In When Training Works: Promising workforce development practices, authors Metcalf Fellow Danielle Olsen and John MacLaughlin seek to deepen our understanding of how to connect job seekers to good jobs by illuminating the work of innovators – NPower Canada, Building Up, Elevate Plus Manufacturing, and ACCES Employment – who are leading the way in demonstrating how workforce solutions can be poverty reduction strategies.

Ontario’s workforce development system — including publicly-funded programs, public policies, training and employment organizations, and businesses — will play a critical role in the province’s economic recovery. Effective workforce strategies enable job seekers and displaced workers to access good jobs, by offering competitive and practical skills development that are aligned with economic development and the needs of local industry, while also maintaining deep and enduring commitments to the success of job seekers and supporting them to overcome the barriers they face.

NPower Canada, Building Up, Elevate Plus Manufacturing, and ACCES Employment are each, in their own unique ways, impacting their communities by assisting both job seekers and local industries to achieve economic success. The four remarkable organizations have designed and delivered training with creativity and flexibility. They share a deep and an enduring commitment to the success of job seekers, and an ability to align the interests of employers, workers, and public and private investments.

When Training Works identifies the many transferrable lessons and insights about how good training works and highlights the promising practices that community-focused non-profit organizations are implementing to support the economic livelihoods of low-income people. Much can be learned from non-profit organizations that are doing innovative work. This report helps enhance the understanding of both practitioners and policy makers in designing and delivering workforce training.