An explosion of growth in San Francisco’s technology sector has fueled an acute demand for local talent. Three challenges, however, prevented the public workforce development system from fully capitalizing on the tech boom:

  • A persistent skills mismatch between those available in the labor market and those sought by employers
  • Inefficient and outdated workforce development systems challenged to match the tech sector’s breakneck pace of change
  •  The dearth of mechanisms for obtaining real-time information about available jobs and skills sought by employers

To address these challenges, the San Francisco Office of Economic and Workforce Development implemented the TechSF Workforce Innovation Partnership (TechSF), a program designed to meet the rapidly evolving needs of employers and job seekers in the information technology field.

This report describes WestEd’s evaluation of TechSF and includes:

  • Formative studies on system-level interventions
  • An outcome study of a talent development intervention designed to help local job seekers build skills for local employers’ needs
  • A cost study that examines allocation across grant activities and how leveraged funds contributed to project goals