Narrative: II. a. 2. B.

Career Services Strengths:

The 13 required elements of career services address are naturally embed in a career pathway system. From entry into the system in the resource areas of One-Stops, to the partnerships with community-based organizations, most, if not all of the career services provided are regional or localized to individual labor markets. This is achieved through constant input from regional and local employers through employer engagement on local workforce development boards, participation in focus groups and career fairs. Minnesota’s workforce development system providers also represent the growing diversity of our state’s population, with community engagement by local providers enhancing and expanding services to assist with emerging populations and issues, specifically people of color, individuals with disabilities and disconnected youth. The employer and community engagement also contribute to the customer-centered design, offering individualized or culturally appropriate approaches.

Minnesota utilizes a variety of funding and resources to provide career services activities, drawing form federal, state, local and philanthropic organizations. The reinstatement of the full Governor’s set aside budget and a recently awarded Workforce Innovation Fund grant provide a much needed infusion of funds to support the updating of career services that will be pursued, including technology upgrades, and streamlining services to more effectively serve job seekers.

Minnesota also oversees several key workforce development programs that seek to address the state’s economic disparities including:

• Business Competitive Grants: The program supports nonprofit organizations that provide business assistance to targeted groups including women, minorities, rural residents, innovative startups, entrepreneurs, inventors and people with disabilities. • Pathways to Prosperity: The program uses a career pathway design in meeting the skills needs of businesses and individuals. The program’s innovative approach helps educationally under-prepared adults succeed in well-paying careers by integrating basic skills education and training in fields where these skills are in-demand. • Youth at Work: Provides job training and placement to Minnesota’s youth population, in addition to access to networks and problem-solving skills, to support their long-term careers. Each of these sources provide opportunities to review policy and programming requirements or plan approval to support efforts and ensure a standard of service delivery. Aspects of system management of career services included shared calendaring and data systems across all Workforce Centers and within all Adult Basic Education programs. Customer satisfaction tools are also utilized in various ways, to assist providers with continuous improvement of their services.

Career Services Weaknesses:

A career pathways approach to Career Services presents several opportunities for improving our services. At the highest level, the biggest opportunity for change is the approach to serving job seekers – from helping them obtain their next job, to helping them understand their potential career pathway opportunities and the tools to help them become self-directed in pursuing their pathway.

The value of more purposeful employer engagement will be authentic and well-articulated pathways. These pathways will highlight the skills, both soft and technical, and experience requirements; educational and credential requirements; and other special needs for a given set of related occupations. Understanding these pathways will enable better design of content based on labor market analytics and other real-time needs of employers. More purposeful community engagement will address the needs to understand barriers within the system that impact greater access to career services that result in better employment opportunities and outcomes.

Customer-centered design efforts will improve access to services and the quality of services needed to address people of color, individuals with disabilities and disconnected youth. More culturally relevant environments, including staff reflecting diversity of communities; accessible materials and websites or web tools; and outreach strategies engage job seekers where they are located are examples of how Minnesota can improve the design of career services.

The strategies and actions for addressing these weaknesses in the system will be led by the regional partnerships and the local workforce development boards. Through the regional planning process, each region will be required to zero in on in-demand occupations, specific populations experiencing inequities in educational and employment outcomes, and creating business led sector partnerships that provide the necessary input for the local boards to direct and guide the workforce development system investments in their region that contribute to the foundation of career services.

Funding and resources for career services presents a challenge under WIOA. Career services are intended to not only serve program eligible individuals but also the general public. With the lack of dedicated funding for career services and a base level requirement that requires substantial financial support, it has begun to strain the existing funding streams that are also intended for training activities. This ties closely to the need for policies and programs to be updated, leveraging new approaches and use of technology to become more efficient and uniform across system providers.

System management approaches and tools are also needed to help monitor and measure the impact of new strategies and tools. Approaches may include standardized tools for initial assessments that can be shared across required partners or tools that create a shared intake process to streamline program access and referrals, as well as other best practices.

The strategies and actions for addressing these weaknesses in the system will be led by the Governor’s State Board and Cabinet Agencies that oversee the programs participating in the State Combined Plan. Minnesota continues to experience shifts in funding and resources. This, combined with expanding approaches to career services under WIOA, will require innovative approaches and stronger coordination of efforts through policy and program updates. Technology solutions through system management approaches will be key to bridging existing divides that exist within career services. Minnesota has begun to explore options in this area through the WIF granted awarded last year and is pending approval of an implementation plan.

Training Services Strengths:

Minnesota’s training services reflect the key elements of a career pathways system. Based on the BEST model from the state of Washington, Minnesota modeled its Pathways to Prosperity initiative on a career pathways approach. This initiative drew heavily upon employer and community engagement for identifying the initial career pathways and targeted populations selected and included a customer-centered design that offered a career navigator to assist with coordinating the required supports to ensure a higher completion and employment rate, with an ultimate goal of a career and family sustaining wage.

Many of the career pathway projects have specifically addressed services for people of color, individuals with disabilities and disconnected youth. The results of these initial efforts demonstrated promise and work has continued to evolve in this area. Minnesota’s two year postsecondary education institutions and adult basic education also draw heavily on employer engagement to ensure curriculum and skill requirements remain relevant. This process is leveraged by multiple partners, such as the department of corrections, and serves a strong base for meeting the training needs of employers.

Minnesota also has strengths in the area of funding and resources. State, local and philanthropic support for workforce development makes a substantial contribution to the state’s workforce development system. Strong performance by the local boards and service providers has led to the awarding of WIA incentive funds and competitive grants; state appropriations that support additional youth services; services to individuals with disabilities; dislocated and incumbent workers; and adult basic education. Most of these resources augment the activities under WIOA. There are also significant resource coordination activities related to training activities, such as the Youth Practitioners Network, the local workforce development boards and efforts by CBO coalitions.

Activities have further support through changes or creation of new policy and programming development specific to career pathways projects serving low income adult populations. Minnesota has strong working relationships between the agencies that oversee the WIOA titles and the Department of Human services, which oversees the TANF and SNAP E&T programs. Carl D. Perkins, a newly required partner under WIOA, also contributes to the policy discussions, through the mapping of career pathways and their understanding of articulation and matriculation needs to align with postsecondary institutional requirements. The majority of the special programming in career pathway pilots have included or required these types of partnerships which will contribute to policy and program changes.

These efforts also support work in the area of System Management, currently anchored, from a data perspective, within WorkforceOne. This system supports data management and sharing across WIOA titles I and IV; TANF and SNAP E&T, including all of the local partners delivering the related services. This system is also moving toward having participant documents stored electronically, streamlining administrative activities and monitoring.

Training Services Weaknesses:

A career pathways approach to training services is multi-faceted and extends well beyond the required titles of WIOA and the authorizing federal legislation for all the required partners. The largest investment in the workforce development system occur in K-12 and postsecondary education. Stronger and more articulated alignment across the span of education that lead to an industry recognized credential are critical. Disconnects also exist with other barriers, such as social stigmas associated with poor educational attainment, limited English proficiencies and disabilities.

The opportunities and benefits of a career pathways system for the individual are more purposeful with employer engagement which will be authenticated through well-articulated pathways. The education and credential requirements specifically the content, driven by employer engagement, needs to be contextualized into the various facets of education. Access to training or education through the delivery, driven by community engagement, needs to recognize and provide alternative approaches to learning and recognition of learning, including work-based opportunities.

Minnesota’s Pathways to Prosperity projects demonstrated the need for and potential success for a customer-centered design and approach. Success requires providing career navigators to assist with the coordination of support services and an alternative to scheduling and instructional approaches. In implementing Pathways to Prosperity and other career pathway initiatives, the state has a better understanding to broaden the scale-ability in moving the system statewide. This is one of, if not the most critical element for broader success of implementing WIOA and a career pathway system.

The strategies and actions for addressing these weaknesses in the system will be led by the regional partnerships and the local workforce development boards. Through the regional planning process, each region will be required to zero in on in-demand occupations, specific populations experiencing inequities in educational and employment outcomes, and creating business led sector partnerships that provide the necessary input for the local boards to direct and guide the workforce development system investments in their region that contribute to the delivery of training services in a more accessible and usable way for populations experiencing inequities in educational and employment outcomes.

Funding and resources strategies will also support developing new approaches to training services. Examples of needs in this area are the level of career counseling in high schools, the number of youth who do not finish high school or connect to post-secondary education, and the number of students requiring developmental education courses prior to starting a post-secondary field of study. These issues reflect inefficient or ineffective use of resources. Through better alignment, programs and policies can guide changes in the system’s approach to education and life-long learning. This is one of the greatest weaknesses of WIOA, with shrinking funds and more mandates on activities and processes.

Improving system management will require a coordinated effort of state agencies, state agency boards, local workforce development and school boards, and service providers across the system. Stemming from a shared vision and an understanding of outcomes and common measures, efforts need to focus on developing better approaches to measuring system processes and outcomes that validate a career pathway system and support the needs of a high quality workforce. This should be a long-term goal, based on how the other components and elements develop in this plan.

The strategies and actions for addressing these weaknesses in the system will be led by the Governor’s State Board and Cabinet Agencies that oversee the programs participating in the State Combined Plan. Minnesota continues to experience shifts in funding and resources. This, combined with expanding approaches to training services under WIOA, will require innovative approaches and stronger coordination of efforts through policy and program updates. Minnesota is fast becoming a State funding dominated system in relation to federal funding for workforce development and the associated programs in the Combined Plan. This phenomenon will require a thoughtful approach to charting the future of workforce development in Minnesota.

Business Services Strengths:

Current business services involve a high degree of employer engagement. From those represented on the local workforce development boards, participating on training advisory groups with postsecondary education, employers provides direction to business services in Minnesota. Community engagement is a growing area of activity, as we work to address disparate impact among people of color, individuals with disabilities and disconnected youth. This presents a unique opportunity to bridge the divides of cultural differences and work place expectations. One recent example includes a workshop for employers to support their development of cultural competence in attracting and retaining a diverse quality workforce. A better understanding of the needs of employers and communities can lead to customer-centered design of services that benefit both job seekers and employers.

Funding and resource needs for business services are supported at a basic level. There are multiple approaches to business services, and many are implemented with the support of our partners. Policy and programming guidance also exists at multiple levels and supports a variety of goals and initiatives.

One of the improving developments of the state’s services is related to system management. SalesForce is a customer relationship management application that is used by several of the partners, including economic developers and chambers of commerce. With improvements in technology the partners have an interest maximizing the tool for better coordination, effective services for employers, and the impact of services.

Business Services Weaknesses:

Re-envisioning business services under WIOA and through a career pathway lens presents a number of opportunities to address weaknesses. Clearly employer engagement is occurring, but could be done in a far more purposeful and targeted way through sector partnerships. Employer-led sector partnerships provide a better understanding and focus on the needs and skills needed within occupations. Building authentic and articulated career pathways expands access in these sectors and establishes better connections and communications with employers, thus more explicitly demonstrating the value of their engagement.

Community engagement also benefits business services. Businesses are social organizations and understanding and capturing the strengths of a diverse workforce is essential to business success. Addressing cultural competency needs of businesses will directly impact the socio-economic needs of disparately impacted populations. The opportunity for expanding business services is in building the cultural competency of employers, bridging the divides that have contributed to disparities and have hampered the prosperity of the businesses and communities. Employer engagement and community engagement will support the needs for strengthening the customer centered design of services for businesses.

The strategies and actions for addressing these weaknesses in the system will be led by the regional partnerships and the local workforce development boards. Through the regional planning process, each region will be required to zero in on in-demand occupations, specific populations experiencing inequities in educational and employment outcomes, and creating business led sector partnerships that provide the necessary input for the local boards to direct and guide the workforce development system investments in their region that contribute to the delivery of business services in a way that enables them to tap the skills and going diversity of Minnesota’s workforce.

Funding and resources for business services also presents opportunities for better employer services. Relative to other aspects of the workforce development system, business services is probably among the least strategically coordinated activities in the system, due to the complexities of economic development activities and the continuing changing needs of the workforce in a global economy. On the surface, it can seem that these two factors are at odds with each other, but through a more strategic career pathways approach, better coordination and strategies should emerge, along with policy and program changes, that should support workforce and economic development activities becoming more mutually beneficial.

Finally, we need to look at opportunities for a system management approach that monitors and measures the right things. WIOA will eventually require performance metrics for business services, but will not be available until after WIOA is implemented. The Aspen Institute has proposed an approach that has merit. It looks at three levels of business services – 1) transactional services, looking at basic labor exchange services; 2) transformational services to individual businesses, looking at workforce development planning; needs of individual firms; and 3) transformational services to industry sectors, looking at sector based strategies for meeting shared needs of a given industry. These three levels of services lend themselves to a career pathway system and will guide discussions in Minnesota while we wait for further guidance from the U.S. Department of Labor, under WIOA.

The strategies and actions for addressing these weaknesses in the system will be led by the Governor’s State Board and Cabinet Agencies that oversee the programs participating in the State Combined Plan. Minnesota continues to experience gaps in business services activities. This, combined with expanding need for individual agency approaches to building specific relationships with individual employers is problematic for the system. The State Board will be addressing continuous improvement needs and efforts in relation to business services, looking for strategies and approaches that unify efforts to best serve business while meeting the needs of program providers. The state agencies will begin to assess policies that will assist with alignment and better coordination of activities and services for business.