Even at current employment levels, today’s labor market development system leaves millions of aspiring workers ill-prepared for jobs that pay a living wage. While right and left argue about what is wrong with the economy, across the country we found nonprofits, businesses, and local governments successfully helping struggling Americans along a path to upward mobility. Yet in too many places and at too high a price, we approach workforce issues much as we did 30 years ago.

Improvements in our understanding of brain science, cross-sector collaboration, and the critical elements of effective programs when combined with the use of regional skills data make it possible to construct a more equitable, effective system of workforce development.

Through the lens of 10 principles, Growing Fairly explains how local leadership can architect a better skilling system—one that addresses the needs of individuals from a variety of circumstances, employs innovative practices, and overcomes fragmentation.

The design principles or system requirements that form the core of the book’s recommendations are drawn from our research on effective organizations and initiatives. We wrote this book for practitioners. Much of it is told through the voices of those who run programs and the people who have taken advantage of them. Although we come from different ends of the political spectrum, we eschew rhetoric in favor of pragmatics. We know change is possible having ourselves been practitioners in the public, private, and social sectors. Although the issues we address are profound, our take on the subject is optimistic.

The excerpt that follows is drawn from the first and last chapters of Growing Fairly. We begin by summarizing the principles upon which to construct a more effective and equitable workforce development system. We conclude with a challenge. We know what works but change requires will and upending decades of entrenched practice.

Read the full article about a better skilling system by Stephen Goldsmith and Kate Markin Coleman at Stanford Social Innovation Review.