Workforce Development Board comes out on top

Published on September 29, 2025

The Weld County Workforce Development Board (WDB) was selected by the Colorado Workforce Development Council (CWDC) as the winner of the 2025 Skills-First Local Workforce Board Challenge. This challenge invited Colorado workforce boards to develop and apply a plan for increasing awareness and adoption of skills-first hiring practices — an approach that focuses on recognizing and working with an individual’s transferrable skills and diverse experiences, rather than relying solely on their traditional credentials. Weld County’s proposal was selected as the most compelling among submissions from eight local workforce boards, earning a $10,000 grant to support the advancements of skills-first practices.

Members of the WDB have already begun implementing a skill-first hiring approach as part of the plan — and are seeing positive results.

“Finding value in soft skills and truly identifying what skills are needed for a job has opened our candidate pool during the existing labor market constraints,” said Lisa Vaughn, WDB Chair-Elect and Human Resources Director at Golden Aluminum. “Additionally, by investing in the training and development of our employees, they learn a unique manufacturing process and develop a desire to succeed and grow within our organization.”

Lisa Taylor, WDB member and Senior Program Officer at The Weld Trust, also took a different approach to job descriptions in order to expand the talent pool.

“We analyzed what skills and education were absolutely necessary with a recent position we were hiring for, and ended up modifying the educational requirement from a bachelor’s degree to a high school diploma or GED,” Taylor said. “This resulted in more applicants and the ability for us to hire based on overall work experience, transferrable skills, and stand-out traits of the individual."

These implementations are just the beginning for the plan’s rollout as Weld County employers and job seekers continue to benefit from a skills-first approach. Employers can tap into help with job description reviews, identifying opportunities to remove unnecessary degree requirements. For job seekers, workshops and individual case management will be available, to identify and articulate transferable skills.

“Through the support of skills-first hiring practices, the Weld County Workforce Development Board is leading the way in redefining how talent is recognized, and opportunity is accessed,” said Carol Salter, Weld County Workforce Director. “By focusing on what individuals can do — not just where they’ve been — we are creating a more dynamic, prepared, and future-ready workforce."

Learn more about the Weld County Workforce Development Board. To explore services that ESWC currently offers for job seekers and employers, visit www.eswc.org. 

Pictured below: Members of the Weld County Workforce Development Board receiving a grant.