Narrative: III. a. 2. E.

Illinois has an unprecedented education and workforce collaboration due to our common goal to expand career pathway opportunities through accelerated work-based training while aligning and integrating programs of study that lead to industry-recognized credentials and improved employment and earnings. The stakeholders involved include The Governor’s Cabinet on Children and Youth, the Illinois Workforce Innovation Board, the Illinois Departments of Commerce (Commerce), Employment Security, Human Services (DHS), the Illinois Community College Board (ICCB) Adult Education and the Perkins Career and Technical Education programs, the Illinois Board of Higher Education (IBHE), the Illinois State Board of Education (ISBE), the Illinois Student Assistance Commission (ISAC) and the Illinois P-20 Council. Additionally, workforce professionals, local level educational institutions and business/industry representatives have significantly engaged in this work.

The state’s workforce system has always closely aligned with the community college system, including postsecondary career and technical education and adult education systems, in the delivery of training that supports the growing demand for trained workers. While the state recognizes the importance of ensuring career and work readiness at all levels, Illinois is moving toward strategies that integrally tie education to workforce development. This is evident in the ICCB’s Workforce Education Strategic Plan. Expanding on the close alignment with postsecondary entities, Illinois is moving to align career readiness efforts beginning at the secondary school level to the university system. This alignment will truly address the P-20 pipeline by providing necessary career readiness and occupational skills necessary to succeed in the job market. A specific example is the active collaboration across education and workforce systems to collectively define language that will guide development and implementation of aligned initiatives, such as the adoption of a definitional framework for career pathways, along with supporting guidelines.

As Illinois continues the engagement of educational institutions to create a job-driven education and training system, the state will make significant and strategic system improvements that address workforce development needs through flexible, responsive and progressive programs informed by labor market information. Not only will this continue to occur through the 48 comprehensive community colleges and multi-college centers, but the state will also expand the reach to integrate meaningful career readiness programs and work-based learning models that focus on high demand occupations for students and workers at all levels.

Continued work, as well as new initiatives, will be rooted in labor market data that will inform education and workforce systems when establishing programs and training, thereby allocating resources to in-demand occupations and away from those jobs that have declining opportunities because of changing economic conditions. Additionally, employment and wage data will support measuring workforce outcomes of students to demonstrate performance and effectiveness of programs.

ICCB continues to work collaboratively across the state with other partners to address the alignment of workforce development, education and economic development. Through workforce development, career and technical education and adult education, the Illinois community college system and ICCB have moved forward in a coordinated way, focusing on the implementation of the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) and the ICCB Workforce Education Five Year Strategic Plan as well as the Adult Education Strategic Plan. Additionally, sector/clusters initiatives such as manufacturing, healthcare and transportation, distribution and logistics with an emphasis on low-skilled and low-income adults through business and industry training, Professional and Continuing Education training, Programs of Study and continued Adult Education initiatives are all focused on meeting the needs of Illinois’ employers and workforce. ICCB’s ongoing partnerships with other agencies and entities such as the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity (Commerce) Office of Employment and Training (OET) are critical to addressing Illinois’ economic and workforce needs.

Coordination with Core Programs

The ICCB, in partnership with core partners, developed the Essential Employability Framework to address issues identified by employers relative to their needs. In addition, Adult Education developed a Strategic Plan in partnership with core, required and other entities to address the preparation of adult learners for in demand occupations. Below are specific examples of the core partners’ engagement with educational institutions across the State.

Coordination with the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity

ICCB, in partnership with the Illinois Department of Commerce and the Illinois Community College Presidents’ Council, engaged multiple stakeholders to develop a five-year Workforce Education Strategic Plan. This plan focuses on strengthening system-wide visibility and impact by aligning workforce, education (community colleges, career technical education, adult education) and training. The development of the Workforce Education Strategic Plan used a braided funding mechanism that utilized resources from multiple sources, including the Illinois Department of Commerce, Illinois Community College Board, Career Technical Education and Adult Education. As part of the plan, ICCB and Commerce held eleven regional forums in the spring of 2015, one in each of the ten Economic Development Regions (EDR) with two in the Northeast region to bring education, workforce and employer partners together to discuss workforce and education issues in their regions and to hear from employers regarding their most pressing concerns. A final report with strategic recommendations was released in 2015. The data and information compiled from the regional forums was leveraged to serve as a baseline for the WIOA regional planning process. The Illinois Community College System Strategic Plan for Workforce Education builds upon recent successful efforts and engaged cross-program teams to explore creative solutions to address the challenges of a new economy and the demand for more highly-skilled workers. The plan is also used as a foundation in the development of other strategic plans, including the Adult Education Strategic Plan and the IWIB Strategic Plan.

Commerce also collaborates with universities and the K-12 system through participation on groups convened by the IWIB, the Illinois State Board of Education and Board of Higher Education, such as, the Illinois P-20 Council, the 60 X 25 Network, the Illinois Longitudinal Data System, and the Workforce Readiness through Apprenticeship and Pathways group. Commerce also makes direct investments in workforce skill training and capacity-building through grants to educational institutions that apply for WIOA Statewide Activities funds.

Coordination with the Illinois Department of Employment Security

Illinois recognizes that labor market information is at the foundation of a job-driven education and training system. As outlined in Section II.a (Economic, Workforce, and Workforce Development Activities Analysis), Illinois’ Interagency Data Team includes the Economic Information and Analysis (EI&A) Division of the Illinois Department of Employment Security (Employment Security) that produces industry and occupation projections by Local Workforce Innovation Area (LWIA). These projections allow educational institutions to consider in-demand jobs when establishing educational programs and training by LWIA as well as the surrounding areas thereby allocating resources to in-demand occupations and away from those occupations that have declining interest because of changing economic conditions. EI&A also works with educational institutions to measure the workforce outcomes of their students. This allows educational institutions to measure the performance and effectiveness of their programs.

Coordination with the Illinois Department of Human Services

The Illinois Department of Human Services Division of Rehabilitation Services (DRS) is actively involved in supporting people with disabilities who wish to participate in community college programs in pursuit of a degree or a credential to improve their employment opportunities. In 2016 DRS served 1,750 individuals with disabilities through support for their education and vocational training programs at Illinois community colleges. Since 2011 DRS has operated the Community College Initiative, which provides financial incentives for individuals with disabilities to enroll in community college programs. Since that time enrollment at community colleges has nearly doubled from a baseline of about 900 students. DRS is working with ICCB to facilitate participation by individuals with disabilities, whether or not those individuals are enrolled in the DRS Vocational Rehabilitation program. The two agencies are working in conjunction with the Institute for Community Inclusion to identify strategies for maximizing participation by people with disabilities across the range of programs offered in community colleges.