PROFILES IN
Collective Leadership
A national learning initiative launched by Carnegie Corporation of New York in partnership with Transcend Education highlighting how bold local partnerships transform education and workforce pathways, boosting civic engagement, economic mobility, and community interconnectedness.
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baltimore's promise
Partners in the Work
The Who
Workforce development initiatives were actually ecosystems of deeply engaged local partners. Partnerships were made up of any combination of the following organizations. Click the "Learnings" tab to see what role each entity played.
Students Thrive When Adults Work Together
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west alabama works!
From Small Wins to Broader Impact
Collective leadership connects institutions, expands opportunity, and strengthens community bonds. What starts as a solution to a small challenge can ripple outward into lasting transformations that benefit students and communities alike.
Drivers
Start with Shared Urgency: Most initiatives emerge in response to pressing challenges like workforce shortages, student disengagement, or pivotal community events, demanding collective action.
Leverage Catalysts: Funding opportunities, policy shifts, and local mandates can serve as powerful accelerators for partnership and innovation.
Design for Complexity: Multiple motivations often overlap, underscoring the need for cross-sector collaboration that can tackle challenges from different angles.
Balance Students and Industry: Lasting success depends on aligning student-centered design with early and sustained industry engagement ensuring programs remain relevant and scalable.
Leaders
Think Beyond the Status Quo: Effective leaders embrace innovation and find creative ways to work around bureaucratic barriers.
Champion Collaboration Over Control: Shared decision-making and student-centered approaches shift power from institutions to collective governance focused on shared impact.
Lead with Agility: Sustaining this work requires a culture of piloting, learning, and adapting where iteration is valued and responsiveness is expected.
Build Trust as Infrastructure: Trust, authenticity, and shared purpose drive systems change forward through relationships.
Practices and Structures
Structure Enables Collaboration: Steering committees, working groups, and regular meetings keeps partners aligned, transparent, and moving forward together.
Codify the Commitment: Formal agreements like MOUs help sustain the work through leadership changes, clarify roles, and establish shared goals, language, and measures of success.
Stay Flexible to Innovate: Local and state policy flexibility create space for cross-institution collaboration and innovative models.
Empower the Backbone: Intermediary organizations provide the infrastructure that keeps partnerships strong, coordinating operations, communication, and long-term sustainability.
Student Experiences
Design With Purpose: Intentional, innovative program design brings learning to life by connecting education directly to real-world experience.
Align for Credibility: Consistent skill-building, credentialing, and expectations across partners create a seamless student journey and strengthen employer confidence.
Build Workforce-Ready Skills: Communication, teamwork, time management, and other essential soft skills are explicitly taught and reinforced in every setting.
Integrate Real-World Learning: Internships, apprenticeships, and portfolio assessments make education engaging and relevant, preparing students for high-growth careers.
Support the Whole Student: Wraparound services like transportation, childcare, tutoring, and success coaching remove barriers and ensure equitable access for all learners.