2025 Workforce Development Nerds Conference Recap

We connected. We conferenced. We survived the dear leader's birthday parade.

Image Description: A group of seven Massachusetts Association for People Supporting Employment First Board Members and friends pose for a photo in front of a marble and glass hotel staircase. I had the privilege of presenting with Kirsten Fink, first to my left, and Elyse Forbush, second to my left. They are both amazing, but don’t tell them that I told you.

Just completed my third APSE national conference. It is always a privilege to join with over 600 workforce development, policy, and advocacy professionals who are pursuing a more equitable workforce and world.

My key takeaways from the conference.

1. Everyone is obsessed with AI. I realize that AI tools are useful. I started by using them to make my grant responses fit within word limits and by this trip I was using ChatGPT to help me locate the best public transit route from my Air B & B to the conference center. However, very few people appear to be thinking deeply about the ethical implications of AI. I am primarily worried about the climate impacts, but there are all other kinds of concerns about copyright, individual privacy, and the marginalization of a less educated workforce. I think that the use of these tools is inevitable, but to promote the tools without a robust discussion of their cost seems foolish.

2. JVS Boston is doing something unique with our array of transition services. We presented on the array of services that we have developed for 14 to 29 year olds at the conference. I don’t think that anything we are doing is rocket science. All of our practices are things that I have done at some level or another since the mid-2010s. But sequencing the career development programs together, where students can get age appropriate career supports as early as age 14 and can utilize those supports either to launch out into jobs, careers, or more independent lives at any point - or return to JVS or our key partners like House of Possibilities or Run the Gamut for additional career services or independent living supports at any point - is unique.

3. The framework of our services is strong, but the tools we utilize in our programs need to be strengthened. I attended a session on Individual Placement and Support, which is an approach that was designed primarily for people with mental health conditions, and came away convinced that their tools could also benefit career seekers who other diverse disabilities.

I like to cut new ground and explore new frameworks, but the intelligent thing for me to do at this time is follow Cal Newport’s advice to do fewer things so that we can focus relentlessly on quality. Our few things include introductions to work during at age 14 and 15, providing on-site skill training at employers and placement services to students before high school exit, and working with adults throughout their lives to advance their careers. In pursuit of quality, we’ve developed placement scoreboards, staff productivity metrics, and even a career coaching guidebook. We need to continue strengthening these tools, developing new approaches, and carefully implementing these tactics so that our staff - who work so very hard - can consistently deliver excellent career services.

I think that our leadership team can focus more on developing, testing, improving, and training staff on tools that will strengthen our vital work.

4. I think that it is more important than ever to see our work as a pursuit of social justice. It was shocked when I learned recently, listening to a series of essays that focus on the life and work of Bayard Rustin, that three of the ten core demands of the March on Washington focused on meaningful and equitable work for people with disabilities. I was so encouraged that one of the foundations of the civil rights movement from which is the disability rights learned so much was the strident demand for equal employment opportunities. Since Dr. King was killed while supporting striking sanitation workers who were seeking a fair wage, you would think that this connection between economic justice and the civil rights movement would be soldered into my heart. But it has not been. Like so many, I suspect, I tend to look at the development and growth of race and identity groups separately from those groups pursuit of economic opportunity and sustainability. I need to have a stronger understanding of the deep relationship between people’s diverse identities and their economic agency.

We are moving in the right direction, but we have a long way to go. Hoping to find the grace to continue this long journey in the same direction.

This post was not produced by AI. Now, click all the squares with streetlights to prove you are a human.