The D4AD initiative was designed to support students, workers, and jobseekers through data-driven information and innovative job-search and training tools and supports. Introduced in a rapidly changing economy, the initiative was particularly focused on establishing equity-driven, human-centered systems that could support unemployed and underemployed workers affected by structural racism and economic marginalization.

D4AD supported innovative efforts to expand access and use of education and career data in partnerships that crossed public and private, state and local agencies. At its core, D4AD was about learning how best to develop and implement agile, responsive, and equitable tools, services, and systems to improve our workforce development, education, and training systems.

Through a collaborative effort across a diverse set of projects and states, D4AD learned important lessons that can help other initiatives build successful workforce training and development tools and systems.