Narrative: II. b.

1. Vision

Describe the State’s strategic vision for its workforce development system

West Virginia’s Governor Jim Justice understands the vital importance of West Virginia’s employers having a well—trained, workforce—ready labor force. He also is equally aware of the critical need to provide more individuals with the opportunity to be productive members of the state’s labor force and, thereby, to improve the state’s labor participation rate.

As part of this, West Virginia is taking a comprehensive approach to improving its workforce development. In 2019 Governor Justice signed an executive order establishing the Governor’s Downstream Jobs Task Force to build an infrastructure for manufacturing operations in West Virginia to support the anticipated expansion of the petrochemical industry in the region. This Appalachian Petrochemical Renaissance could lead to significant growth in the state with more than 100,000 steady jobs and $28 billion in economic expansion for the State.

Jobs & Hope West Virginia was established by Governor Jim Justice and the West Virginia Legislature to provide a comprehensive response to the substance use disorder crisis in West Virginia by providing residents all-inclusive services to overcome barriers that have impeded their ability to obtain and maintain employment. While the target population is individuals in recovery from substance use disorder, Jobs & Hope West Virginia is open to any eligible participants who wish to eliminate barriers to employment. Jobs & Hope West Virginia plays a critical role in the recovery process as individuals rebuild their lives which ultimately leads to building and sustaining a healthy and thriving state economy.  Those who participate in the program are assessed individually to identify employment and education goals, detect barriers and receive support and assistance with reaching those goals and overcoming identified barriers.  Participants have access to a wide array of services to include job placement, assistance securing transportation and childcare, reinstatement of driver’s license, and if needed, assistance applying for expungement. 

Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA)

Enacted in July 2014, WIOA is the first legislative reform in 15 years of the nation’s public workforce system. WV is well positioned to benefit early from WIOA’s provisions given that the state has been implementing key provisions, including:

1. Alignment of unified strategic planning across “core” programs, which include Title I Adult, Dislocated Worker (DW), and Youth programs; Adult Education and Literacy programs; the Wagner-Peyser Employment Service; and Title I of the Rehabilitation Act programs, and;
2. Implementation of a business-led statewide sector strategy project that includes state/local workforce boards and community colleges. The law is designed to help job seekers access employment, education, training, and support services to succeed in the labor market and to match employers with the skilled workers they need to compete in the global economy.

WIOA emphasizes employers’ engagement across the workforce system to align training with needed skills and match employers with qualified workers. WIOA adds flexibility at the local level to provide incumbent worker training and transitional jobs as allowable activities and promotes work-based training, for example by increasing OJT reimbursement rates to 75 percent. The law also emphasizes training that leads to industry-recognized post-secondary credentials.

Simulated Workplace

This is an innovative, new statewide educational initiative that is restructuring the state’s career-technical schools and implementing workplace and business learning protocols that align with general requirements and expectations of WV’s workplace, including teamwork, random drug testing, professionalism, attendance and safety. The education of the students in done in a business environment where the students manage the enterprise, review performance, collaborate on the objectives and develop work-ready skills and aptitudes (punctuality, attendance, teamwork, effective communications, etc.).

WV Advanced Career Education

The WV Department of Education’s (WVDE) Advanced Career Education program (WV ACE) offers credentials, certifications, and licenses in growing industries across the state high school graduates (and adults) so they can better prepare and position themselves for employment. WV ACE-Your Future, Your Career, Your Way.

Learn & Earn

This program is the leading workforce development, economic development, and educational partnership in the Mountain State. Learn & Earn connects employers with students through colleges, allowing students to take technical courses while gaining paid work experiences. The student pay is shared by the company and the college, and students receive at least $10 per hour to work in the field they are studying in.

• 1-year or 2-year degree programs
• Co-op experience must pay no less than $10/hour
• Employer gains a highly qualified employee and a future skilled labor pool
• Students earn valuable on-the-job training while attending school
• 50/50 employer & college matching reimbursement

National Health Emergency Disaster Recovery National Dislocated Worker Grant

This grant addresses the Opioid Crisis in West Virginia. This grant is being used to create disaster relief employment as well as to provide employment and training activities, including supportive services, to address economic and workforce impacts related to widespread opioid use, addiction and overdoses.   

Adult Education: Career and Technical Education (WVDE-CTE) & Industry Credential Certificate Programs

Adult students in WV have the opportunity to complete industry credentialed certificate programs at career and technical schools across the state. The adult CTE programs are offered at the public career and technical centers throughout the state and aligned with the WVDE CTE curriculum. Adults can enroll in secondary programs if space is available at no cost or in stand-alone adult programs that are nationally accredited by the Council on Occupational Education (COE) for financial aid access to those who qualify. Approximately 2,500 adults graduate annually from these programs with technical skills and credentials.

• Health
• Architecture and Construction
• Transportation
• Human Services
• Information Technology

Adult Education: Veterans

Inventoried existing Veterans workforce training and education programs available in WV provided strong support for tuition assistance (Veteran’s Re-Education Act Fund, Veterans Upward Bound, etc.) and educational support programs for veterans, particularly for those who have exhausted the GI Bill and need a new vocation due to dislocation or unemployment. Special emphasis also was   placed on programs to facilitate re-employment of returning active duty and reserve personnel.

Adult Education: Transitioning from Welfare Assistance to Self-Sustainability West Virginia Works

Temporary Aid to Needy Families (TANF): DHHR is implementing changes to the state’s temporary assistance benefits program (West Virginia Works) for families in need. The changes by the department are designed to reform this welfare program and restructure programs so they focus much more on incentivizing and transitioning these families into greater employment outcomes and, ultimately, self-sufficiency achievement. The best long-term outcome for everyone is if we align the direct assistance to these families so they can prepare themselves to realize the benefits of a job and a stable paycheck.

Juvenile Justice Reform: This program has been spearheaded by the West Virginia Intergovernmental Task Force on Juvenile Justice that in 2014 conducted a comprehensive, data-driven study of the state’s juvenile justice system. The analysis showed that the vast majority of youth removed from their homes and placed in state facilities are lower-level offenders-such as “status” offenses-behavior that would not even be considered a crime if committed by adults. Not only is this costly, but also has the potential to undermine these youths from becoming future workers and productive members of society. Many of the task force’s recommendations were enacted into law in early 2015.

Offender Reentry Initiative

The Offender Reentry Initiative addresses prisoners’ health, mental health, job skills, education, substance abuse and other issues. The goal is to help prisoners succeed when they are released.

Title IV, Vocational Rehabilitation Services

Under Title IV, DRS provides services that help allow individuals with disabilities to avail themselves of work-based learning (work-based training and OJT). Title IV emphasizes the need to provide pre-employment transition services (Pre-ETS) for students with disabilities prior to their exiting the school system.

Additionally, the new federal act emphasizes creating employer engagement within the community by creating work-based learning experiences for individuals, thus allowing employers to be matched with skilled workers.

DRS is already providing services that will allow individuals with disabilities to avail themselves of work-based learning. DRS partners with employers to provide work-based training and OJT. This training is provided across all sectors of employment and ensures OJT rather than erroneous skills training.

Other:

• Development of apprenticeship training programs
• Alignment and expansion of entrepreneurship/start-up ventures
• Promotion of youth entrepreneurship in our school system

2. Goals

Describe the goals for achieving this vision based on the analysis in (a) above of the State’s economic conditions, workforce, and workforce development activities.  This must include—

(A) Goals for preparing an educated and skilled workforce, including preparing youth and individuals with barriers to employment⁸ and other populations.⁹

(B) Goals for meeting the skilled workforce needs of employers.

Goal 1: Maximize Efficiency of the Workforce Development System (WDS).

For WIOA to continue to be successful the workforce development system must be seamless, comprehensive, and accessible.  Partners in the workforce development system will work together in order to maximize benefits to our customers and improve WV’s labor force participation rate.

Goal 2: Strengthen Relationships with Employers.

Collaborate with employers utilizing a variety of methods to develop solutions to their workforce needs.

Goal 3 Overcome Employment Barriers of Individuals.

Identify employment barriers of individuals and develop solutions.  The removal of barriers is a key component to improving WV’s labor force participation rate.

Goal 4: Promote Career Pathways.

Emphasize career pathways to assist individuals entering and moving within the labor force and to educate employers on the advantages of career pathways.

Goal 5: Identify and Maximize Postsecondary and Employment Opportunities for Youth.

Identify employment challenges faced by youth and provide access to postsecondary training/education and employment opportunities to improve WV’s labor force participation rate.

Goal 6: Align WV’s Labor Force Participation Rate with the National Labor Force Participation Rate.

WV has the lowest Labor Force Participation Rate (LFPR) in the United States. Increasing labor force participation rates and reducing unemployment rate disparities for people with disabilities, both younger and older workers, and people with lower educational attainment would lead to measurable increases in the size of the state's available labor force. Helping minorities and other groups with barriers to employment is critical to ensuring that West Virginia’s employers are able to find workers and our economy is able to expand.

Serving Veterans and Individuals with Barriers to Employment

The WV WDS goals were developed to benefit all consumers of the WV WDS, including veterans, individuals with disabilities, and individuals with other barriers to employment.  Goal 1 will allow the WV WDS to increase its efficiency, resulting in additional resources available to serve individuals with barriers to employment.  Goal 2 will enhance opportunities for employment for all consumers.  Goal 3 is a direct focus of the WV WDS to channel fiscal and human resources to assist individuals with overcoming barriers to employment.  Goal 4 allows consumers, including veterans and individuals with barriers to employment, to better navigate with more flexibility in the timing of their educational, training, and employment needs. Goal 5 represents a channeling of personnel and fiscal resources to ensure younger WV WDS consumers, including youth with disabilities and/or other barriers to employment, have an increased ability to achieve measurable skills gains and recognized postsecondary credentials that will increase the quality of employment outcomes of youth consumers.  Finally, Goal 6 will reignite the focus of obtaining employment outcomes for WV WDS consumers, including veterans and individuals with barriers to employment.

3. Performance Goals

Using the tables provided within each Core Program section, include the State's expected levels of performance relating to the performance accountability measures based on primary indicators of performance described in section 116(b)(2)(A) of WIOA. (This Strategic Planning element only applies to core programs.)

See table.

4. Assessment

Describe how the State will assess the overall effectiveness of the workforce development system in the State in relation to the strategic vision and goals stated above in sections (b)(1), (2), and (3) and how it will use the results of this assessment and other feedback to make continuous or quality improvements.

The state will assess the overall effectiveness of the workforce system and those educational programs that support and work with it on the basis of their collective ability to produce career pathways leading to industry-valued, recognized postsecondary credentials and apprenticeship enrollments.

To match the supply and demand of the State’s labor market, the WV WDS gathers employment needs data provided by employers and subsequently generates and disseminates LMI, both at the statewide and local level. This LMI, published by WFWV, provides short- and long- term projections of high demand occupations throughout the State of West Virginia, at both the state and local level. From these projections, the State is able to recognize the credentials, certifications, and enrollments needed by its citizenry to achieve placement in the labor force in the coming years. Similarly, the State is able to identify the institutions of such enrollment and credentialing that the citizenry may utilize. One of the goals of WV’s WDS is to develop career pathways for individuals seeking employment, particularly in high demand occupations. In order to do this, it is vital for the WIOA core partners to provide to those individuals: LMI, including information regarding projected high demand occupations; an enhanced sense of informed choice regarding their opportunities for employment; and information about how to obtain qualifications for employment, especially in projected high demand occupations. The WDS will assess effectiveness in this goal by monitoring enrollment and achievement at institutions related to these projected high demand occupations and use this assessment to determine where any underserved areas lie.

An emphasis will be placed on high-demand, job driven skills attainment. Specifically, the state will emphasize “demand-driven skills-attainment” in the policies it sets pertaining to local and regional workforce plans. For example, in setting performance standards for Local Boards, the state will give great weight to WIOA performance measures related to program completion and credential attainment and will validate the labor market value of programs by examining the employment and wage outcomes of the individuals served.

The WVWFDB will work with regionally organized LWDBs and other state plan partners to determine the extent to which persons receiving training and education services aligned with regional industry needs are actually obtaining employment in occupations and sectors directly related to their programs of study.

Developing the capacity for tracking employment related to training and education programs of study will require the study and development of an operational plan for collecting the relevant information. The WVWFDB will work with the three core partners and all mandatory partners to build this capacity.

General Policy Framework for Program Alignment State Plan Policies

The state will employ and will require state plan partners to adopt or participate in (to the extent appropriate for each program), seven policy strategies that frame, align, and guide program coordination at the state, local, and regional levels. These policies (discussed in further detail in the section on strategies, tactics, and resources) will include the following:

• Sector Strategies: Aligning workforce and education programs with leading and emergent industry sectors’ skills needs.
• Career Pathways: Enabling of progressive skills development through education and training programs, using multiple entry and exit points, so that each level of skills development corresponds with a labor market payoff for those being trained or educated.
• Regional Partnerships: Building partnerships between industry leaders, workforce professionals, education and training providers, and economic development leaders to develop workforce and education policies that support regional economic growth.
• Earn & Learn: Using training and education best practices that combine applied learning opportunities with material compensation while facilitating skills development in the context of actual labor market participation.
• Supportive Services: Providing ancillary services like childcare, transportation, and counseling to facilitate program completion by those enrolled in training and education courses.
• Creating Cross-System Data Capacity: Using diagnostic labor market data to assess where to invest, and also, the use performance data to assess the value of those investments.
• Integrated Service Delivery: Braiding resources and coordinating services at the local level to meet client needs.

The State Plan provides the policy framework and direction for day-to-day operations of WIOA funded programs. The role of state agency and state department plan partners under the plan is to provide policy direction, program oversight, support, and technical assistance for and to local and regional service providers covered by the plan. State plan partners include the following:

• WorkForce West Virginia (WFWV)
• West Virginia Local Workforce Development Board (LWDB)
• West Virginia Community and Technical College System (CTCS)
• West Virginia Department of Education (WVDE)
• West Virginia State Board of Education (SBE)
• West Virginia Division of Rehabilitation Services (DRS)
• West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources (DHHR)
• Governor’s Office of Business and Economic Development
   

Regional Plans and “Regional Sector Pathways

Regional plans and partnership required by WIOA will function under the State Plan as the primary mechanism for aligning educational and training provider services with regional industry sector needs.

Alignment at the regional level will be accomplished through the regional implementation of three of the seven policy strategies emphasized by the State Plan. These include sector strategies, career pathways, and organized regional partnerships. All three of these policies will be required under the regional planning guidance issued by the WVWFDB to LWDBs organized into the regional planning units required under WIOA Section 106.

A primary objective and requirement of regional plans will be to work with community colleges and other training and education providers, including the state’s Adult Education Block Grant regional consortia to build “regional sector pathway” programs, by which we mean, career pathway programs that result in the attainment of industry-valued and recognized postsecondary credentials aligned to regional industry workforce needs. The WVWFDB, working alongside other state agencies, will provide technical assistance to regional partnerships comprised of industry leaders, workforce professionals, and regional training and education providers to help align programs and services delivered with industry sector workforce needs.

Under the State Plan, the key regional partners involved with the development and implementation of regional plans will include the following:

• Industry sector leaders, associations, and business organizations
• Regionally organized LWDBs
• Local economic development organizations
• Regional consortia of community colleges
• Regional consortia of adult basic education providers (including both WIOA Title II and other state-funded basic education programs)
• Representatives of K-12 CTE programs funded by either Perkins V funds or various state-specific CTE funding streams, when relevant county offices of education and other local educational agencies determine that participation will benefit the students participating in their CTE programs.

Regional efforts under WIOA are expected to build upon the WVWFDB’s regional Sector Strategies Project discussed later in the State Plan.

Local Plans and American Job Centers of West Virginia

Under the State Plan, the purpose of local workforce plans and partnerships is to facilitate access to workforce services at the local level.

Local workforce development plans will ensure a baseline level of WIOA core program alignment compliant with federal regulations at the local level, in and through the AJCWV, the state’s One-Stop system, so that program services are coordinated, and when appropriate, integrated to make accessible a menu of customizable services available to clients on the basis of client needs.

Under the State Plan and all relevant policies issued by the state concerning One-Stop design, operations, and partnerships, LWDBs will be directed to operate AJCs as an access point for programs that provide for “demand-driven skills attainment.” From this perspective, AJCs will be operated as an “on ramp” or “gateway” to the “Regional Sector Pathways” programs either built-out or identified through the regional planning process described above.

AJCWV will continue to provide the full menu of services as they have historically provided and the AJCs will continue to function as labor exchanges but there will be much greater emphasis on treating AJCs as an access point for education and training services for those who want and need it. Further detail on ACJ design and the operation of the AJC is provided in the body of the State Plan.