Enabling more Nashvillians to flourish
Belmont University is teaming with other educational partners, non-profit agencies and employers to help more Nashvillians pursue and rapidly complete education and training to boost earning power and enable flourishing lives.
The Fast Forward program and supporting partners are designing and implementing pilot projects to help underemployed adults and students from low-income families prepare for, find, and succeed in good jobs. The program will demonstrate proof of concepts for innovative strategies based upon research and improved teamwork between schools, colleges, universities and employers. Successful initiatives will provide a roadmap for how to fill critical workforce gaps in the mid-state economy.
Fast Forward is working with partners to pursue three primary strategies:
- Improving access to education, career counseling, and job training to rapidly boost the earning power of underemployed adults.
- Providing a small group of students a package of supports designed to increase college-going and expedite credential completion. Supports are expected to include:
- additional career and college exploration experiences
- increased access to career-focused dual enrollment courses while still in high school
- aid to take college classes in the summer immediately after high school graduation
- paid, part-time internships with supporting employers
- Providing thought leadership, issue advocacy, and resource management to support and expedite innovation in education equity and workforce development.
Our Partners
- Alignment Nashville
- Belmont Accelerator for Social Innovation Collaboration (BASIC)
- Belmont Family Wellbeing Program and The Store
- Coalition for Better Futures in Southeast Nashville
- GOAL Collective
- Metro Nashville Public Schools, Family University and Hillsboro High School
- Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce
- Nashville Public Education Foundation
More about Fast Forward
- Employers: The Fast Forward program is looking for employers who want to improve education equity and economic mobility of students from low-income families and underemployed adults. We are particularly interested in conversations with potential program partners from the Nashville area with large concentrations of job openings requiring middle skills in business and logistics.
- Grant awarding agencies, prospective program sponsors, and potential grant partners: The Fast Forward program is highly entrepreneurial and welcomes discussions with any agency working to support job readiness and economic mobility for underserved students and underemployed adults.
Seminal References
Click here for a list of seminal references and a summary of each report.
National thought leaders
- Achieving the Dream
- American Association of Community Colleges
- Aspen Institute
- Chicago Scholars
- Community College Research Center
- Georgetown Center on Education and the Workforce
- Harvard Project on Workforce
- Hechinger Report
- The Immigrant Learning Center
- Jobs for the Future
- Lightcast
- Lumina Foundation
- National Center for Education Statistics
State and Local Reports
- Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce Economic Development
- Nashville Public Education Foundation Resources
- Tennessee Board of Regents Office of Policy and Strategy
- Tennessee College Access & Support Network Reports
- Tennessee Higher Education Commission
- Tennessee SCORE – State Collaboration on Reforming Education
The Branch of Nashville is a strategic partner of Belmont’s Fast Forward program. Volunteers and staff there have been providing food bank services and English Language Learning for more than ten years. Belmont’s Fast Forward program has connected The Branch and several area non-profits to improve Nashvillians’ access to English language learning, career counseling, and referrals and resources for job training.
Our History
The Fast Forward program was launched in July 2022. In its first year, the program brought several non-profit partners together to form a new consortium that secured a large state grant helping expand access to English language learning (ELL) classes, high school equivalency courses, career counseling, and job training. The Fast Forward program also forged new partnerships and coordinated concepts for a pilot project to boost college going and expedite credential attainment.
Bridget Williams Golden
Email: bridget.golden@belmont.edu
Office Location: Jack C. Massey Center, Room 331
Connect with us
Learn more and get involved with the Fast Forward program.