Institutions are under pressure to move beyond transactional training and become strategic talent partners aligned to workforce outcomes. The focus is on building agile, employer-driven ecosystems that turn demand signals into stackable credentials, sustainable revenue and long-term relevance. In this interview, Eloy Chavez discusses the shift from selling courses to owning employer talent strategies and designing stackable, branded credentials that evolve with workforce needs.
The EvoLLLution (Evo): How can colleges move from one-off corporate training to more long-term employer talent partnerships?
Eloy Chavez (EC): It is a shift that has to happen. Colleges must stop selling classes and courses. They need to start owning talent outcomes strategies with employers—agencies, businesses, whoever they’re serving. You don’t start with a course catalog. Everybody has a catalog. You start with workforce problems. What are they struggling with? Retention, safety, supervisor readiness, productivity, compliance, customer outcomes… What are the business outcomes they want directly?
That takes a cadence, a joint governance cadence. Establish a talent council. Build the relationship. If you’re going to provide talent strategies and skill-building workshops, you have to be good at what you sell and stand by your service level and your brand. It’s like building an ecosystem—a learning environment that employers want to keep returning to. Not just good. Great. Reliable. A true regional talent partner.
Evo: What does it take from a credential standpoint to design a stackable credential that employers will constantly reuse?
EC: You’re looking at brand. You have to establish branded credential pathways, so employers can stack one on top of the other. You might start with one idea from a business or an agency. For us, that’s been criminal justice and law enforcement. We work at the state level, local level, even across state lines. You start with one class, one outcome, but inside that are two, three, maybe four skill-based learning outcomes. You deliver on that outcome, then you break it apart—level one, level two, level three. That builds the stackable credential. Our crime scene investigation program has four levels, then a full certificate that ladders into credit hours toward a criminal justice degree.
It’s cobranded. It builds relationship and trust. And it can’t be static. It has to be fluid. You stack it, but you also refresh it—because the real world changes, and readiness has to change with it.
Evo: How can employer demand signals be translated into more sustainable programs and revenue growth?
EC: Through advisory councils, first and foremost. You have to capture demand signals systematically. That’s workforce data, job postings, promotional bottlenecks, compliance requirements, even layoff shifts. Read, read, read. I tell my staff all the time: Feed me the input so we know what the signals are. Signals aren’t trends. Trends take time. Signals are immediate. If you’re driving and see a stop sign, that’s a signal you respond to right then. If you don’t pay attention, you get run over by the competition.
We’re in a revenue-producing world. We don’t just enroll students. We enroll companies. So, we build what I call a flywheel—employer training, credential completion, tuition assistance, degree pathways, continuous upskilling. It keeps spinning. It doesn’t stop. And if you’re going to be an on-demand university provider, you have to move with those signals in real time.
Evo: How do you structure employer partnerships and program models, so they’re both financially sustainable and agile enough to respond to changing workforce needs?
EC: It is a juggling act. I think of that old Ed Sullivan act—sticks eight feet high with plates spinning on top. That’s what this feels like. I’ve got courses, talent development, employer needs and budgets all spinning at once, and you have to keep them moving with precision.
To balance mission and margin, we build cohort-based subscriptions—annual or biannual agreements where an employer pays a set amount and we deliver training. We keep open enrollment ready because you never know when a company calls and says, “We need upskilling now.” We have to be able to say yes. Apprenticeships, work-based learning, hybrids—those models scale. Cobranded academies and revenue-sharing partnerships create sustainability. But here’s the bottom line: Every program has to produce revenue. If it doesn’t meet margin, we cut it and move on. We have to stay fluid.
Evo: How can extended learning become a front door to a lifelong relationship between the institution and the employer themselves?
EC: We have to move beyond the old perception of continuing education. It’s not photography 101 or basket weaving. It’s an entry point for talent and skill strategy. That’s what it should be—a front door to building talent aligned with a company’s goals.
If we deliver that first credential well, we create a great first experience. And when that happens, the company comes back. We don’t want to be on a short list. We want to be the go-to partner. When an HR director or project manager asks whether we can deliver something, we need to say yes—and mean it. If we don’t step into that space, companies will build their own universities. Many already have. What we offer is deeper. We credentialize skills and combine practical application with theory to develop not just employees but loyal, capable professionals. That’s how extended learning becomes the front door to a lifelong employer relationship.
Evo: Is there anything you’d like to add?
EC: I’d really like to see more data on who’s doing what at this level. Are specialized continuing ed units leading this work inside particular colleges, or are universities integrating extended learning directly with their academic teams? We know good things are happening out there, but I’d like to drill down more through associations, conferences like UPCEA and through publications like yours. I’ve learned a lot from your work, and I’m proud to be part of it.
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