Partner With Us to Strengthen Pathways to Economic Opportunity

The Center for Economic Mobility at WestEd promotes thriving communities by bringing together employers, educational institutions, and workforce systems to codesign solutions that meet the needs of both learners and employers.

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We’re boosting economic mobility by

  • elevating the voices of students, families, and workers;
  • designing pathways from low-wage jobs to more stable and rewarding work;
  • cultivating relationships with employers and helping businesses grow; and
  • building lasting partnerships that help people move between education, training, and jobs throughout their careers.
Learn more about us
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Who We Serve

  • state agencies
  • regional partnerships
  • education institutions
  • adult education programs
  • workforce development organizations
  • community partners
  • employers
  • labor organizations
Learn more about who we serve

What We Offer

The Center for Economic Mobility works to make education, job training, and certification programs better aligned so that learners can build stable and rewarding careers. We can help you achieve the following:

  • connect data from education, workforce systems, and employers to understand student and worker needs
  • engage communities with research-backed insights to transform everyday practices and local policies
  • turn insights into action with clear plans and support
  • help implement strategies to build stronger integrated systems

Learn more about what we offer

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Features

Featured

Beyond ROI: What the Metrics Academies are Revealing About Credentials of Value and Economic Mobility

By Rachel Antrobus and Brenda Hernandez

In this blog, we explore what Metrics Academies are surfacing about credentials of value, why traditional return on investment (ROI) measures fall short, and what it will take to design skills-first pathways that truly support economic mobility.

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Featured

No Degree Needed?

By Sterling Smith

In this blog, we cut through social media hype to share what the data actually show about six-figure earners without a college degree in Los Angeles County—and five realities that shape who reaches $100K with only a high school diploma.

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Phyllis Pistorino
Team Member Spotlight

Phyllis Pistorino

Phyllis’ experience as a community college student shaped her core belief that skills-driven education and actionable career planning strengthen education systems, expand opportunities, and uplift students and communities.

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The Center for Economic Mobility is working with

Two overlapping colored circles showing program reach: 43 Institutions and 21 States

The Center’s groundbreaking work on identifying skills builders fundamentally reshaped how we define student success in California’s community colleges by highlighting the value of earnings gains via upskilling. This research has empowered colleges to better understand employment outcomes and design programs that more effectively support students who are enhancing their workforce readiness for career advancement.

Jesse Crete
Regional Director, Orange County Center of Excellence for Labor Market Research

The labor market is complex and dynamic. It is critical to understand there are several dimensions to creating mobility and meeting employer demand. The Center for Economic Mobility is helping to explain what workers will need to know to be competitive. Their analytically-informed frameworks will help educators and employers understand where hidden talent lies and where uncovered opportunities are.

Stuart Andreason
Executive Director, Burning Glass Institute

Through the course of this project, the Center is helping NASH to develop the organizational capacity and expertise to continue to deliver these kinds of professional development offerings in future. The Center has been a wonderful partner in collaboratively developing the curriculum and delivery methods for this project, which is so valuable for our public higher education systems.

Dan Knox
Director, Institute for Systems Innovation and Improvement, National Association of Higher Education Systems

The Center was an invaluable partner to the California Community Colleges and me, as the cabinet member driving the reforms. They provided acumen and insights to tackle some of the thorniest and most complicated issues, joined me to meet with the legislature repeatedly throughout the design process and long leg of implementation, and enabled our system to shepherd one of the more effective sets of public policies by addressing the monies, metrics, and data aspects of the reform.

Van Ton-Quinlivan
Executive Vice Chancellor, Workforce and Digital Futures, California Community Colleges

The Center’s expertise in research and evaluation has been invaluable as we seek to understand our community’s evolving needs in higher education. As we gain new knowledge in this area and reimagine our program services, we do so in full confidence of their research based methodology.

Grace Ebron
Director of Community College Program and Training, the Puente Project