Engaging Employers in a Cross-sector Postsecondary Attainment Agenda

Posted by Equal Measure on October 9, 2017

Engaging Employers in a Cross-sector Postsecondary Attainment Agenda: Lessons from Lumina Foundation’s Community Partnership for Attainment Initiative

Launched in 2013, Lumina Foundation’s Community Partnership for Attainment (CPA) initiative aimed to deepen the impact of cross-sector, place-based efforts to increase higher education attainment in communities and cities across the country. Lumina’s mission is to expand access and success in education beyond high school, particularly among adults, first-generation college students, low-income students, and students of color. This mission is directed toward achieving Goal 2025 – “to increase the proportion of Americans with high-quality postsecondary degrees and credentials to 60 percent by the year 2025.”

In this Issue Brief, we draw from examples of CPA grantees to share how employers can help communities strengthen partnerships, address equity, and improve attainment of postsecondary degrees and credentials.We describe why employers are important to community attainment initiatives, discuss how to authentically engage employers in this work, and examine how they fit with collective efforts underway. Equal Measure and DVP-PRAXIS served as the evaluators of Lumina Foundation’s CPA initiative.

As always, we welcome your thoughts on this publication.

http://www.equalmeasure.org/ideas/issue-briefs/