Governor’s Leading Innovative Skills First Networks 

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In the Fall of 2025, the NGA Center will launch the next phase of Skills in the States—expanding the initiative beyond public-sector adoption to foster a robust learning community of public and private sector leaders committed to implementing skills-first hiring and talent management strategies, in collaboration with Business Roundtable. This phase will strengthen alignment between state and territory governments (as employers), private sector businesses, workforce development organizations, and education providers, creating opportunities to: 

• Identify key occupational and skills alignment across sectors, using data-driven approaches to track shortages in critical roles and ensure workforce development systems are responsive to economic needs.
• Develop standardized data and impact measurement tools to gauge effectiveness, improve scalability, and demonstrate the value of skills-first approaches.
• Address policy and operational barriers by creating frameworks for stronger public-private partnerships, modernizing credentialing, and fostering innovation in skills validation. 
• Integrate underleveraged talent pipelines—such as the military connected community and other underleveraged sources of skilled talent—into public sector strategies through improved skills assessment and recruitment practices. 
• Provide tailored technical assistance to help states and territories design, implement, and scale skills-first strategies that build long-term infrastructure and capacity. 

By fostering cross-sector collaboration, standardizing impact measurement, and supporting implementation, Skills in the States will accelerate the national skills-first movement, creating more inclusive, effective, and sustainable workforce systems

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Skills In The States Community Of Practice

States in purple are participating in the Community Of Practice, click on states tinted yellow or outlined in yellow for policy information.

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Skills-First Resources

Skills-First Training & Resource Sites

• SHRM Foundation’s Skills-First Future Website
• C-BEN’s Partnership for Skills Validation Resource Center
• Jobs for the Future’s Skillful Talent Series

Skills-First Toolkits & Playbooks

•  Skills-Based Hiring & Recruitment : Washington State Office of Financial Management
• Skills-Based Policy & Hiring Toolkit: Commonwealth of Massachusetts
• Skills-Based Hiring Toolkit- Lightcast
• Skills-Based Sourcing & Hiring Playbook-Jobs for the Future

Case Studies & Reports

• Analysis of Talent Acquisition Pilot: Puerto Rico
• FSG: Best Practices For Developing A Skills-Based Culture
• The Boston Consulting Group: Understanding the Real Causes of Government Worker Burnout and How States Can Address it
• Grads of Life: State of the Business Case for Skills-First Talent Management
• Grads of Life: Skills-First Change Management
• US Chamber Foundation: New Data Paradigm

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National Skills Advisory Council

The NGA Center has convened a group of national partners to advise and assist with the curation of the curriculum for the community of practice. NGA Center staff, along with a faculty of subject matter experts and practitioners, will provide ongoing support through expert-led webinars, collaborative peer learning, and targeted technical assistance to participating state teams throughout the project.

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For questions, or to learn more about this work, contact Program Director Amanda Winters (awinters@nga.org) or Project Manager Sytease Geib (sgeib@nga.org).