Frequently Asked Questions

What is the Advancing Community Equity and Upward Mobility (ACE-UP) Community of Practice?

Corporation for a Skilled Workforce (CSW), with support from Lumina Foundation, is convening 20-25 forward-thinking community colleges and their industry partners in a first of its-kind community of practice, Advancing Community Equity and Upward Mobility (ACE-UP). ACE-UP seeks to address growing postsecondary and labor market disparities by bringing together community college and industry leaders to design and uplift tangible strategies to align education and training, increase access to employment, and advance equitable employment outcomes for people of color. During virtual meetings, one-on-one coaching, peer mentoring, and resource sharing, community colleges and industry partners will build capacity to identify and resolve institutional and workplace equity issues using best and emerging strategies.

Through participation in ACE-UP, colleges and industry partners will:

  • Access a peer forum to work collaboratively to identify systemic challenges and create shared solutions.
  • Deepen skills and competencies to identify the drivers of outcome disparities and incubate and apply proven solutions.
  • Build capacity to collaborate and problem-solve more deeply with industry while addressing underlying equity issues.
  • Contribute to research on how the adoption of equity metrics and goals can drive policy and practice change;
  • Be part of a larger, more diverse community of college and industry leaders developing policies that advance economic opportunity for students from marginalized groups and meet the talent.

Applications for ACE-UP are open until February 29, 2024. 

What are the benefits of participating?

Participation in ACE-UP is free to you and your institution. Participants will join a national community of college and industry leaders, workforce practitioners, and content experts committed to advancing postsecondary and labor market equity. With this valuable experience participants will: 1) attend virtual meetings featuring experts with first-hand experience implementing proven equity practices and policies; 2) access tools and resources developed and deployed by peers; 3) contribute knowledge to the field on equity-centered practices in community college career programs (or community college-industry partnerships); 4) interact with peers from across the Strengthening Community Colleges network and other equity-minded institutions; 5) receive coaching and technical assistance from CSW staff that is centered around the Five Elements of Success Framework.

Applications for ACE-UP are open until February 29, 2024. 

What challenges and opportunities does ACE-UP address?

Community colleges create viable, affordable pathways for K-12 students and adult learners to access high-demand, livable wage jobs. However, outcome disparities exist based upon student socioeconomic status, race, gender, or special population status. As a result, student economic mobility is impaired, colleges struggle to realize their intended outcomes, and partner employers’ talent pipelines and bottom lines are negatively impacted. 

ACE-UP seeks to address these disparities by bringing together forward-thinking colleges and industry partners who recognize the communal benefits achieved by reducing postsecondary and labor market inequities. Through virtual meetings, peer mentoring, and resource sharing, colleges and industry partners will build capacity to help industry partners identify and resolve equity issues using best and emerging strategies that have been demonstrated to work. Key lessons learned, promising practices identified, and implementation hacks will be documented in an action guide that will be disseminated through blog, webinar, and social media.  

 

What are the goals of ACE-UP?

​As a result of participation in ACE-UP, colleges and industry partners will: 

  • Deepen skills and competencies to identify the drivers of outcome disparities and incubate and apply proven solutions 
  • Access a peer forum to work collaboratively to identify systemic challenges and create shared solutions. 
  • Build capacity to collaborate and problem-solve more deeply with industry while addressing underlying equity issues.    
  • Be part of a larger, more diverse pipeline of college and industry leaders developing policies that advance economic opportunity for students from marginalized groups and meet the talent development needs required for long-term economic competitiveness.   

What Does this Learning Opportunity Look Like?

Customized to meet the needs of participating community colleges and their industry partners, ACE-UP is led by experts at Corporation for a Skilled Workforce, alongside nationally recognized researchers, professionals, and practitioners to support member learning. ACE-UP will involve a series of bi-monthly workshops, as well as coaching and technical assistance sessions. Participants will work with peer community college and industry partners from across the country, gain exposure, employ practical planning tools, and reflect on and plan for applying the principles that underlie effective strategies at their colleges and industry partner workplaces. Ultimately, participating institutions will leave ACE-UP with an actionable plan to implement at their institutions.

What are the Learning Themes?

Five themes underpin the ACE-UP learning experience. Drawing on a spiraling curriculum design, these themes emerge and re-emerge over the course of the community of practice. While some sessions will focus primarily on one theme, we will touch on additional themes across the 10 virtual sessions. Themes include:  

  1. Advancing Institutionalized Equity: Develop tools and strategies that identify and address equity gaps that directly or indirectly impact labor market access and outcomes for underrepresented and marginalized populations.
  2. Aligning Policy & Practices: Align, apply and connect with business policies and initiatives to better student/job seeker/incumbent worker and employer conditions that support improved longer-term outcomes.
  3. Cultivating Employer Partnerships: Engage employers in providing insights into industry and workforce needs; collaborate on design, implementation, and investment of resources; provide value added connections and resources; apply and provide feedback on equitable programs, strategies, and practices; and develop longer-term relationships that go beyond customer to strategic partner.
  4. Enhancing Student Services: Design and employ an interconnected continuum of processes and services that enables effective recruitment of targeted populations; assesses the needs of each individual; delivers training to prepare participants for work in quality jobs; coordinate job development and job placement services to match the skills of participants with the requirements of employers; and, collaborate with a range of partners to provide supportive services to address barriers to job retention and advancement.
  5. Making Data-Driven Decisions: Effectively utilize disaggregated data related to labor market, industry and occupational trends, program assessment and learner outcomes to inform and guide key decisions regarding program investments, planning, implementation, and improvements.

What is the learning experience?

ACE-UP will provide a forum for colleges to step back from their day-to-day experiences to reflect and learn together to develop stronger connections and build trust. As a part of ACE-UP, colleges can expect: 

  • Intentional community building and a focus on peer-to-peer learning. 
  • Workshops with national expert practitioners whose knowledge and hands-on experience advancing workplace equity will support industry partners in engaging with broader talent pools and creating more inclusive workplace environments. 
  • Tools and exercises to increase the capacity and responsiveness of community colleges to close equity gaps in addressing the skill development needs of workers and employers.  
  • Identification and dissemination of accelerated learning strategies that support student development, rapid reskilling, and employment in targeted industries. 

Who is Eligible to Participate?

Public or private not-for-profit community colleges, historically Black community colleges, Hispanic-serving community colleges, and/or tribal community colleges, and their industry partners. ACE-UP seeks to convene a diverse array of community colleges, both large and small, rural and urban, and those with a focus on a wide array of industries. Industry partners can include employers, industry trade associations, and/or organized labor.

What is Required for Participation?

Community college applicants must indicate the names and roles of 3-5 staff who will participate in ACE- UP activities, indicating the departments they represent (workforce development, advising, student services, academics, institutional research, and/or other they believe have a role to contribute to this work). Each institution must name a team lead who will serve as the primary point of contact and will attend all activities as part of this community of practice. Additionally, the names and roles of industry partners, representing employers, industry/trade associations, and/or labor unions should be included, if available. Applicants selected to participate in ACE-UP must commit to:

  • Attending and actively participating in 7-12 virtual meetings between March 2024 and June 2025
  • Attending the ACE-UP in-person meeting convening in Washington D.C. in June 2024 (two representatives from each institution will be funded to attend)
  • Selecting and piloting applicable strategies with industry partners while documenting key lessons learned, successes, and
  • Contributing resources and tools for the purpose of supporting peer implementation, and, later, systems-level
  • Providing regular, ongoing feedback to help inform meeting content, subject matter expert selection, and CSW’s technical assistance and coaching strategy.
  • Participating in webinars uplifting key lessons learned and strategies piloted, for the purpose of advancing equitable practices
  • Working with researchers from The Urban Institute who will conduct virtual interviews with staff from selected institutions, review documents, and available aggregate data, to inform case studies and CoP

Is There a Cost to Participate?

ACE-UP is free.  

Can I apply to become a member of ACE-UP?

Yes, applications are open until March 14, 2024 (formerly February 29, 2024). You can download the application here.

Register for More Information

Interested in joining the ACE-UP Community of Practice or just learning more about the project? Register for more information and we’ll be in touch.

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ACE-UP is a creation of Corporation for a Skilled Workforce (CSW). To learn more about CSW and their role in catalyzing change in educational and labor market systems to increase economic mobility, particularly for people of color and others historically excluded from success, visit their website at www.skilledwork.org