From Fragmented Funding to Strategic Investment: A Moment of Opportunity for Hawaiʻi’s Workforce Future

Why now is the time for Hawaiʻi to act boldly on workforce investment

Over the next decade, more than 167,000 young people in Hawaiʻi will enter the workforce. Whether they are able to find meaningful, well-supported career pathways—or face limited options that force them to leave their home communities—depends on the choices we make today. In our From Crisis to Opportunity report, we outlined the stakes: a generational challenge that demands coordinated investment and long-term vision.

The good news is that momentum is already building. Across Hawaiʻi, public and private partners are aligning around the vision set forth in the State Unified Plan, led by the Workforce Development Council. Sector partnerships are expanding, new earn-and-learn models are emerging, and community-based leaders are stepping up to co-design solutions. But if we want to turn this progress into lasting change, we need better information to guide our efforts.

To support that need, the newly released 2023 Hawaiʻi Workforce Funding Review was commissioned through the Hawaiʻi Workforce Funders Collaborative’s Pooled Impact Fund and developed in partnership with the Workforce Development Council and SR Partners. It offers a starting point—a shared baseline to better understand how workforce dollars are currently being spent, where the gaps lie, and what it will take to build a system that truly works for Hawaiʻi’s people.

What the Workforce Funding Review Tells Us

The 2023 Hawaiʻi Workforce Funding Review offers the most comprehensive snapshot of workforce development spending that we’ve had in years. It reveals that over $1.3 billion in federal workforce-related funding reached Hawaiʻi in Calendar Year 2023. These funds supported a wide array of programs—including job training, work-based learning, support services like transportation and child care, and education initiatives preparing students for future careers.

This level of investment reflects the seriousness with which Hawaiʻi’s public and private sectors are working to build opportunity. At the same time, the report highlights structural limitations that make it difficult to fully understand where workforce dollars are going—or whether they’re aligned to our state’s most pressing priorities. Inconsistent definitions, unaligned reporting structures, and fragmented accounting and data systems can make it challenging to assess how efforts connect and where gaps still remain.

These challenges are not new, and they’re not unique to Hawaiʻi. But by surfacing them now—in the context of growing cross-sector collaboration—we have a chance to collectively strengthen the infrastructure that underpins our workforce investments. This report offers a foundation for shared learning and action.

What This Moment Demands

The Workforce Funding Review reinforces what many partners across Hawaiʻi already know: our state is making serious investments in workforce development, and the commitment to collaboration is real. But while the dollars are flowing, and good work is happening on the ground, we still lack the connective infrastructure to see the whole picture—or to ensure that our collective efforts add up to long-term impact.

This isn’t about blame—it’s about opportunity. The From Crisis to Opportunity report reminds us that we face a generational imperative: to ensure the next wave of workers—our children, our neighbors, our future leaders—can build thriving lives and careers here at home. The groundwork for this is already being laid. The State Unified Plan has created a strong foundation for alignment. Sector partnerships are growing in both reach and depth. And communities are actively co-designing solutions that reflect local values and priorities.

What’s needed now is intentional investment in the infrastructure of coordination—in the systems, relationships, and shared data that allow great work to scale and sustain. This report doesn’t just highlight where gaps exist; it lifts up where momentum is building and offers a shared resource to help guide the next chapter of system-building in Hawaiʻi.

What We Can Do Next

The Workforce Funding Review offers not only a snapshot of where we are—but also a starting point for where we can go together. Many of the conditions needed for progress already exist: cross-sector trust, aligned intentions, and a growing commitment to system-building. What’s needed now is intentional investment in the infrastructure of coordination—the policies, data systems, and shared practices that help great work scale and align.

Building on what’s already in motion, here are five opportunities to strengthen Hawaiʻi’s workforce system:

1. Co-create shared definitions and accounting practices for workforce development.
   A shared definition of “workforce development” and consistent accounting practices across agencies would improve our collective ability to track, align, and evaluate investments. Developing a uniform workforce accounting code—starting at the state level—could make future mapping efforts easier and more precise.

2. Support a dedicated workforce data function and interagency working group.
   The passage of SB 742 in June 2025 created the Cross-Agency Data Governance Working Group, laying the foundation for stronger coordination across state data systems. This group is well-positioned to play a leadership role in convening the right stakeholders, surfacing actionable use cases, and unlocking insights from workforce-related data. Embedding workforce priorities into this statewide effort—not creating a parallel process—will help ensure that solutions are scalable, aligned, and built for long-term impact.

3. Leverage WIOA reauthorization to expand access to workforce data.
   As Congress considers updates to the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA), Hawaiʻi has an opportunity to align with national recommendations that would strengthen data access, infrastructure, and capacity. Importantly, all four Catalyst Teams charged with operationalizing Hawaiʻi’s State Unified Plan have identified the need for better data as a top priority—both to inform strategic decision-making and to align cross-agency efforts. WIOA funds should be used not only to support direct services, but also to build the longitudinal data systems, cross-agency linkages, and analytic capacity needed to guide more effective and equitable workforce investments.

4. Lay the groundwork for a coordinated, long-term workforce investment strategy.
   As Hawaiʻi looks to the future, there is a growing recognition that workforce investments must be more than reactive—they must be strategic, aligned, and generational in scope. The need for a shared investment framework is becoming increasingly clear. This direction builds on a key recommendation from the From Crisis to Opportunity report: that Hawaiʻi must develop a long-term plan to align workforce funding across sectors and partners, grounded in shared goals and responsive to future economic shifts.

   Just as important as aligning investments is the need to establish shared metrics of success and a consistent place to understand whether we are moving the needle—and where more investment may be needed. Laying this foundation now will help ensure that future efforts are not only well-resourced, but also trackable, transparent, and responsive to the real needs of workers, learners, and employers across the state.

5. Invite philanthropy and employers as co-investors in long-term system-building.
   Nine philanthropic foundations are already working together through the Hawaiʻi Workforce Funders Collaborative to align investments, share learning, and support long-term system change. Their leadership has helped catalyze innovative models and advance sector-based strategies across the state. As the scale of Hawaiʻi’s workforce opportunity grows, so does the need for additional aligned investment. We invite other funders—local, national, and place-based—to join this collaborative effort and help resource the infrastructure that makes programs successful: data systems, navigator networks, culturally grounded supports, and shared measurement tools.

   Employers also have a critical role to play. In addition to investing in their own workforce pipelines, employers can support system-wide solutions—such as work-based learning partnerships, inclusive hiring practices, and cross-sector alignment efforts—that strengthen the entire ecosystem. Building a future-ready workforce will require shared investment and shared accountability across philanthropy, industry, government, and community.

A Call to Action

While the Workforce Funding Review offers the most detailed view available today of workforce-related funding in Hawaiʻi, it also reflects the limitations of our current data systems. Inconsistent definitions, siloed reporting, and incomplete visibility across agencies make it difficult to fully assess whether investments are equitably distributed or strategically aligned. We share this as an initial baseline—a tool to spark inquiry, not a final answer.

To that end, we invite you to use this report alongside the From Crisis to Opportunity report. Together, these resources can help guide bold, collaborative investment strategies. From Crisis to Opportunity outlines a clear vision of what needs to be built—a set of shared recommendations across stakeholders and sectors. The Workforce Funding Review, in turn, helps illuminate what funding exists today, where it’s concentrated, and where critical gaps remain. Cross-referencing the two can help identify where current resources align with future goals—and where new investment, policy change, or infrastructure is needed.

As we look ahead to a future shaped by economic shifts and generational transition, we have an opportunity to act with greater purpose. We invite funders, agencies, employers, and community partners to use this baseline to shape the next chapter of workforce transformation in Hawaiʻi—grounded in transparency, shared responsibility, and a deep commitment to equity and place.