Metrics Academies
Designing for Economic Mobility
Through Data
A Partnership of NASH's Center for Data & Analytics and WestEd's Center for Economic Mobility
Empowering Educators with Labor Market Insights
The Metrics Academies, a partnership between NASH and WestEd's Center for Economic Mobility, empowers faculty and staff to leverage labor market information to inform academic planning, advising, and align degrees with workforce needs.
The academies engage participating NASH member systems through state-specific, in-person convenings. Our primary objective is to provide educational practitioners with the ability to utilize labor market data effectively. This will enable them to generate practical insights that positively impact students' economic mobility.
WestEd’s Center for Economic Mobility is helping to build a world in which everyone can support themselves and their families and build thriving communities. They do so by transforming education and training systems to better serve students and workers.
The WestEd team conducts research and evaluation, develops resources, and provides technical assistance. Through analyzing regional labor markets, they identify ways to strengthen education pathways and connect people in low-wage jobs to skilled employment. Rather than tackle problems at one institution at a time, they strengthen connections between education and workforce organizations, employers, regional partnerships, and state agencies. Their learner-centered approach helps our partners understand program impacts, change policies and practices, and implement shared strategic priorities.
What Participants Will Gain & Experience
Participants in the Metrics Academies will benefit from a comprehensive professional development experience and will leave with:
- An understanding of how to access, interpret, and apply labor market and employment data. This knowledge can strengthen enrollment, map college programs to living wage jobs, and support students in articulating their job-ready skills.
- Customized handouts and interactive dashboards featuring college, system, and state-specific data.
- Replicable frameworks for using data to identify opportunities, set priorities, and design student-centered strategies.
- Skills in data literacy and facilitating data-informed conversations.
- Action plans for using labor market information to improve student outcomes.
Why It Matters
In today's rapidly changing economy, labor market information, which includes insights into employer needs, available job openings, projected growth, median earnings, and requisite skills, is crucial. While traditionally used in limited cases like program reLink, this information is an invaluable resource across a wide range of functions within postsecondary institutions and systems when approached with intention and guidance.
The Metrics Academies equip leaders, practitioners, and faculty to interpret this data, combine it with other educational information, and apply it tangibly within their contexts. By aligning education to the workforce, the Academies ultimately help institutions stay relevant, responsive, and impactful.