Confronted with businesses facing a long-term shortage of skilled workers and evaluations showin that job training for the poor over the past 25 years had produced only meager results, a number of groups throughout the country have sought to find a more effective approach.  The efforts of these partnerships, which editor Robert Giloth calls "workforce intermediaries," are characterized by a focus on improving business productivity and helping low-income individuals not just to find a job, but to advance over time to jobs that enable them to support themselves and their families.  This books takes stock of workforce intermediaries, and a concluding chapter discusses where we need to go from here, if society is to provide a more coherent approach to increasing the viability and capacity of these important institutions.