Next Level Now
Providing technical assistance to boost workforce performance & innovation.
About
Next Level Now
The Next Level Now (NLN) Technical Assistance (TA) Collaborative provides short- and long-term TA to strengthen the public workforce system at the state and local levels. In partnership with the Employment and Training Administration (ETA), NLN supports Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) Title I programs, the Wagner-Peyser Employment Service program, and required one-stop partners.
NLN’s TA is guided by the five pillars of America’s Talent Strategy:
- Industry-Driven Strategies
- Worker Mobility
- Integrated Systems
- Accountability
- Flexibility and Innovation
NLN helps states and local areas strengthen workforce system effectiveness, performance, and efficiency by supporting strategies tailored to local needs. TA is delivered through peer learning, webinars, coaching, and virtual resources to help workforce entities provide high-quality services, meet the needs of job seekers and employers, and comply with federal requirements.
NLN operates through a cooperative agreement with the U.S. Department of Labor’s ETA. It is led by the American Institutes for Research (AIR) and supported by national partners, including the National Association of State Workforce Agencies (NASWA) and Social Policy Research Associates (SPR). Together, these organizations bring expertise, resources, and networks to develop and share TA products and services that improve system alignment and drive meaningful change.
Focus Areas
The Next Level Now Collaborative (NLNC) community will deliver strategic, short- and long-term technical assistance in five focus areas.
Building reliable talent pipelines through an industry‑led workforce system aligned with America’s economic priorities. This focus area emphasizes strong employer engagement, sector‑based partnerships, and data‑informed talent development strategies that respond to in‑demand and emerging occupations—connecting workers to quality jobs while helping businesses meet current and future workforce needs.
Bringing more Americans into the labor force and helping them advance through targeted strategies that support worker mobility and career progression. This focus area highlights approaches to engage disconnected workers, improve career navigation, align credentials with industry demand, reduce barriers to training and licensure, and use technology and labor market data to connect individuals to opportunity.
Ensuring federally funded workforce programs deliver measurable results by aligning workforce, education, and partner programs around shared outcomes. This focus area emphasizes integrated governance, funding, service delivery, and data systems that reduce fragmentation, strengthen performance accountability, and link public investments to clear results for jobseekers and employers.
Replacing fragmented and duplicative workforce programs with a streamlined, coordinated system that delivers unified services and measurable results. This focus area emphasizes strong grants administration, fiscal and performance discipline, and effective monitoring and reporting to ensure federally funded workforce investments are well‑managed, accountable, and clearly linked to outcomes for workers and employers.
Creating new models of workforce innovation designed to match the speed and scale of AI‑driven economic transformation. This focus area highlights WIOA flexibilities, waivers, and evidence‑based innovations that improve service delivery and outcomes, including emerging efforts to build foundational AI skills and literacy, and examples of how states are applying policy flexibility to modernize the workforce system.