Workforce Leadership Academy

Strengthening Arizona’s Workforce to Build The Arizona We Want

In partnership with The Aspen Institute Economic Opportunities Program (EOP), Center for the Future of Arizona (CFA) offers the Workforce Leadership Academy (Academy) for workforce development professionals in Arizona. A high-capacity, responsive, and agile workforce system is critical for our state’s sustainable, equitable economic growth and is key to achieving The Arizona We Want, where all Arizonans, now and in the future, thrive and enjoy sustained prosperity, unmatched quality of life, and real opportunity. The Academy is one of many mission-driven efforts to improve economic mobility and prosperity for all Arizonans.

Why it matters

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.

A high-capacity, responsive, agile workforce system is critical for Arizona's sustainable, equitable economic growth. The workforce system is inherently interdisciplinary, involving many fields of practice, types of organizations, and government policies across various industries, firms, educational institutions, nonprofits, and public sector agencies. Workforce Leadership Academies bring together leaders from across many local workforce systems in Arizona. By investing in leaders' knowledge, skills, and relationships, the Workforce Leadership Academies are well-positioned to build nimble collaboration so crucial to the statewide workforce system's success.

How it works

Workforce Leadership Academies bring leaders – recognized as Fellows of the Academy – from the local workforce together for a nearly-year long professional development series of retreats, workshops, and action-learning projects. Through a competitive application process, 24 Fellows are selected to participate in each Academy. Senior-level managers from nonprofit organizations, business associations, union-based training efforts, public agencies, and community colleges who are in a position to foster change are encouraged to apply.

The Academy is structured as a spiral curriculum with ten themes and four cross-cutting themes pertinent to the workforce ecosystem that emerge and reemerge throughout. By returning to them repeatedly, Fellows' understanding and conversations deepen as they work together in teams to develop a five-year vision for the local workforce ecosystem, identify systemic bottlenecks and develop systems change recommendations.

Fellows work with leading practitioners throughout the country and locally as they deepen networks; strengthen systems leadership skills; apply racial equity and systems change frameworks to their work; increase their understanding of effective strategies and programs; decapitalize work collaboratively to identify local and regional systems-based challenges and create shared solutions. Alumni of the Academy become part of the Aspen Institute's National Economic Opportunity Fellows Network.

Cohorts

Learn More About Academies in Arizona

Frequently Asked Questions

What Academy Alumni Say About the Professional Development Experience

National Partner

The Aspen Institute Economic Opportunities Program

The Aspen Institute is an educational and policy studies organization based in Washington, D.C. Its mission is to spark intellectual inquiry and exchange, create a diverse worldwide community of leaders committed to the greater good, and provide a nonpartisan forum for reaching solutions on vital public policy issues. The Aspen Institute Economic Opportunities Program advances promising strategies and policies to help low- and moderate-income Americans connect to and thrive in a changing economy. Over its 25 years of work, the Economic Opportunities Program has focused on expanding individuals' opportunities to connect to quality work, start businesses, and build assets and economic stability

Support

CFA wants to see more Arizonans thrive and realize their leadership potential in their own lives and in our community. This work and its impact on workforce leaders in our communities around Arizona would not be possible without charitable contributions. Support the 2025 Southern Arizona and future Academies today.