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Too many workforce training programs in America don’t work—not for the workers they aim to serve, not for the employers seeking talent to hire, and not for the taxpayers footing the bill.
Each year, billions of dollars are spent on education and training initiatives that produce limited results. Participants cycle through classes, but, too often emerge with no better job, no higher wage, no clear path to upward mobility, and no way to pay off the financial debts they likely took on in the process. Despite scattered signs of progress, the broader system remains misaligned, rewarding enrollment over outcomes and process over performance.
This begs a clear question of training providers, employers, and governments:
What if your workforce investment strategy was judged not by how many people enrolled, but by how many got hired with better wages after completing it?
If your current approach would not survive that audit, then it’s time to look at some new ideas.
Social Finance Institute
Paying for What Works
A new volume—Workforce Realigned, Volume II, a collection of case studies co-published by the Social Finance Institute and four regional Federal Reserve Banks (Atlanta, Chicago, Philadelphia, and Richmond)—offers a refreshingly bold blueprint for a smarter, more equitable system. Through 21 real-world examples, the book shows how we can—and must—fund workforce programs based on the results they achieve–not simply the activities they conduct. While not comprehensive, this compendium offers a fresh perspective on emerging initiatives helping shape the future of workforce development.
The core thesis of Workforce Realigned is deceptively simple: realign financial incentives around outcomes that matter—employment, wage gains, job retention—and stop paying for training that leads nowhere.
The outcomes-based models in Workforce Realigned tie every dollar to measurable, sustained economic gains—meeting employers’ needs for proven returns on investment.
According to the World Economic Forum’s Future of Jobs Report 2025, employers expect 39% of key skills required in the job market will change by 2030, with technological skills projected to grow in importance more rapidly than any other skills in the next five years.
Importantly, this is not an abstract manifesto. The book is full of practical examples of new financing models already reshaping the landscape.
Hudson County Community College
In New Jersey, for instance, the Pay It Forward Program offers zero-interest loans with wraparound support—structured so students only repay the costs of their training if they land a good-paying job.
In Philadelphia, a pay-for-success partnership with life sciences employers reimburses training providers only when hires are made and retained.
In Texas, state funding for technical colleges is tied not to enrollment, but to students’ earnings after program completion – a mission which the colleges reinforce by offering a money-back guarantee that graduates will get a job within six months.
These models reflect a fundamental shift: from programs measured by their ability to fill seats to programs measured by their results in changing lives.
The Stakes Are Rising
We are at an inflection point. For too long, we’ve accepted a lower ROI from workforce training than from any other public investment. Now that the American labor market is evolving rapidly—with demographic shifts, technological change, and AI redefining how and where people work, we can’t afford to ignore the mismatch any longer.
Too much of the workforce training industry has become a low-accountability ecosystem where success is measured in ‘seat time’, not salaries earned – and would-be workers living paycheck-to-paycheck rarely have the time and resources to take that risk. Meanwhile, employers struggle to find or fund trained talent, even as millions of Americans remain underemployed. Workforce Realigned dares to ask why we tolerate that—and offers a credible alternative.
What’s needed, however, is not more training for training’s sake. Instead, the workplace economy must foster a system that shares risk, prioritizes results, and better supports workers through the full journey to economic mobility.
Workforce Realigned highlights strategies that meet this moment. “Earn and learn” models—like those profiled by Apprenticeships for America and Rural LISC—show how employers can play a larger role in developing talent while paying wages while workers gain skills.
Wraparound supports, featured in chapters by the AARP Foundation and the Institute for Women’s Policy Research, demonstrate how investments in childcare, transportation, or emergency aid can boost training completion. And student-centered repayment programs, like the Google Career Certificates Fund for tech workers and the ReNEW Fund for nurses, offer pathways to scale.
Texas State Technical College
Taken together, these cases provide a roadmap for how to realign incentives, share risk across sectors, and ensure public and private dollars are producing real returns.
A Refreshing Lack of Partisanship
One of the most powerful aspects of this volume is its bipartisan DNA. Leaders from both parties have lent their voices to chapters and, by extension, this movement for results-based funding and accountability.
While workforce development often suffers from fragmented governance and political gridlock, the examples in Workforce Realigned suggest real consensus. What unites them is a commitment to accountability and a desire to deliver for workers and employers alike.
This is no accident. The book’s contributors include leading educators, nonprofit executives, corporate leaders, and policymakers across red and blue states. It’s a rare—and welcome—space where ideas and impact matter more than partisanship.
The Role for Employers
If there’s one critique to offer of Workforce Realigned, it’s that while the book rightly elevates the role of employers, it could go even further in unpacking what drives—or deters—their engagement:
How do we bring more small and mid-sized companies into the fold? What kinds of incentives are most effective, and at what cost?
Why should a mid-sized construction firm or logistics company invest time and resources in talent development when their competitors don’t? Workforce Realigned scratches the surface here, but a deeper dive is urgently needed.
It’s also worth noting that many of these efforts remain in their early stages. Though inspiring, how scalable are the models profiled in the case studies? Can small states or resource-strapped nonprofits replicate these models without federal support? What about industries that don’t offer high-paying jobs even after training?
Several large-scale initiatives are working to improve our understanding of – and ability to measure – the economic returns to workforce training programs, so the answer may well lie in the future results of their efforts. That said, the book does not overclaim, instead presenting itself as an invitation to learn and build—iteratively, collaboratively, and rigorously.
A National Call to Action
The status quo is no longer tenable. Every stakeholder—from government to business to philanthropy—must ask one urgent question: Are we funding activity, or are we funding results?
If we want a workforce system that delivers—especially for those too often left behind—we must stop paying for inputs and start paying for results. We must stop funding programs that train people for jobs that are no longer in demand and start investing in pathways that lead to real opportunity.
The urgency is clear. The tools are available. The examples are compelling.
At its core, Workforce Realigned is a challenge to this untenable status quo. It asks policymakers, employers, training providers, and philanthropies to rethink their roles and realign their incentives. It asks all of us to measure what matters. And it offers a tangible way forward.
Workforce Realigned doesn’t just diagnose the problem. It lays out the first steps of a better path—and challenges us all to walk it.
This volume is available for free at workforcerealigned.org.
