The Working for America Institute examined the structure, activities and funding bases for the 14 partnerships studied and compiled matrices so these elements could be compared. The institute also profiled each of the partnerships in a series of case studies (see Appendix) that describe the organizations' history, goals and results achieved. Although the levels and methods of evaluation of individual programs vary, the findings of this study should be helpful in expanding and creating innovative approaches to job creation, job retention and local economic development.

Activities and Services

As the matrix here shows, activities and services provided by the 14 partnerships studied fall into four main categories:

• Setting standards. Nine of the partnerships have helped set workplace, job and investment standards. Working Partnerships USA's report on the underside of the Silicon Valley economy, for example, led to a coalition that won wage, benefit and environmental standards for public economic development investments in Santa Clara County.
• Workforce development. All 14 partnerships design and provide training for workers. Twelve provide placement and referral services.
• Philadelphia Hospital and Health Care-District 1199C Training and Upgrading Fund and the Hospital League in New York have built two of the most extensive sectoral training programs in the nation, serving more than 100,000 union members and workers just entering the health care industry.
• Looking at the training and education components of workforce development, 13 partnerships provide technical or occupational training, 12 assist with job or skill upgrading, 11 have entry-level training, eight offer ESL classes, seven provide education in basic skills and four offer tuition reimbursement. In New York City, the nonprofit Consortium for Worker Education provides basic education, ESL classes, skill-based training, health care worker certification and college degrees.

ON THE HIGH ROAD:

Companies compete on the basis of quality goods and services, innovation and value - not exclusively on the basis of cost. Community members have access to education and training, leading to family-sustaining jobs and secure career paths. Employees have a voice in the jobs they do, and can help shape products and service quality, job structure and technology use, customer service and other crucial operating components to be most effective. Communities have a voice in shaping local and regional economies, to ensure working family-family friendly development. Economic opportunities are open to every member of the community.

• Business services. Nine partnerships have joint labor-management programs, nine assist employers with modernization and five provide financial or similar services. The Garment Industry Development Corporation offers consulting and direct services to help employers train workers, modernize plants, develop new markets and create participatory work systems. Since 1990, southeastern Michigan's Labor-Management Council for Economic Renewal has offered more than 120 management training programs on high-performance leadership, employee involvement, team concepts and more. The Graphic Arts Institute of Northern California helps workers and employers navigate rapid technological change in their industry by training workers in the newest forms of technology and enabling firms to test new technologies that can help them modernize.
• People Served. In the process of building good jobs and career paths while helping employers compete, High road partnerships, this study found, also promote fairer access to economic opportunity for women, minority and immigrant workers. Thirteen of the partnerships serve incumbent workers, but 11 also assist new workers, nine serve youths and eight serve displaced workers. Graduates of the ESL classes offered by the E-Team Machinists Training Program, for example, are recruited into machinist training and placed in local manufacturing jobs that guarantee $10 an hour and a career ladder. Of the nearly 30,000 students served by the Consortium for Worker Education in 1997-1998, half were women, three-fourths were people of color and one-fourth had not completed high school. In its first seven years, the Culinary Union Training Center, a partnership of HERE Local 226 in Las Vegas and major hotels, trained more than 14,000 new workers for good jobs in hotels and restaurants, including thousands of immigrants from the Balkans and Asia, workers re-entering the paid workforce and minority workers.