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How a workforce signal becomes a training decision.

PRISM is how we test a program before you invest: six hard questions, ending in a recommendation your college can inspect—and challenge.

The method is ours. The evidence is yours.

Inside the lens: how an early signal becomes a program decision

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Leading signals, not lagging data. Early signals go in; federal data keeps them honest. What comes out is a decision first—and a program when the evidence holds.

Leading signals we read: Capital projects & site permits, Economic development deals, Tech entering production, New skills surfacing in postings, Licensing & regulatory shifts, Grant & funding awards, Learner search interest. Baseline checks: Federal labor data (BLS, O*NET), Existing training supply.

  1. Element 1, Labor market: Is the demand real, and local?
  2. Element 2, Employers: Will employers hire or sponsor?
  3. Element 3, Learners: Will people enroll and finish?
  4. Element 4, Training supply: Who already teaches it nearby?
  5. Element 5, Cost & funding: What will it take to start and run?
  6. Element 6, Institutional fit: Can your college deliver it well?
  7. Element 7, Recommendation: Build, revise, or stop.
  8. Element 8, Program & course build: Built to your specs, ready to teach.

Traditional and frontier

Novelty is not the test.

The test is whether real work needs a capability existing training doesn’t provide. That can be a familiar occupation with a real regional gap, or work that broad job classifications don’t describe yet.

Not enough on its own

  • An unfamiliar job title
  • A national growth projection
  • A single expansion announcement
  • A spike in job postings

Illustrative · categories we look for, not findings

Traditional

  1. 1High-demand work with a regional training gap
  2. 2Proven programs your region doesn’t offer yet
  3. 3Credible earnings, real employer need

Frontier

  1. 4New combinations of skills
  2. 5Specialties forming inside familiar jobs
  3. 6Technology changing daily tasks
  4. 7Problems employers can’t staff around

PRISM · What we ask

One program idea. Six hard questions.

Every idea we test faces the same six. How we answer them is ours; the evidence behind each answer is yours to inspect.

Facet 1 of 6 · Labor market

Is the demand real, and local?

Whether demand in your service area is real, rising, and local, not a national headline or a one-week spike.

Six answers, one recommendation. Sometimes it’s “don’t build it.”

See the feasibility study

Worked example · Battery energy storage

From a signal to a program decision.

Hypothetical scenario — not a completed study

This scenario is constructed to show how an investigation unfolds. It contains no regional findings, employer names, or figures.

  1. 01 Scenario

    The signal

    • A utility-scale battery storage project is announced within a college’s service area.
    • Local electrical contractors begin listing storage commissioning experience in postings.

  2. 02 Questions

    What we would test

    • Which tasks the project creates—construction, commissioning, or operations—and who performs them.
    • Which credentials employers require, and what existing electrical or energy programs already cover.

  3. 03 Counterevidence

    What could rule it out

    • The operator relies on vendor or out-of-region crews.
    • Permanent operations staffing is too small to sustain open enrollment.

  4. 04 Hypothetical

    Responses it might warrant

    • An incumbent-worker module on storage safety and commissioning for licensed electricians.
    • No new program yet—revisit when the project reaches operation.

Seeing a signal like this in your region? Talk it through

Evidence boundaries

Six distinctions that change the decision.

  • A posting is not a hire.

    It signals interest. Hiring needs its own evidence.

  • Median pay is not entry pay.

    A new learner’s first wage is its own question.

  • A national trend is not regional demand.

    A broad pattern needs a local check.

  • An announcement is not a deployment.

    Projects stall, shrink, and relocate.

  • An occupation match is not funding approval.

    A funding match is not an eligibility determination; agency approval is confirmed separately.

  • Demand for workers is not demand for a course.

    Enrollment needs its own evidence.

Bring the question you need answered.

On a first call, we’ll define the decision and the evidence it needs. A written scope comes before any work begins.

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