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Day two at Rx for the Health Care Workforce, and the goal today is to think about the way the 90 leaders here—representing employers, labor, government, philanthropy, and the nonprofit sectors—think about scale up and sustainability. In other words, public policy.

The opportunity is great: as yesterday showed, future investments in building a skilled health care workforce can draw on many promising models from the education and workforce development sectors—on the job, in higher education, and in our communities.

Today is the start of a two-day meeting that both draws on the experience of the National Fund for Workforce Solutions and could provide important suggestions on how the Fund and its affiliates could move forward on a policy agenda to help low-wage employees succeed and businesses compete. Called Rx for the Health Care Workforce, the meeting’s goal is to address a central challenge to the potential of the nation’s health care system to deliver affordable, accessible care: the need for a skilled health care workforce, particularly on the front lines of care.

We’ve often said that what may be most unique about the National Fund for Workforce Solutions is how many national, regional, and local funders have joined together to help employees succeed and businesses compete.

To paraphrase Winston Churchill, at few other times in our economic history have so many counted on so few.

The National Fund for Workforce Solutions could best be thought of as an enabler of solutions. The foundations, along with the U.S. Department of Labor, that started the National Fund sought to learn how promising practices for preparing workers for careers could be taken to scale nationwide.

To do that, they relied on the creativity and entrepreneurial drive of local funders, employers, community-based organizations, and organized labor nationwide. A new report tells us that the National Fund sites are, indeed, redefining approaches to workforce development.

A persistent challenge at large urban hospitals is retaining frontline workers. From lab techs to nurses, these employees are invaluable to a hospital’s operation, but we have failed in offering a critical incentive to retaining and training these workers: a career path. Can investments in career path programs yield tangible bottom line results for the hospital? Can such investments yield career paths for workers who once had none? If done the right way, workforce investments can accomplish both goals.