Workforce Leadership Lab 2026

You may find the Workforce Leadership Lab useful if you want to grow professionally but aren’t completely sure what your next step should be. You may already have career goals and want more experience. You may want to become more comfortable speaking up, collaborating, or taking responsibility for a project. You may want to meet employers and community leaders outside your current network.

Or you may simply know that you’re ready for something new.

You don’t need a leadership title to participate. You do need to be willing to show up, work with other people, follow through on commitments, and contribute to the experience.

Leadership gets stronger through practice.

That’s why the Workforce Leadership Lab gives you opportunities to communicate, make decisions, solve problems, work through challenges, and contribute to projects with other people. The 15 weeks are organized into three phases. Each phase asks a little more of you.

Weeks 1–5

Build the Team

The first five weeks focus on understanding yourself, your goals, and the people you’ll be learning alongside.

You’ll explore your leadership identity, build relationships with your cohort, learn more about your community, and identify areas where you want to grow.

You’ll also complete an Individual Learning Project connected to your career and professional development.

By the end of this phase, you’ll have clearer goals and a stronger foundation for working with others.

Weeks 6–10

Build Capacity

During the next five weeks, the focus shifts to collaboration.

You’ll join a small team and begin a Mini Team Project.

That means figuring out how to turn an idea into a plan, divide responsibilities, communicate when something changes, make decisions together, and keep moving when a project gets complicated.

Along the way, you’ll practice:

• Communication

• Teamwork

• Project planning

• Problem-solving

• Shared decision-making

• Accountability

These are skills employers value, but they’re also skills you develop by using them with real people in real situations.

Weeks 11–15

Build Impact

The final phase brings the cohort together around a Community Leadership Project.

You’ll work with others to identify a need, develop a response, carry out the project, and document what happened.

Depending on the project, your team might organize a community event, create workforce resources, develop a digital campaign, facilitate a workshop, build an online resource, or take on another project shaped by community priorities.

Projects may take place in person, online, or through a hybrid format.

Your team will have a goal to reach, people depending on one another, decisions to make, and something tangible to show for the work.

There isn’t one project that every participant has to complete.

Projects are shaped by community needs, participant interests, learning goals, and how people are able to participate.

Community Impact

You might help:

• Organize a neighborhood clean-up

• Host a career resource fair

• Coordinate a clothing or food drive

• Facilitate a workshop

• Support a community volunteer event

Resource Development

You might help:

• Create interview preparation guides

• Research local career resources

• Build an employer directory

• Develop multilingual workforce materials

• Create participant toolkits or resource guides

Digital Leadership

You might help:

• Create career tip videos

• Help manage a community newsletter

• Develop a social media campaign

• Build an online resource hub

• Facilitate virtual peer support

The project may change as your team learns more. You may also combine ideas from different pathways when that produces a stronger response to the need you’re addressing.

The program works best when participants can depend on one another.

That means showing up consistently and taking responsibility for your part of the work.

Participants are expected to:

• Attend the weekly 90-minute Leadership Lab session

• Complete learning and project activities outside of class

• Participate in discussions, workshops, and guest speaker sessions

• Work respectfully with teammates, facilitators, partners, and community members

• Complete assigned learning activities

• Contribute to project milestones and team responsibilities

• Complete the individual, team, and community project experiences

• Participate in the Leadership Showcase

You won’t be expected to figure everything out on your own.

Facilitators and partners will be there to provide instruction, coaching, feedback, connections, and project support throughout the experience.

Some of the most useful opportunities begin with a conversation.

Throughout the Lab, participants may connect with employers, workforce organizations, technology partners, educators, nonprofit organizations, community leaders, mentors, and other participants.

A guest speaker might introduce you to a field you hadn’t considered.

A project partner might help you see where your skills are strongest.

A teammate might become part of your professional network.

An employer might see how you communicate and contribute before you ever submit a résumé.

The program creates the setting for those connections. 

What grows from them will depend in part on how you participate.