FutureWork™ Community

A FutureWork™ Community is a strategic workforce capability model designed to help communities strengthen economic competitiveness, expand workforce readiness, and prepare residents and organizations for success in the Age of AI.

NJIT’s Learning and Development Initiative partners with municipalities, workforce organizations, educational institutions, nonprofit organizations, and employers to help communities prepare for the accelerating impact of artificial intelligence, automation, and digital transformation.

As NJIT’s hub for professional education and workforce development, the LDI delivers scalable non-credit learning opportunities through its proprietary FutureWork™ ecosystem.

FutureWork™ combines research-backed workforce insights, personalized readiness assessments, and workforce-aligned learning experiences into an integrated ecosystem designed to help communities build stronger workforce capability, support economic growth, and prepare residents for evolving workforce demands.

Building a FutureWork™ Community is necessary because technology, workforce demands, and economic conditions are changing rapidly. Communities need structured, scalable systems that help residents, organizations, educators, and workforce leaders adapt to the Age of AI.

• Technology and workforce demands are changing rapidly. Artificial intelligence, automation, and digital transformation continue to reshape industries, workforce expectations, and economic opportunity.
• Communities need stronger workforce capability. Economic competitiveness increasingly depends on workforce readiness, adaptability, and continuous learning.
• Traditional education alone no longer moves fast enough. Communities need scalable systems that support rapid upskilling, reskilling, microcredentials, and lifelong learning.

The FutureWork™ Community Model helps communities assess workforce readiness, build workforce capability, and strengthen community capacity through an integrated ecosystem.

• Assess Workforce Readiness through the FutureWork™ Inventory.
• Build Workforce Capability through the FutureWork™ Portfolio.
• Strengthen Community Capacity through customized in-person training, workshops, boot camps, leadership programs, and workforce partnerships.

The FutureWork™ Inventory provides residents, educators, workforce participants, and municipal employees with a self-diagnostic assessment grounded in the FutureWork™ Framework.

The inventory helps individuals assess readiness across six critical workforce skill domains while identifying strengths, development opportunities, and personalized learning pathways.

At the community level, aggregate insights help leaders better understand workforce trends, capability gaps, and future training priorities.

• Assess readiness across six critical workforce skill domains
• Identify workforce strengths and capability gaps
• Generate personalized development insights
• Support customized educational and career pathways
• Provide community-level workforce intelligence and analytics

The FutureWork™ Portfolio delivers affordable, scalable, and workforce-aligned online learning opportunities designed specifically for the Age of AI.

Through flexible non-credit courses, microcredentials, and workforce training programs, communities can expand access to high-impact learning experiences for residents, educators, municipal employees, nonprofit organizations, and local employers.

Learning opportunities focus on six critical workforce capability areas:

• AI Literacy
• Data Literacy
• Digital Literacy
• Agile Thinking
• Change Navigation
• Resource Optimization

Key advantages include:

• Cost-effective workforce capability development at scale
• Flexible online and self-paced learning opportunities
• Accessible training for diverse populations and career stages
• Workforce-aligned microcredentials and digital badges
• Scalable community upskilling initiatives

Communities can partner with NJIT’s Learning and Development Initiative to deliver customized workshops, leadership programs, boot camps, and professional development experiences aligned with regional workforce and economic priorities.

Programs can support municipal employees, nonprofit organizations, local employers, educators, and residents seeking career advancement and workforce readiness.

Training and partnership initiatives may include:

• AI Literacy for the Workplace
• Workforce Adaptability and Agile Thinking
• Leadership in the Age of AI
• Digital and Data Literacy
• Organizational Change Navigation
• Future-Focused Workforce Development Strategies

Key advantages include:

• Customized workforce capability initiatives aligned with local needs
• Employer and industry-aligned training opportunities
• Community-wide workforce engagement strategies
• Scalable partnerships across education, government, and industry
• Stronger alignment between workforce development and economic growth

• Strengthen workforce readiness and adaptability
• Expand AI and digital capability across the community
• Support economic development and competitiveness
• Increase access to affordable workforce-aligned learning opportunities
• Improve career mobility and lifelong learning participation
• Support employers facing workforce disruption and talent shortages
• Create scalable future-focused learning ecosystems
• Build stronger talent pipelines across industries and sectors

NJIT’s Learning and Development Initiative combines the strengths of a nationally recognized public polytechnic university with a future-focused workforce capability ecosystem designed specifically for the Age of AI.

Organizational strengths include:

• Workforce partnerships across public, private, and nonprofit sectors
• Research-backed FutureWork™ Framework featured in the 2025 EDUCAUSE Horizon Report
• Through the FutureWork™ Inventory, the LDI provides learners with a detailed and customized readiness report based on their assessment responses
• A rigorous learning design process helps ensure each course maintains high academic and workforce-aligned quality standards
• The LDI remains learner-centered, future-focused, and demand-driven in its approach to workforce capability development
• Learners who successfully complete a course receive an NJIT verifiable digital badge demonstrating workforce-ready skills and competencies

The FutureWork™ ecosystem combines the FutureWork™ Framework, FutureWork™ Inventory, and FutureWork™ Portfolio into a unified model for workforce capability development.

• The FutureWork™ Framework defines the critical workforce capability areas needed for success in the Age of AI.
• The FutureWork™ Inventory helps individuals assess readiness and receive customized insights based on their responses.
• The FutureWork™ Portfolio provides workforce-aligned courses, microcredentials, and training programs that help learners build the skills identified through the framework and inventory.

The communities that thrive in the Age of AI will be the ones that prepare for it.

FutureWork™ Communities position residents, employers, educators, and workforce leaders to adapt, compete, and succeed in a rapidly changing economy.

By combining the FutureWork™ Framework, FutureWork™ Inventory, and FutureWork™ Portfolio into a unified ecosystem, communities can strengthen workforce capability, expand economic opportunity, and build a sustainable foundation for long-term success in the Age of AI.

To download the FutureWork™ Community brochure click here.

To learn more, explore the FAQs on this page and visit the FutureWork™ website.

Questions? Email the Learning and Development Initiative today at ldisupport@njit.edu.