About This Resource

This session was part of the 2025 Enhancing Workforce Success: Strategies for Lasting and Inclusive Employment CE Week series

Series Overview

This Continuing Education Week is designed to equip employment social enterprises and workforce development leaders with practical strategies to drive participant employees’ success. 

Throughout the series we will cover key topics related to this success journey, from skills development to long-term economic mobility. Each session will focus on both program development and operational implementation. And, along the way, we will provide tools to strengthen workforce programs and support employee growth. 

Topics include:

• Defining employee success for focus populations and applying human-centered design principles to the participant employee experience
• Equipping participant employees with skills, credentials, and support to attain high-quality employment
• Creating strategies for a supportive and engaging workplace that fosters participant employee growth and retention
• Establishing a strong workforce foundation by identifying core strengths and then key partnerships for strategic collaboration

This series is designed for employment social enterprise leaders, and more specifically, workforce development professionals, program managers, and HR teams seeking to enhance outcomes for their participant employees.

Session Description

This engaging and interactive session explores the foundational elements of building a strong and sustainable workforce program by identifying your organization’s core strengths and aligning them with a strategic partnership ecosystem. You will learn how to map a partnership ecosystem, identify key channels, stakeholders, and collaborative opportunities that drive long-term impact.

By examining real-world examples and practical frameworks, you will have roadmap for developing strategic partnerships that enhance workforce program effectiveness, scalability, and sustainability.

Speaker:
This session is facilitated by Melanie Akwule, Founder & CEO of Minwo. Melanie brings expertise in workforce development, strategic partnerships, and capacity-building strategies that support sustainable impact. 

Session Goals & Key Takeaways:
By the end of the session, you will have:

• Identified your organization’s core strengths in workforce development
• The start of a strategic partnership ecosystem map that aligns with your workforce program goals
• Explored key stakeholders, funding opportunities, and collaborative channels that enhance program sustainability
• Developed an actionable roadmap for building and strengthening partnerships that drive long-term success

This session is ideal for:

• Workforce program leaders looking to expand strategic partnerships
• ESE staff responsible for program growth, sustainability, and stakeholder engagement
• Organizational leaders interested in leveraging partnerships for impact and scalability

Below is the session recording and accompanying materials

About Minwo

MINWO Inc. was created to make entrepreneurship tangible for socially and economically disadvantaged individuals (SEDI), with a specific focus on Black founders. We leverage the deep domain expertise we’ve gained from working with Black businesses over the last decade and the technology we’ve built to enable innovation ecosystems to practice culturally informed business development with their multicultural communities. They are experts in culturally reformed: capacity building, access to networks, access to funding, business development, ecosystem design, and product development.