemployed or seeking to reskill, upskill, or next-skill.