Sessions by Learning Theme

Learning Labs at Workforce Innovations 2008 offer more than 100 opportunities to decode the success of practitioners and thought leaders from within the workforce system and its key partners in education, business, economic development, education, community-based organizations, and philanthropy.

Click on a Learning Theme below to view the 2008 Learning Lab titles

Globalization and the Innovations Economy

  • (Super Session) The Global Search for Talent: A Dialogue on Public-Private Partnerships

  • Beyond the Usual Suspects: Maximizing Community Assets to Address Critical Workforce Issues

  • Data-Driven Competitive Analysis for Creating a Regional Community of Innovation

  • Getting Ahead of the Curve: Regional Innovation Grants

  • Global Talent and the Workforce System: A Look at 2007 Foreign Labor Certification Data

  • Global Talent and the Workforce System: Training Session on Employment Eligibility Verifications

  • Growing Entrepreneurs in Rural America

  • Indiana Partnerships: Transforming Public Policy in Education, Workforce and Economic Development

  • Minnesota's Regional Economic Competitiveness Initiative

  • Power Tools: OnTheMap - Impact Analysis Using Local Employment Dynamics

  • Rural is the New Urban: The Role of Entrepreneurship in Rural Economic Development

  • The Integrated RIG Planning Process: Lessons From the First Regional Innovation Grant

  • WIN/WIN: Workforce Information Innovator's Network


Regional Talent Development Solutions for the Global Economy

  • (Pre-Conference) Power to the People: Solution Sharing and Problem Solving in the Energy Sector

  • (Pre-Conference) Technology-Based Learning Initiative Forum

  • (Research Showcase) Entrepreneurship Opportunities for Workforce System Clients

  • Across Boundaries: Models for Regional Workforce Collaboration

  • Advanced Manufacturing Your Way to College

  • Beyond Transportation: TDL is Driving Transformation

  • Facebook, MySpace, WIRED: A Social Network Analysis of WIRED Regions

  • Increasing Access to Training: The Collaborative Online Workforce Education and Training Portal

  • Partnering to Credential a Workforce and Move a State Toward Economic Prosperity

  • Regional Intelligence and Expertise: Knowing, Communicating, and Leveraging Your Workforce System to Improve Outcomes

  • Regional Strategies to Address Talent Pipeline Needs of the Energy Industry

  • Simply the Best: Sharing WIRED Concepts and Expertise

  • Talent Trumps All: Virtual Solutions to Talent Development in the All American Defense Corridor

  • Tales from a Petri Dish: Strategies for Cultivating Bioscience Talent in your Region

  • The Art of Partnering: Achieving Common Goals Through Large-Scale Collaborations

  • The Latest on Competency Models: An Energy Industry Perspective

  • The New Stem Formula: STEM + Jobs = Success

  • Universal Talent Development: Advancing Workforce Capabilities in Rural Utah Communities


Leveraging Funding for Increased Impact

  • (Pre-Conference) Creating Partnerships: Making the Case for Serving Mature Workers

  • (Pre-Conference) Emergency Preparedness and Continuity of Operations Partners Needed

  • (Pre-Conference) That's the Ticket: A Win-Win Partnership to Promote the Workforce Investment System's Participation in the Ticket to Work Program

  • (Super Session) The Power Couple: How to Maximize WIA Funds and Performance by Partnering with Registered Apprenticeship

  • (Super Session) Two Partners – One Goal: WIA and TANF Working Together to Help the Hard-to-Serve Succeed in the Global Economy

  • Anticipating Economic Shocks: Using Traditional Tool in New Ways

  • Barrier Busters: The Role of Community and Faith-Based Nonprofit Organizations in Outreach, Placement, and Retention

  • Building a Virtual One Stop for Youth in Foster Care: Three Local Approaches

  • Community Foundations: Investors and Collaborators in Talent Development

  • Entrepreneurship: Communities and One-Stop Career Centers Supporting Job Creation, Innovation, and a Flourishing Economy

  • Getting WIRED: Integrating the

  • Grants.gov: Grantformation Accomplished

  • Innovative Approaches to Developing Regional Talent: Registered Apprenticeship, WIA, and the Community Colleges

  • Leveraging Common Goals to Get Things Done for Veterans

  • Planning for Sustainability: Lessons from Generation I WIRED Regions

  • Prisoner Reentry Training: What Resources Are Available for My Staff?

  • Pushing the Envelope: Expanding the Policy Framework for Financing Postsecondary Education for Workers Who Study

  • Restoring Their Hope, Restoring our Environment

  • Solving the Workforce Development Puzzle: High Growth and Community-Based Workforce Solutions

  • The Aftershock: One Region's Response to Talent Development in the Wake of a Natural Disaster

  • Turning Acorns into Oak Trees: Decoding Stakeholder Needs and Growing Financial Resources for Workforce Training


Innovations in Education and Workforce Partnerships

  • (Educational Tour) Advancing the Energy Sector's 21st Century Workforce

  • Accelerating Education: Building High-Performance Partnerships

  • Adaptive eLearning: How Customized, Just-in-Time Training Modules Can Make A Difference in Your Workforce

  • Aligning NSF Advanced Technology Center Programs with the Workforce System

  • Building Successful Demand-Driven Workforce Development Partnerships: The Human Capital Academy Model

  • Creating Regional Workforce Training Partnerships that Work

  • Decoding the Three R's of Career & Technical Education: Rigor, Relevance, and Relationships

  • Drop Outs Dropping In

  • Expanding Distance Learning to College Students in the Teaching Profession

  • Ford Motor Company Fund's Next Generation Learning Communities

  • Job Corps: Integrating a Standards-Based Approach into Career Technical Education for America’s At-Promise Youth

  • Life after Retirement: Strategies for Retaining and Retraining an Aging Workforce

  • Making Healthcare Work!

  • Nebraska Mechatronics Education Center: Experiential Education and a New Level of Technical Training

  • Owning Your Own Business is a NFTE Idea: Youth Entrepreneurship

  • Regional Collaboration in Support of Foster Youth: It Works!

  • The Middle Apprenticeship Project: A Career Development Opportunity for At-Risk Youth

  • The Role of the Public Research University in Engaging Regions for Economic and Talent Development

  • Using the Virtual Portal to Build Sustainable Educational Workforce Partnerships


Business Engagement and Leadership

  • (Educational Tour) Northrop Grumman Shipbuilding's New Orleans Operation

  • (Educational Tour) Transforming New Orleans' One-Stop Career Centers

  • (Pre-Conference) MEP's Role in Talent Development: Linking To and Leveraging Partners with Postsecondary Institutions, Public Workforce System, and WIRED Regions

  • (Super Session) Assembling Community Partners to Find Opportunity in Adversity: A Dialogue with Gus Whalen

  • An Unprepared Workforce: Calculating the Cost to Business

  • Building a Statewide Manufacturing Skills Solution From a Single Project: Why Business Leadership Matters

  • Captivating the Business Partner: A Presentation Skills Self-Assessment

  • Career Prescriptions for Success (CAPS): An Employer-Driven Apprenticeship Model

  • Hire Learning: A Collaborative Approach to Career Academies

  • Home Grown: Apprenticeship and the Development of Regional Economies

  • Innovative Solutions to Meet Employers’ Critical Needs

  • Not Over the Hill, Just Picking Up Speed

  • Petite but Powerful: Small Business’ Impact on the Global Economy

  • Stealth Isn't for Fighter Jets - The Sky’s the Limit When Collaboration Replaces Competition

  • The Global Apprenticeship Renaissance: New Models for Skilling the Workforce in the U.S. and Abroad

  • The Power of Partnerships: Driving Regional Economic Growth

  • Understanding Trends in Learning Through Data

  • Unplugged: The Latest Trends in Alternative Energy


Maximizing Your Talent Pool

  • (Educational Tour) Accelerated Nursing Program at Tulane Medical Center

  • (Educational Tour) Cafe Reconcile

  • (Research Showcase) Findings About Who Works on U.S. Farms from the National Agricultural Workers Survey

  • (Research Showcase) Stop the Age Tsunami: Retaining Mature Healthcare Workers

  • (Super Session) Real People, Real Skills: Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) is the Foundation for Tomorrow’s Skilled Workforce

  • Accessing Untapped Labor Pools through Service Integration

  • Cultivating More than Just Land: Maximizing the Talent Pool of Youth in Rural America

  • Developing Low-Skilled Workers: Promising Practices from the Urban Partnerships Initiative Toolkit

  • Effectively Serving One-Stop Customers with Mental Health-Related Disabilities

  • Expanding the Talent Development Pool through Registered Apprenticeship

  • Heroes at Home: Serving Military Spouses

  • Heroes in the Civilian Workforce

  • In the Mix: What it Takes to Develop the Next Generation of American Workers

  • It's Popular, It's Powerful, It's Getting Unemployed Workers Back to Work Quickly - It's Reemployment and Eligibility Assessment

  • Jobs to Careers: Work-Based Learning and Career Advancement in the Health Care Industry

  • Leveraging Inclusive Business Partnerships to Upgrade the Skills of Native Americans

  • National Offender Workforce Development Partnership: Collaborating to Meet the Needs of the 21st Century Workforce

  • Reconnecting Employers and Workers in a Turbulent Economy

  • Speed Up Success with Contextualized Learning

  • Taking Steps to Success: Promoting Economic Mobility for Latino Youth

  • Talent that Came Looking For You: Tapping Into Immigrant and Refugee Skills

  • Tap into the Refugee Labor Pool

  • Tapping Unemployed Street Dwellers to Become Valued Wage Earners

  • The Best of the Prisoner Re-entry Initiative

  • The New Age of Recruitment: Attracting and Retaining Baby Boomers through Recruitment Strategy and Internet Tools

  • Tools for Targeting Services to Dislocated Workers

  • Veterans Re-Entry Education and Training: Leveraging Collaborations and Strategic Partnerships


Workforce System Leadership and Transformation

  • (Pre-Conference) One-Stop 2.0: A New Approach to Doing Business

  • (Pre-Conference) The Portable Transformational Forum

  • (Pre-Conference) What's Your Future: A Regional Planning Simulation

  • (Research Showcase) Innovations in Program Evaluation: Non-Experimental Methods

  • (Super Session) Leadership in an Environment of Transformation

  • (Super Session) Driving Transformation: Strategic Integration Throughout the Workforce Investment System

  • A Shared Workforce Agenda: Labor-Management Partnerships Making a Difference

  • Accelerate Employment Circles: Align and Accelerate the Work of Multiple Regional Workforce Development Entities

  • Best Practices in Co-enrolling Trade Adjustment Assistance Participants in WIA

  • Bold Transformation: Workforce System Structure and Governance

  • Business Services University: Building a Critical Staff Skill Set

  • Driving Nevada's Workforce Development Transformation

  • How to Train and Place Ex-Offenders while Meeting your Performance Goals

  • Louisiana's Integrated Service Delivery Model: A State Perspective

  • Meeting the Needs of Montana's Workers and Employers

  • Outside Insights: Strengthening Strategic Planning and Partnerships through Peer-to-Peer Learning

  • Shifting Gears: Reorganizing Adult Education to Create Career Pathways for Today’s Workforce

  • Telling the Workforce Story: New Tools for High Impact Engagement

  • Transformational Leadership: A Workforce Development Board Case Study

  • Turning Around the Public Sector: Why Change Is Never a Four-Letter Word

  • Using Metrics to Drive Regional Talent Development

  • Virginia’s Reform of the Workforce Delivery System: A Vision for a Trained and Skilled Workforce

  • Vision East: The WIRED Concept Without the Dollars

  • What Does it Take to Achieve Standout Success? A Showcase of Recognition of Excellence Awardees