WPTI is pleased to announce the six workforce nonprofits selected for the 2023 cohort of the Digital Transformation Initiative (DTI) Learning Community.
- Consortium for Workers Education: Founded in 1985, CWE provides a continuum of workforce preparation, industry-specific training and employment services to over 60,000 New York City workers annually.
- Emma’s Torch: We provide refugees with in-depth culinary training and employability, equity, and empowerment training. We set them up for successful employment in an industry where their cultural heritage and cuisine can be celebrated.
- New York Center for Interpersonal Development (NYCID): Based on Staten Island, NYCID has provided mediation, conflict resolution, and workforce services since 1970. Its programs reach more than 9,000 New Yorkers annually.
- The Osborne Association: Osborne works directly with people affected by the criminal legal system through treatment, training, education, counseling, and community support services.
- ROC United: The country’s oldest and largest restaurant workers-led organization, its CHOW Institute provides no-cost professional workforce development training in front- and back-of-house restaurant skills in seven cities: New York City, Philadelphia, Washington, DC, Michigan, Oakland, and Los Angeles. ROC United is working toward achieving an ambitious goal of engaging 20% of the nation’s restaurant workforce by 2030.
- St. Nicks Alliance: Since 1975, St. Nicks Alliance has been transforming the lives of low- and moderate-income Brooklyn residents through employment, education, affordable housing, health care, and more.
The 2023 DTI Learning Community cohort members focus on different job seekers and approaches to workforce development – unions, refugees, young adults, legal system impacted, restaurant workers, Brooklyn community residents – but they all share the same concerns: how can we do more with less? offer training and services that meet the demands of an increasingly digitized labor market? move people into jobs quicker? reach more people in need?
To answer these questions, WPTI's DTI Learning Community brings together practitioners from multiple organizations for a five-month, team-based, blended learning exploration of what WPTI calls “The Three Pillars of Digital Transformation,” the web of complex issues and challenges that lie at the nexus of workforce development and technology:
Throughout the DTI Learning Community, cohort members will hear from experts and share their own insights and best practices on topics including:
- The Three Pillars of DTI for Workforce Development: Labor Market, Skills Gaps, and Organizational Productivity
- Increasing digital access for low-income participants
- The promise and challenges of digital transformation: understanding benefits, necessary commitments and common pitfalls of a digitally-centric approach
- Infrastructure analysis: showing how existing digital tools are being used, identifying gaps, and opportunities for enhancement
- Building an organizational culture around technology to support progress along the digital maturity curve
- Streamlining data collection, sharing & analysis to improve practitioner workflows
- Building connections with participants: recruitment & retention technology
- Work readiness preparation, skills training, and classroom technology
- Employer engagement & business development technology
Teams will also perform an organizational self-assessment to capture a snapshot of their current digital capacity. As a Capstone to the learning community, they will each develop a Digital Transformation Roadmap that identifies specific areas of their workforce programming that can be streamlined or enhanced through affordable digital tools, and create an actionable implementation strategy.
For additional information about WPTI’s digital transformation work, contact Dan Salemson, Managing Director of Digital Learning and Technology.