Center for Economic Mobility at WestEd 

Current Challenge

As people are living and working longer, we need to create opportunities that allow people to learn new skills at various points in their careers. Yet, education systems are designed for younger students and are often poorly aligned with evolving workplace needs.  

Purpose

The Center for Economic Mobility at WestEd brings together employers, educational institutions, and workforce systems to codesign solutions that meet the needs of both learners and employers. Through this collaboration, the Center helps you strengthen pathways to economic opportunity and build thriving communities.

The Center can help boost economic mobility by

• elevating the voices of students, families, and workers;
• designing pathways from low-wage jobs to more stable and rewarding work;
• cultivating relationships with employers and helping businesses grow; and
• building lasting partnerships that help people move between education, training, and jobs throughout their careers.

Audience Served

We work with partners to strengthen education, workforce, and regional systems—so you can better serve your community, your learners, and your employers.

Partners often include the following:

• adult education programs and partners
• workforce development programs
• postsecondary institutions and school districts
• state and regional partnerships 

Key Activities

Our team conducts research and evaluation, develops resources, and provides technical assistance to help education and workforce organizations, employers, regional partnerships, and state agencies understand program impacts and identify strategic priorities. We analyze regional labor markets, strengthen education pathways, and improve practices that connect low-wage jobs to skilled employment with living wages.

The Center builds partnerships and designs learner-centered approaches that strengthen connections between education, workforce, employers, regional partnerships, and state systems. Working together with our partners, we are changing policies and practices to expand opportunities for individual learners, their families, and communities and to create shared prosperity

Center Directors

Randal Tillery

Randal Tillery is Director of Economic Mobility, Postsecondary and Workforce Systems, and the ​Co-​Director of the Center for Economic Mobility at WestEd.

Kathy Booth

As the Director of WestEd’s Center for Economic Mobility, Kathy Booth supports national efforts to clarify students’ economic outcomes and delivers technical assistance on using labor market information to develop stronger pathways to living wages.

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