Many small and midsized businesses seeking to change by purchasing new technology, restructuring their work processes, and/or upgrading their employees' skills require outside assistance from educational institutions (including community colleges, universities, and state literacy and training programs), nonprofit organizations, and private…

General research and anecdotal reports have confirmed that both technical and basic skills training offer many benefits to companies of all sizes. Company training can improve employee performance, firm productivity, product quality, and company profitability. Training supports "high-performance" work practices such as the following: total quality…

This document, which is intended for work force and workplace development providers, examines ways of reducing the costs of developing and delivering training to small and midsized companies. Listed first are the following strategies for cutting service costs: split the provider's development costs by delivering the same services to a number of…

The National Workforce Assistance Collaborative (NWAC) was established by the National Alliance of Business to provide assistance to community colleges and other organizations that offer programs to increase business productivity. The NWAC is charged with building the capacity of service providers that work with small and mid-sized companies in…

Small and mid-sized businesses must change their production and service delivery methods if they are to remain competitive in a global economy. According to businesspersons, service providers, and employees who participated in 18 focus groups in 10 cities throughout the United States, businesses are being forced to change their ways of doing…

This publication is designed to help service providers deliver high-quality workplace development services cost effectively to small and medium-sized businesses. The guide looks at five service delivery strategies: learning consortia, walk-in centers, distance learning, computer-based training, and trained volunteers. These five strategies offer a…