WPTI Learning Labs: A New Model for Deeper Learning and Impact

By Justin Collins, Senior Director, Programs

At WPTI we’ve been reflecting on an important question: How can we deliver learning and professional development that helps workforce practitioners not only build new skills, but put them into practice to better serve jobseekers in a rapidly changing labor market?

One answer has been a new approach to professional development: WPTI’s Learning Labs.

Learning Labs are intensive, in-person, cohort-based experiences that bring together teams of workforce professionals to build knowledge, learn from peers, and develop practical strategies they can take back to their organizations. Rather than one-time trainings, Learning Labs create space for deeper learning, collaboration, and action around some of the most pressing issues facing the workforce field.

We launched the model in fall 2025 with our inaugural AI Learning Lab, a four-session, 16-hour program exploring how AI is reshaping the economy, labor market, and workforce practice, as well as how AI-powered tools can be used safely and ethically. The cohort included 33 professionals from 12 organizations, with teams intentionally including both managers and frontline staff so they could apply what they learned across their organizations.

Our winter 2026 Green Jobs Learning Lab brought together 11 nonprofit providers, government agencies, and post-secondary institutions to explore the green economy, emerging career pathways, and strategies for connecting jobseekers to opportunities in the sector.

We followed these programs with a second AI Learning Lab and two Industry Champions Learning Labs for Summer Youth Employment Program providers developing sector-focused placements in healthcare and business and finance. Offered on behalf of NYC Public Schools and the NYC Department of Youth and Community Development, the Learning Labs explored labor market trends, career pathways, in-demand skills, and effective employer engagement.

This summer, we also launched our first in-person Business Engagement Learning Lab (BELL), adapting a virtual program WPTI has offered since 2022 into four intensive sessions combining 16 hours of programming with action planning and organization-specific coaching.

Why Learning Labs?

Across these programs, we see the benefits of this deeper, team-based approach. Participants aren't simply listening to presentations. They are working alongside colleagues, learning from practitioners at other organizations, applying concepts to real challenges, and developing concrete plans for what they will do differently.

The in-person format also creates opportunities for informal conversations and relationship-building that can be difficult to replicate virtually. We have seen strong attendance and engagement, increased collaboration across organizations, and 

more robust, practical action plans.

Now, we want to know whether those changes translate into better results.

Beginning with our summer 2026 BELL cohort, WPTI is collecting baseline data and will follow up with participants in the months after the program. We want to understand whether participants put what they learned into practice, whether organizational practices change, and ultimately whether those changes contribute to better outcomes for jobseekers.

Professional development should do more than transfer knowledge. It should help organizations change what they do and improve the results they achieve.

That is the standard we will use to measure the Learning Lab model’s success and advance WPTI’s ultimate goal: helping workforce organizations become stronger and more effective so more people can access and retain good jobs.

Interested in learning more or participating in an upcoming Learning Lab? Contact Justin Collins, Senior Director of Programs, at jcollins@wpti.org.