Join Us in Accelerating the Skills First Movement
The Center for a Skills First Future helps employers put skills at the center of hiring and advancement—unlocking talent, fueling growth, and creating opportunity. We provide the tools, guidance, and shared language to make skills-first practices the standard.
Skills Action Planner
Skills Action Planner
Evaluate your organization’s progress in adopting a skills-first approach. Our interactive tool helps you identify strengths, gaps, and actionable steps to implement a skills-based approach effectively.
Resource Library
Resource Library
Access research, tools, and employer examples to implement and sustain skills-first talent strategies across the employee lifecycle.
Skills First Credential
Skills First Credential
Demonstrate expertise in skills-based workforce strategies. Equip yourself with the tools to drive impact across hiring, development, and retention.
Vendor Database
Vendor Database
Find vetted solutions and community support for skills-first implementations—from sourcing and assessment to upskilling and mobility.
Hear from Taylor Dunne, San Diego Regional Economic Development Corporation
Taylor Dunne of the San Diego Regional EDC shares how skills-first hiring gains real traction—by starting from within. In this spotlight, she emphasizes the power of aligning HR and technical teams, identifying internal champions, and rethinking how organizations recognize and value skills beyond traditional proxies.
Hear From Rose Sikder, OKTA
Rose Sikder, of OKTA explains how a skills-first approach unlocks potential in today’s workforce. In this inspiring message, she shares how leading with skills—not assumptions—helps businesses find untapped talent, support upward mobility, and future-proof their teams.
Hear from Steven Flenory, WB Games
Steven Flenory of WB Games shares why skills-first hiring isn’t just the future—it’s the now. In this short spotlight, he highlights how prioritizing skills over outdated proxies helps employers tap into overlooked talent, improve retention, and build stronger teams.
Hear from Josh Tarr of Workday
Josh Tarr of Workday shares how their internal gig program sparked a skills-first transformation. By focusing on real skills over résumés, Workday saw faster hiring, better candidate experiences, and stronger acceptance rates. His advice? Start small, use your data, and make skills a company-wide priority—not just an HR project.
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19x
Removing degree requirements unlocks 19x more candidates (JFF, 2023)
30%
Skills-first hiring reduces cost-per-hire by 30% (SHRM, 2023)
42%
Companies adopting skills- first decrease turnover by 42% (McKinsey, 2023)
Featured Resource
Overview
The Colorado Wage Outcomes Results Coalition (CO WORC) is an initiative designed to help workforce development programs better understand the outcomes of their participants after program completion through an interactive dashboard.
The first version of the dashboard launched in summer 2025, with updates planned for summer 2026 as new data are collected. The dashboard highlights the value of linking education, workforce, and employment data to provide evidence on how training programs affect long-term economic outcomes.
The WORC Dashboard allows users to explore participant outcomes across three key areas:
- Earnings
- Links workforce program records with payroll data collected by the Colorado Department of Labor and Employment (CDLE) through the Linked Information Network of Colorado (LINC), a secure data integration service.
- Earnings data track average and median wages from 8 quarters before a program begins to 12 quarters after completion, adjusted for inflation.
- Industry of employment
- Industry data show the types of employers and sectors where participants are hired, including transitions between industries over time.
- Demographics.
- Demographic data provide insight into the characteristics of program participants.
Background
Workforce training programs in Colorado increasingly want reliable evidence on what happens to people after they complete their programs, specifically in terms of employment and earnings. Stakeholders like training providers, funders, and policymakers lacked systematic access to that data and provide evidence of program outcomes.
The initiative was spurred by policy developments: Colorado passed House Bill 24-1364, which authorized and funded the development of a centralized longitudinal data system to measure earnings of learners after participation in workforce programs. WORC serves as a proof of concept of that effort.
Partners
- Colorado Equitable Economic Mobility Initiative (CEEMI)
- Colorado Evaluation and Action Lab (Colorado Lab), University of Denver
- Linked Information Network of Colorado (LINC)
- Colorado Department of Labor and Employment (CDLE)
- Training providers in the first cohort:
- ActivateWork
- Center for Employment Opportunities (CEO)
- CrossPurpose
- The Master’s Apprentice
- Mile High WorkShop
- Women’s Bean Project
Funding
- Anschutz Foundation
- Gates Family Foundation
- Prosperity Denver Fund
- Rose Foundation
Resources
Colorado Evaluation & Action Lab. (2023). Workforce development evidence-building hub. University of Denver. https://coloradolab.org/resources/workforce-development-evidence-building-hub/
Colorado Evaluation & Action Lab. (2025, September 17). New dashboard tracks the effectiveness of Colorado career training programs. University of Denver. https://coloradolab.org/2025/09/17/new-dashboard-tracks-the-effectiveness-of-colorado-career-training-programs/
Colorado Wage Outcomes Results Coalition (WORC). (2025). WORC dashboard overview [PDF]. University of Denver. https://itableau.du.edu/views/WORC_Dashboard/1_Introduction
Linked Information Network of Colorado. (n.d.). About LINC. https://www.lincolorado.org/
Founding Investors
Founding Partners
