Rural America faces numerous challenges in building a high-wage, high-skilled workforce. Many rural communities are establishing workforce development networks that promote linkages across organizations and communities to more efficiently integrate and deliver a variety of services. Drawing on case studies from rural areas of the United States, the authors identify three different patterns of organizing workforce development networks: the sole provider, the hub-spoke, and the cluster oriented. In comparing the case studies, they find that place matters as much as form of organization in the ability to promote employer participation.
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