Chapter 3: Comprehensive Overview of Policy Strategies (Corresponding to Strategic Planning Elements Required Under WIOA Sec. 102(b)(1)(D-E))

The state will employ and will require state plan partners to adopt or participate, to the extent appropriate for each program, seven policy strategies that frame, align, and guide program coordination at the state, local, and regional levels in order to achieve the state’s three policy objectives:

• Fostering “demand-driven skills attainment”. Workforce and education programs need to align program content with the state’s industry sector needs so as to provide California’s employers and businesses with the skilled workforce necessary to compete in the global economy.
• Enabling upward mobility for all Californians, including populations with barriers to employment. Workforce and education programs need to be accessible for all Californians and ensure that everyone has access to a marketable set of skills, and is able to access the level of education necessary to get a good job that ensures both economic self-sufficiency and economic security.
• Aligning, coordinating, and integrating programs and services to economize limited resources to achieve scale and impact, while also providing the right services to clients, based on each client’s particular and potentially unique needs, including any needs for skills-development .

Policy Strategies (WIOA Sec. 102 (b)(1)(D)

The seven policy strategies emphasized in this State Plan—sector strategies, career pathways, “earn and learn”, organizing regionally, providing supportive services, building cross-system data capacity, and braiding resources and integrating services— are evidence-based and have been shown to work, helping ensure effective delivery of services, and increasing the likelihood that those who receive services obtain gainful employment.

This section of the State Plan provides a more comprehensive overview of the strategies the state will implement. The chapters that follow outline more specifically how these strategies will be put into operation and coordinated by the core programs and other state plan partners. The descriptions given here are designed to outline their policy content and the rationale for their use. The chapter ends with a description of the manner in which local and regional workforce plans will operate as the mechanism for implementing local service delivery and regional coordination to assure that the policy objectives of this plan are carried out.

Sector Strategies: A Demand-Driven Workforce Investment Strategy

“Sector strategies” are policy initiatives designed to promote the economic growth and development of a state’s competitive industries using strategic workforce investments to boost labor productivity. The strategic focus is on prioritizing investments where overall economic returns are likely to be highest, specifically in those sectors that will generate significant gains in terms of jobs and income.

Targeting the right sectors is essential and requires that policy makers use economic and labor market data to determine which industry sectors are best positioned to make gains if investments in workforce development are made. Investment decisions are typically also contingent on the degree to which a sector faces critical workforce supply problems, for example, whether the industry faces or will face a shortage of skilled workers in a particular occupation, whether or not these shortages are a consequence of either growth or retirements.

When done successfully, sector strategies can lead to mutually beneficial outcomes for business, labor, and the state by increasing competitiveness and growth, improving worker employability and income, and reducing the need for social services while also bolstering government revenues generated by both business and workers.

In order to ensure that policies help produce beneficial outcomes for workers as well as business, sector investments should take into consideration the quality of jobs for which training resources are made available. Ideally, training should result in livable wage jobs with benefits that provide access to career opportunities through job placement in an occupation that is part of a well-articulated career ladder.

A key element of sector strategies is the emphasis on industry and sector partnerships. These partnerships bring together multiple employers within a sector to find shared solutions to their common workforce problems.

Under sector partnerships, firms work with representatives of labor, as well as education and workforce professionals, to develop a concrete program to address that industry’s particular skills shortages. The development of shared solutions typically involves the convening of various stakeholders to develop a general understanding of the challenges the sector faces on an ongoing basis. For the process to be successful, partners need to regularly meet to develop a concrete plan to solve workforce problems by implementing agreed-upon remedies.

The collective focus on shared problem-solving sets sector strategies apart from more traditional training programs that focus on either individual workers or individual firms. Problems are addressed systemically and collectively. Industry partners examine the interrelated workforce needs of the entire industry, diagnose problems, and align the monetary and institutional resourcesof not only industry but also labor, and the relevant workforce and educational systems as the chief means to plug relevant skills gaps.

Where they have been implemented, sector strategies initiatives have funded the following activities:

• Convening industry partners on a regular, ongoing basis to build relationships between stakeholders and firms in the targeted industry sector.
• Providing resources for sector research related to industry and market trends affecting workforce needs.
• Developing multi-year plans focused on the training and placement of workers in occupations identified as strategic by industry leaders
• Boosting industry capacity related to workforce needs, such as developing common worker training centers, providing contract support services for industry employees, and research and development related to workforce development (for example, curricula development).
• Providing business services, such as help in implementing industry human resources best practices.
• Developing skills standards and new degrees and certificates as a basis to guarantee minimum job qualifications for workers in priority occupations.
• Developing well-articulated career pathways promoting job advancement for workers who are entering the sector, as well as those already employed in the sector.
• Identifying training providers and educators and working to align relevant programs with industry needs.

All of the foregoing activities are designed to (a) establish the partnership, (b) develop a concrete plan, and (c) foster the implementation of the plan through an ongoing alignment of resources and institutions to ensure that the training goals of the plan are carried out.

Under this State Plan, state plan partners and providers who participate in sector strategies are expected to do so in a manner that makes it a priority to work with employers who offer jobs with good wages and benefits. State law specifies that the implementation of sector strategies should lead to investments, “in education and workforce training programs that are likely to lead to jobs providing economic security or to an entry-level job with a well-articulated career pathway into a job providing economic security.”[1] State law defines “economic security” as “earning a wage sufficient to support a family adequately, and, over time, to save for emergency expenses and adequate retirement income, based on factors such as household size, the cost of living in the worker’s community, and other factors that may vary by region.”[2]

Career Pathways

California’s Education Code and the State Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act both define career pathways in the following manner:

“Career pathways,” “career ladders,” or “career lattices” mean an identified series of positions, work experiences, or educational benchmarks or credentials with multiple access points that offer occupational and financial advancement within a specified career field or related fields over time.

Career pathways are designed to facilitate incremental and progressive skills attainment over time, in clearly segmented blocks, such that those who move through the pathway obtain education or training services built on the foundation of prior learning efforts. The objective is to provide a packaged set of skills which has demonstrable labor market value at each stage of the learning process. Key elements of successful pathway programs include the following:

• Varied and flexible means of entry, exit, and participation through multiple “on and off ramps” and innovative scheduling practices.
• Entry and exit points are based on student, worker, or client’s needs as well as their educational or skill levels, allowing those with different skill levels to participate where appropriate.
• Flexible exit allows those who cannot complete a longer term program the ability to build longer term skills through short term serial training efforts.
• Pathways programs are characterized by a high degree of program alignment and service coordination among relevant agencies, which can typically include adult education and basic skills programs, community colleges CTE programs, high school CTE programs, workforce development board programs, as well as social services agencies.
• The receipt of industry-valued credentials at each stage of training.
• Employer engagement to ensure that training and education are relevant to the labor market.

Career pathways programs are particularly useful in serving populations with barriers to employment because they can be packaged in a way that responds to client population needs. Combining career pathway programs with sector strategies has the potential to help move populations with barriers to employment into the labor force while also meeting employer’s workforce needs, by providing disadvantaged individuals with a tangible and marketable skillset that is in-demand.

Under this State Plan and relevant state law, state plan partners and providers who engage in career pathway work should do so with the goal of placing workers and students in occupations that provide economic security or entry-level jobs that have a well-articulated career pathway or career ladder to a job that provides economic security.[3]

Utilizing Earn and Learn Strategies

“Earn and learn” policies are designed to facilitate skills attainment while also providing those participating in these programs with some form of compensated work experience, allowing them to “earn” income while they “learn” to do a job. Because many WIOA customers have barriers to employment and cannot afford to attend an education or training program full time, not only because of costs associated with training and education fees and tuition, but also because time spent in the classroom reduces time that can be spent earning income, “earn and learn” opportunities are an important strategy for success.

Under Senate Bill 342, (H.B. Jackson, Chapter 507, Statutes of 2015), the California State Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act defines “earn and learn” policies as those training and education policies that combine “applied-learning in a workplace setting with compensation allowing workers or students to gain work experience and secure a wage as they develop skills and competencies directly relevant to the occupation or career for which they are preparing”. SB 342 points out that “earn and learn” programs typically bring together “classroom instruction with on-the-job training to combine both formal instruction and actual paid work experience.” These programs include, but are not limited to, all of the following:

• apprenticeships;
• pre-apprenticeships;
• incumbent worker training, including on-the-job training as outlined in WIOA
• transitional and subsidized employment;
• paid internships and externships; and
• project-based compensated learning.

The principles of “earn and learn” are broad enough to allow for flexible program design. As such, programs may be customized to serve clients on the basis of their given level of skills and their particular educational or training needs. Transitional and subsidized employment programs, for example, can be used to provide work experience to those who have none, facilitating the hiring of individuals that employers might not otherwise employ. These programs may help get TANF recipients and other individuals with barriers to employment into the labor market, thereby helping establish work experience and an employment history that individuals need to build their resume.

Other “earn and learn” programs, like the incumbent worker training programs operated by ETP, may serve other purposes, such as keeping the state’s workforce productive and its businesses competitive. Similarly, pre-apprentice and apprenticeship programs can provide access to formal skills training opportunities in a variety of occupational fields that typically provide good wages and a middle class income. To ensure the use of quality providers, California statute directs the State Board and Local Boards to ensure that any services funded by WIOA and directed to apprenticeable occupations, including pre-apprenticeship training, are conducted in coordination with one or more apprenticeship programs approved by DIR-DAS for the relevant occupation and geographic area.

In general, “earn and learn” programs can be flexibly designed and paired with other policy strategies, such as sector strategies and career pathways, to increase the skills and employability of the workforce while also aligning workforce, education, and training programs with labor market dynamics and employer needs.

In all industry sectors, it is the policy of the State Board that pre-apprenticeship training must connect directly to apprenticeship programs approved by the California Division of Apprenticeship Standards (DAS). This is required by state law if utilizing Workforce Innovation Opportunity Act (WIOA) funds (AB 554, T. Atkins, Chapter 499, Statutes of 2011). In the construction industry, it is the clear policy of the State Board that pre-apprenticeship training utilize the Multi-Craft Core Curriculum (MC3). This is also required in state statue if using WIOA funds (AB 2288, A. Burke, Chapter 692, Statutes of 2016).

The Multi-Craft Core Curriculum (MC3) is an apprenticeship readiness curriculum developed by North America’s Building Trades Unions (NABTU) National Training Directors. These programs provide a gateway for local residents, particularly those from underserved communities, including women, people of color and transitioning veterans, to gain access to the building trades’ state-approved and registered apprenticeship programs. The Multi-Craft Core Curriculum (MC3) is a standardized comprehensive pre-apprenticeship curriculum that delivers an industry-recognized credential. Job seekers get to explore different trades through these introductory programs and decide which one is the best fit. The building trades and construction contractors get a pool of qualified, diverse candidates who have received a minimum of 120 hours of rigorous instruction.

To become an MC3 training provider, an entity must contact a local building trades council in the entity’s area of operation. For approval as a new MC3 provider, a building trades council must submit an MC3 Implementation Plan to the NABTU for approval and for specific instructions on access to and use of the curriculum.

Organizing Regionally

Labor markets and industry are both organized regionally. Organizing workforce and education programs regionally increases the likelihood that workforce and education programs can be aligned to serve the needs of labor markets. The means to do this is regular ongoing industry engagement and the building of partnerships with industry and those agencies and departments, and other stakeholders whose programs and services directly impact the ability of the state’s workforce and education programs to service industry needs while also helping job seekers get the skills they need to succeed in the labor market.

Regional organizing efforts should aim for the development value-added partnerships that not only help achieve the policy goals of the partnership but also help partners achieve their organizational goals. A value-added partnership is one in which all partners gain from the relationships built through the organizing process. Ideally, “gains to exchange” will occur as long as partners transact with one another on the basis of specialization by providing services consistent with each programs’ core competencies. Partners are thereby able to leverage one another’s expertise, building a proverbial “sum that is greater than its parts.” When fashioned in this manner, regionally organized programs economize the use of scarce resources, while also allowing program operators to take programs to scale, reduce administrative costs, and package and coordinate services on the basis of specialization.

Federal and California state law both encourage efforts to align workforce and educational programs at the regional level in order to align programs with each other and regional labor market dynamics.

Prior to the passage of WIOA, California passed SB 118 (T. Lieu, Chapter 361, Statutes of 2013), SB 1402 (T. Lieu, Chapter 361, Statutes 2012), and SB 698 (T. Lieu, Chapter 497, Statutes of 2011). Collectively these statutes directed the state’s workforce and community colleges workforce programs to think, plan, and invest regionally.

• SB 118 added regionally focused “sector strategies” language to what was then called the California Workforce Investment Act and directed the State Board to work with relevant educational, workforce, and economic development agencies, at the state and local levels, to ensure regional coordination and alignment of programs with regional industry needs.
• SB 1402 reauthorized the CCCCO Economic and Workforce Development Program (EWD) and recast the policy direction of the program to align program investments with regional labor market dynamics. SB 1402 also directed program operators to employ sector strategies and to facilitate the development of career pathway programs aligned with regional industry sector needs. Much of the policy language in SB 1402 is similar, if not always identical to, the language contained in SB 118.
• SB 698 directs the State Board to work with Local Boards to develop policies and standards for certification of Local Boards as “high performance” boards. These policies and standards are intended to encourage the involvement of major regional employers and industry groups in the Local Board planning process, the regional coordination and alignment of workforce and education services, and investments in training and education programs that align with regional labor market needs.

The new federal law also directs states to develop policies that enable the building of regional partnerships. WIOA specifically directs the Governor to designate regional planning areas aligned with regional labor markets so as to facilitate the implementation of sector strategies, the coordination of service delivery, the pooling of administrative costs, and the collective development of shared strategies among regionally organized Local Boards to ensure accountability and overall program performance.

From the State Board’s perspective, the objective of regional organizing efforts is not to create monolithic one-size-fits-all uniform workforce and education programs, but rather to coordinate service delivery on the basis of programs strengths while also aligning partner programs with each region’s particular labor market needs. The exact manner in which these partnerships come together will vary from region to region based on the unique set of circumstances that shape each region’s workforce needs.

Providing Supportive Services

Many of the clients served by the state’s workforce and education programs face barriers to employment that also undermine their ability to complete a training or educational program which could help them upskill or reskill in a manner that increases their labor market prospects.

Whether individuals being served have disabilities, face employment discrimination, lack basic education, or grapple with poverty, it is evident that individuals often need access to a broad array of ancillary services to help them complete training or education programs and successfully enter the labor market.

Supportive services provided through the state’s workforce and education programs include everything from academic and career counseling, to subsidized childcare and dependent care, to transportation vouchers, to payment for books, uniforms, and course equipment, to substance abuse treatment, as well as the use of assistive technology for California’s disabled population. Supportive services may also include licensing fees, legal assistance, housing assistance, emergency assistance, and other needs-related payments that are necessary to enable an individual to participate in career and training services.

Supportive services are awarded to individuals in financial need, based on individual assessment and the availability of funds. Supportive service awards are intended to enable an individual to participate in workforce-funded programs and activities to secure and retain employment.

Which type of supportive services should be provided depends on each particular client’s needs and background, as well as the eligibility criteria for various services offered by state plan partner programs. The exact menu of services offered to program participants will vary from region to region and locality to locality, but state policy pertaining to One-Stop design and customer-centered service delivery provides for a comprehensive level of baseline service at the AJCCs.

Local and regionally organized workforce development boards will be encouraged to go beyond baseline service requirements to tailor-make a menu of services that suits their client populations’ specific needs while reinforcing partnerships developed at the local and regional level.

Building Cross System Data Capacity

Under this State Plan, the following types of data will guide the design and evaluation of workforce and education programs in California:

• Diagnostic data pertaining to the relative importance of the different industries, sectors, and occupations throughout California.
• Diagnostic data analyzing the extent to which state education and training programs are preparing students and workers with the requisite industry-recognized skills and credentials to meet employer’s skills needs and future industry demand for trained workers in relevant sectors and occupations across California’s regions.
• Performance data on workforce and education programs, including required WIOA performance data.
• To the extent feasible, broader performance data, including impact analyses and return on investment studies that allow one to assess the value of the state’s workforce and education programs, as well as the ability to track outcomes longitudinally to assess and evaluate the effectiveness of career pathways.

Diagnostic data are intended to help steer investment to help ensure that programs align with labor market trends and needs by looking at patterns of job growth as well as aggregate education and training program output with respect to the number of degrees and certificates received and industry recognized credentials awarded. Performance data are intended to measure typical program outcomes for individuals receiving services while helping quantify skills attainment and degree and credential production.

State law in California directs the State Board and the Economic and Workforce Development (EWD), program of the CCCCO to operate workforce and education programs that are “data driven and evidence based”. (See, for example, SB 118, T. Lieu, Chapter 562, Statutes of 2013, and SB 1402, T. Lieu, Chapter 361, Statutes 2012).

SB 118 (T. Lieu, Chapter 562, Statutes of 2013), specifically requires that the State Board provide periodic “skills-gap analysis enumerating occupational and skills shortages in the industry sectors and industry clusters identified as having strategic importance to the state’s economy and its regional economies,” and then use this analysis “to specify a list of high-priority, in-demand occupations for the state and its regional economies.”

SB 1402 (T. Lieu, Chapter 361, Statutes 2012) requires that the CCCCO EWD program which provides financial support, technical assistance, and policy guidance to community college CTE programs, report performance data for the programs it funds. These data must include all of the following:

• measures of skills or competency attainment for those who receive training or education under the program;
• measures relevant to program completion, including measures of course, certificate, degree, and program of study rates of completion;
• measures of employment placement or measures of educational progression, such as transfer readiness, depending on whether the client is entering the labor market or continuing in education;
• measures of income, including wage measures for those who have entered the labor market following completion of the education or workforce training services offered under the program, ; and
• quantitative assessment of impacts on businesses which may include data pertaining to profitability, labor productivity, workplace injuries, employer cost savings resulting from improved business processes, levels of customer satisfaction, employee retention rates, estimates of new revenue generated, sales, and market penetration, as well as information pertaining to new products or services developed.

AB 104 (Assembly Budget Committee, Chapter 13, Statutes of 2015) requires that adult education providers working together in regional consortia develop a shared system of performance assessment that captures the following data:

• How many adults are served by members of the consortium
• How many adults served by members of the consortium have demonstrated improved literacy skills
• Completion of high school diplomas or their recognized equivalents
• Completion of postsecondary certificates, degrees, or training programs,
• Placement into jobs
• Improved wages

AB 2148 (K. Mullin, Chapter 385, Statutes of 2014) mandates the creation of an Internet-based, annual workforce metrics dashboard that includes information on participant outcomes from community college career technical education, ETP programs, WIA and WIOA Title I Adult, Youth, Dislocated Workers, and Title II AEPs, as well as Trade Adjustment Assistance, and state apprenticeship programs. These programs must provide data to measure the following:

• program completion, degree and certificate completion;
• demographic participation, including veteran status, age, gender, race/ethnicity; and
• wage and labor market outcomes.

Like state law, WIOA requires the uses of regional labor market data for strategic planning and investment purposes, and requires performance reporting to measure program outcomes.

WIOA requires the use of the labor market data in the development WIOA regional plans and requires EDD’s LMID to provide regional labor market data to facilitate regional planning.

Performance measures required under WIOA are similar to those required under state law and could conceivably be used to meet some California statutory requirements under SB 1402, AB 104, and AB 2148. These measures include the following:

• Participant employment, measured two quarters and four quarters after program exit.
• Median wage of employed program participants two quarters after exit.
• In-program, measurable skills gain of program participants in an education or training program leading to a postsecondary degree (methodology yet to be determined).
• Postsecondary credential or secondary degree attainment by program participants measured during participation or within one year after program exit.
• One or more measures of program effectiveness serving employers (measures yet to be determined).
• For youth programs, the share of program participants who are employed or who have been placed in an education or training program within two quarters and four quarters after program exit.

Under this State Plan, the State Board will identify opportunities to work with plan partners to share and, to the extent feasible, integrate both diagnostic and performance data to optimize program performance of all state plan partners.

Integrating Services and Braiding Resources

Integrating service delivery and braiding resources are ways that workforce and education programs can achieve program alignment and assure access to the broad array of services funded across the state’s workforce and education programs. In California, resources will be braided and services integrated and aligned through the creation of “value-added”
partnerships at the state, regional, and local levels.

A value-added partnership is one in which all partners gain from the partnership. Ideally, “gains to exchange” occur and partners transact with one another on the basis of specialization, providing services consistent with each programs’ core competencies. Partners thereby leverage one another’s expertise, building a proverbial “sum that is greater than its parts.”

This approach to service delivery can take many forms but perhaps is best exemplified in the use of the AJCCs. WIOA maintains the One-Stop career center delivery system initiated under WIA, but re-focuses the system on skills development, attainment of industry-recognized/industry relevant credentials and degrees, and prioritization of career pathways in high demand sectors.

WIOA gives AJCC staff the flexibility to provide services based on the needs of the job seeker by eliminating the sequence of service provision of WIA, combining WIA core and intensive services into a new category called “career services”, and by eliminating the requirement that job seeking customers must participate in multiple activities before entering into training.

For those who need it, services should provide job-seeking individuals with skills and tools necessary for successful participation in education and training programs that result in credentials/degrees and employment in career pathways in in-demand occupations. . In California, this will occur in a variety of ways depending on the needs of both employers and the client base in each regional and local area. Under the new model, One-Stops will continue to provide the full menu of One-Stop services, now known under WIOA as “career services”, and will continue to function as labor exchanges, especially for those dislocated workers who do not need further training to reenter the labor market; however, there will be much greater emphasis on treating AJCCs as an access point for education and training services for those who want and need access to opportunities for further skills training as a pathway to job placement.

[1] UIC 14005(o)(1)

[2] UIC 14005

[3] UIC 14013(d)(2).