Center for the Future of Arizona to Launch Workforce Leadership Academy in Collaboration with the Aspen Institute

The Center for the Future of Arizona (CFA) announced today that it is sponsoring a Workforce Leadership Academy in partnership with the Aspen Institute. The Academy is designed to provide professional development for a local network of workforce development leaders to collaborate on solutions to common challenges. The Academy is supported by an Advisory Council of senior leaders from across the Greater Phoenix area representing organizations engaged in workforce development.

Twenty-four Fellows will be selected in a competitive application process. CFA and the Aspen Institute encourage senior-level managers from non-profit organizations, business associations, union-based training efforts, public agencies, and community colleges who are in a position to make change and empowered to do so to apply.

The workforce development system is a set of organizations and activities that prepares people for employment, helps workers advance in their careers and seeks to build a skilled workforce to support employers and their local economy. Strengthening workforce development contributes to creating a stronger and brighter future for Arizona.

Learn more about the Academy, register for the informational webinar and apply at arizonafuture.org/wla. The informational webinar for interested applicants is Tuesday, February 9th, 2021 and the deadline to apply is March 5th, 2021.

The Greater Phoenix Academy is the latest in a series of Academies held across the United States and Canada. This Academy is made possible through the support of Walmart.

“CFA is pleased to partner with the Aspen Institute to bring the Workforce Leadership Academy to the Greater Phoenix area to provide professional development for workforce leaders to improve economic mobility and create innovative solutions to the challenges faced by workers and businesses,” stated Sybil Francis, President & CEO, Center for the Future of Arizona. “The Academy supports CFA’s mission of bringing Arizonans together to create a stronger and brighter future for our state by strengthening the local network of non-profit, government, academic and community-based organizations through a series of virtual sessions that will introduce the participating Fellows to new tools and strategies. With COVID-19 impacting many people’s work lives and our workforce systems fully engaged in addressing their needs, there’s never been a better time to invest in developing those who lead our workforce organizations.”

The Academy will create and support a peer-learning community of workforce leaders with a ten-month long educational and networking experience to help them manage the challenges they face in responding to the COVID-19 pandemic and economic crisis, and address changes in technology, business norms, and policy. These senior-level workforce Fellows will work with leading practitioners from around the U.S., learn about practical planning tools, and collaborate to reflect on and develop effective strategies to strengthen the local workforce system. Alumni of the Academies become part of the Aspen Institute Economic Opportunity Fellows Network.

“Collaboration grows at the speed of trust, and today’s workforce development leaders are increasingly being asked to create solutions through collaboration,” said Sheila Maguire, Senior Fellow at the Aspen Institute Economic Opportunities Program and director of the local network of Workforce Leadership Academies. “This Academy is a rare opportunity for these local leaders to step back with colleagues from the Phoenix area, reflect on their own organizations' challenges, hear from leading practitioners from around the country, and develop the network and trust so essential for success.”

The Academy will be led locally by Holly Kurtz, Workforce Development Director and Orlando Cazarez, Senior Program Manager with the Center for the Future of Arizona, and a local Advisory Council that includes: