PATHFINDERSTRATEGIES Start a conversation

Building workforce systems that deliver — and last.

Pathfinder Strategies partners with industry leaders, public agencies, philanthropy, and sector intermediaries to design talent systems aligned with real labor market demand — and to build the connective tissue that makes them durable.

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Our perspective

Workforce systems work for learners only when they work for employers.

The goal of workforce development is straightforward: learners reach good jobs, and employers find the talent they need to grow. Those two outcomes rise and fall together — and Pathfinder Strategies' work is grounded in a clear thesis about what it takes to deliver both at scale.

Real impact runs through employers

Workforce efforts can't scale — or deliver for learners — unless employers are genuinely at the table. Employers hold knowledge no other actor can supply about where work is headed and what it takes to prepare people for it. When that signal shapes what gets built, learners land in jobs that actually exist.

Partnership keeps employers at the table

The dominant model of employer engagement — gathering input on plans already made, and participation in programs already developed — asks much of employers while giving their voice little weight. Employers stay when solutions are designed with them and employer voice visibly shapes decisions and results.

Connective tissue is how it scales

No single employer, program, or agency can transform a talent system alone. Lasting results come from the connective tissue that links employers with education and training partners — sector intermediaries, regional partnerships, or structures inside public systems. Treated as core infrastructure, it turns employer partnership into results at scale.

Services

Ways we can work together

Engagements range from focused advisory projects to multi-year system-building partnerships.

Design strategy and systems

Set direction for workforce investments, policy, and system architecture.

  • Identify high-impact opportunities for investment and policy innovation
  • Facilitate strategic planning and system design with cross-sector partners
  • Lead landscape analyses that map ecosystems and surface scalable models
  • Advise funders on portfolio strategy and program design

Strengthen employer engagement

Move employers from advisory input to genuine leadership within talent systems.

  • Develop strategies that engage employers as leaders, not just participants
  • Build and strengthen sector intermediaries and cross-sector partnerships
  • Deliver individual and cohort-based technical assistance to sector intermediaries and employer-facing organizations
  • Design governance and accountability structures for employer leadership

Deliver implementation and leadership

Turn strategy into working operations — and step in when initiatives need experienced hands.

  • Develop operating models and detailed implementation plans for new initiatives
  • Support grant-funded initiatives from design through implementation
  • Provide interim leadership for high-stakes initiatives and transitions
  • Stand up new organizations, collaboratives, and program models

Build knowledge and capacity

Equip the field with the evidence, tools, and skills to sustain the work.

  • Develop reports, case studies, and knowledge products that inform the field
  • Create performance measurement frameworks and tools
  • Design and deliver trainings for workforce professionals and employers
  • Facilitate peer learning cohorts and communities of practice
Selected work

Recent engagements that moved systems

A sample of recent work across states, funders, and national organizations.

Scale

Grew a national apprenticeship organization

Helped CareerWise evolve from a state-based model into a national apprenticeship organization, shaping the strategy and operational plans behind its expansion.

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Technical assistance

Strengthened a state's sector intermediaries

Provided two years of technical assistance to Career Connect Washington's ten sector leaders, strengthening employer engagement statewide.

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Field-building

Advanced employer leadership across states

Co-led a cross-state collaborative of fourteen workforce leaders advancing the case for employer leadership in public talent systems.

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Policy

Shaped statewide workforce policy

Chaired the Workforce Development Working Group for a gubernatorial campaign, crafting strategic policy recommendations and messaging.

Federal investment

Guided Good Jobs Challenge partnerships

Advised eight regional sector partnerships funded through the federal Good Jobs Challenge on industry engagement and program strategy.

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Landscape analysis

Mapped a state's employer engagement landscape

Conducted a landscape analysis of employer engagement across Washington's education and workforce systems for the Washington Roundtable.

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Philanthropy

Advised on a new US workforce portfolio

Provided early strategic advising to an international foundation exploring a new US-focused workforce development portfolio.

Sample resources

Explore recent work

Some engagements produce resources built for the field — public, interactive tools that help workforce development leaders and practitioners see their systems clearly and act with confidence. Explore two recent examples.

The case for employer leadership in workforce development systems — interactive resource

The case for employer leadership

An interactive resource developed in partnership with a cross-state collaborative, making the case for employer leadership in workforce systems — with frameworks, case studies, and recommendations for policymakers, intermediaries, and funders.

Explore the site →
Landscape analysis of Washington workforce ecosystem touchpoints with employers — interactive dashboard

Washington employer engagement landscape analysis

An interactive dashboard mapping more than 65 ways Washington's public education and workforce systems engage employers, built for the Washington Roundtable's Partnership for Learning.

Explore the site →
Partners

Trusted across the workforce ecosystem

A sample of the organizations Pathfinder Strategies has supported.

Washington Roundtable McKinsey & Company CareerWise Washington State Employment Security Department Washington Student Achievement Council Washington STEM Washington Bankers Association Life Science Washington CleanTech Alliance SEIU Healthcare 1199NW Multi-Employer Training Fund AGC Education Foundation King County Center for Strengthening the Teaching Profession Computing for All Center of Excellence for Marine Manufacturing and Technology
Thought leadership

Insights on employer-led workforce systems

Articles on sector intermediaries, employer leadership, and building durable workforce infrastructure — published regularly on Substack.

January 2026

From input to authority: rethinking the role of employers in workforce systems

A reframe of employer engagement — from passive advisory roles to genuine decision-making authority, across a four-level spectrum from participation to shared governance.

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October 2025

Scaling what works: how to build high-performing sector-led workforce systems

Lessons from supporting nearly twenty sector intermediaries across ten industries — a guide to building coordinated ecosystems rather than isolated programs.

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May 2026

Too many tables, not enough signal: rethinking employer advisory structures

Why thousands of fragmented advisory committees produce weak demand signals — and how to right-level the work across sector bodies, local committees, and compliance functions.

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June 2026

True scale in workforce development? Fund the connective tissue.

Why programs alone can't reach meaningful scale — and why funding career navigators for learners and sector intermediaries for employers is what makes training deliver.

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February 2026

Employer leadership, revisited: why authority — and why now

The case for shifting from employer input to genuine authority and shared accountability — and the four converging trends that make this the moment to redesign how decisions get made.

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March 2026

From employer input to employer leadership: three models taking shape

Catalytic employer coalitions, standing sector tables, and embedded state structures — three emerging models that give employers an active leadership role in workforce systems.

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About
Ashley Carter, founder of Pathfinder Strategies

Ashley Carter

Founder and Principal, Pathfinder Strategies

Ashley Carter is the founder and principal of Pathfinder Strategies. She partners with states, sector intermediaries, and philanthropic organizations to build workforce strategies and systems that respond to real employer demand while expanding access and success for students and jobseekers. Her practice blends strategy development, systems design, and on-the-ground implementation, informed by more than two decades of experience across the public, private, and nonprofit sectors.

Through Pathfinder Strategies, Ashley's engagements span the full arc of this work: providing multi-year technical assistance to statewide sector intermediaries, advising regional partnerships funded through the federal Good Jobs Challenge, mapping employer engagement across a state's education and workforce systems, co-leading a cross-state collaborative advancing employer leadership, shaping statewide workforce policy, and advising philanthropy on new workforce investments.

Before founding Pathfinder Strategies, Ashley was the founding chief operating officer of CareerWise Colorado, where she helped bring the organization's early vision to life and led efforts to scale youth apprenticeship across a range of industries — guiding growth strategy, building core operational systems, and supporting other states in launching programs through the formation of CareerWise USA.

Earlier in her career, Ashley advised Fortune 500 companies and philanthropic foundations at Boston Consulting Group; today she serves as an external advisor to McKinsey. In 2001, she founded Daring Girls, a nonprofit supporting girls' education and entrepreneurship training across East Africa — now more than 25 years old and recognized with UNESCO's 2022 Prize for Girls' and Women's Education.

  • Founding COO, CareerWise — national youth apprenticeship organization
  • Founder, Daring Girls — UNESCO Prize for Girls' and Women's Education
  • Boston Consulting Group alum and current external advisor to McKinsey
  • MBA, Stanford Graduate School of Business
  • AB, Harvard University, summa cum laude
Work with Ashley Connect on LinkedIn
Contact

Let's build a system that lasts.

Whether you're shaping a new investment, strengthening an intermediary, or rethinking how employers lead within your system, the first step is a conversation.

Email ashley@pathfinderstrategies.co

Or connect on LinkedIn and subscribe on Substack.