Located in:
- III. Operational Planning Elements
The Unified or Combined State Plan must include an Operational Planning Elements section that supports the State’s strategy and the system-wide vision described in Section II(c) above. Unless otherwise noted, all Operational Planning Elements apply to Combined State Plan partner programs included in the plan as well as to core programs. This section must include—
- a. State Strategy Implementation
The Unified or Combined State Plan must include–
- 2. Implementation of State Strategy
Describe how the lead State agency with responsibility for the administration of each core program or a Combined Plan partner program included in this plan will implement the State’s Strategies identified in Section II(c). above. This must include a description of—
- 2. Implementation of State Strategy
- a. State Strategy Implementation
III. a. 2. B. Alignment with Activities Outside the Plan
Describe how the activities identified in (A) will be aligned with programs and activities provided by required one-stop partners and other optional one-stop partners and activities provided under employment, training (including Registered Apprenticeships), education (including career and technical education), human services and other programs not covered by the plan, as appropriate, assuring coordination of, and avoiding duplication among these activities.
Current Narrative:
This plan aims to ensure that the alignment of activities between core programs and partners to improve coordination of employment and training activities and avoid duplication of services to customers. Below are some examples of coordinated efforts currently in practice:
I. Engaging At-Risk Youth through LWDA/High School Partnerships
Understanding that the goal of keeping school-age youth engaged in constructive educational experiences is reducing the risk of truancy, crime and violence. LWC’s Office of Workforce Development works with several local areas to approach public schools and school boards about the possibility of partnering to offer assistance to youth at risk of exiting high school before graduation. The results are cooperative endeavor agreements signed by LWDB chairs and directors, high school principals and public school superintendents to ensure a “soft handoff” occurs the moment these students are removed from the school’s enrollment. Immediately, they are enrolled into WIOA once eligibility has been formally established.
II. Louisiana Jump Start Initiative - Employer Engagement- Department of Education
The Louisiana Department of Education (K-12), is in the process of revamping their initiative that offers Career Technical Education (CTE) to high school students in grades 10 through 12. This initiative, known as JumpStart, provides classroom training and work experience in-demand occupations in Louisiana through unpaid internships provided industry partners. Participating students are able to obtain high school credit hours, college course credits, and industry certifications, all leading to high school diplomas. In some instances, students are able to graduate high school with associate degrees, beginning their professional careers in technical fields immediately after completing high school with a dual degree. Fast Forward is an initiative that allows students to dually earn a high school diploma and a technical associate degree or participate in a Louisiana Workforce Commission registered pre-apprenticeship/apprenticeship. In this program students spend grades 9 and 10 on the high school campus earning core graduation requirements and the majority of grades 11 and 12 at a postsecondary site or in apprenticeship.
Essential to the program’s success is employer engagement. Employers within targeted industries must be willing to engage high school students through internship opportunities, providing students with on-the-job training and career mentors.
The reworking of Jumpstart (Jumpstart 2.0) is striving to eliminate duplication of efforts to engage business leaders and overtaxing of resources by working cooperatively through LWDBs and Perkins V Regional Coordinators to actively plan and implement career and technical education and training through the regional teams which align with the RLMAs designated by LWC. These teams are comprised of education (K-12, community, and technical colleges), private business, economic development organizations, local One-Stop operators, public sector leaders, re-entry coordinators, and others. These teams are actively working to streamline the process of business engagement.
Local and regional workforce plans will be evaluated to ensure they align with the state’s initiatives to support this process. This process is just one solution to promote business engagement as it relates to opportunities for youth and adults in need of training and work experience.
III. Louisiana Board of Regents – Master Plan
To move Louisiana aggressively forward, the Board of Regents has embraced a robust new attainment goal that calls for 60% of all working-age adults (ages 25-64) in Louisiana to hold a degree or high-value credential by 2030.
IV. Registered Apprenticeship-LWC
The Apprenticeship Division is working to improve our collaboration with the Local Workforce Development Boards through the initiatives of our Apprenticeship State Expansion (ASE) and State Apprenticeship Expansion 2020 (SAE2020) grants awarded to the LWC by USDOL. Some of these initiatives include supplementing WIOA by reimbursing a portion of the local boards’ funds spent on apprentices for On-the-Job Training (OJT) Contracts and Individual Training Accounts (ITAs). We currently have sub-awards with three local boards for our ASE grant, and we’re working to coordinate more through assistance provided by Maria Brady, USDOL Multi-State Navigator.
The SAE2020 grant includes three Apprenticeship Navigator positions, housed in local offices, to improve the integration of Registered Apprenticeship and WIOA throughout the state. Each navigator will be responsible for two to three of the eight regions. LWC has hired one navigator presently in northern Louisiana. We aim to hire the other two shortly for southeast and southwest Louisiana.
Our website ApprenticeshipLA.com continues to provide a statewide WIOA pre-screening form to determine potential WIOA eligibility for apprentice applicants. Online applications are forwarded to the appropriate local AJC for eligibility and enrollment in WIOA funded services. This provides the opportunity to bridge potential gaps between outreach and recruitment of eligible populations allowing the use of multiple funding streams to support a common activity between partners. The pre-screening form increases the potential for determining eligibility and providing more robust service delivery.
Louisiana Workforce Commission hosted and/or took part in four events for National Apprenticeship Week 2021:
- Statewide Apprenticeship Fair
Through LWC's virtual job fair platform, job seekers were able to communicate with programs and inquire about Registered Apprenticeship opportunities throughout the State of Louisiana in a variety of different industries and career paths.
- LOSFA 2021 Louisiana Virtual Apprenticeship Expo
LOSFA hosted a statewide virtual expo for high school students, highlighting the benefits of Registered Apprenticeship as a career pathway. This event featured speakers from LOFSA, USDOL, and LWC, as well as recent apprentices.
- Urban Youth Apprenticeship Career and Resource Expo
The Urban League of Louisiana hosted an Expo for in-school youth at Scotlandville Magnet High School. The event allowed high school students the opportunity to learn about Registered Apprenticeship and meet with employers to explore career opportunities following high school.
- Registered Apprenticeship Healthcare Accelerator with H-CAP
The Healthcare Career Advancement Program in partnership with LWC provided a webinar to healthcare providers across the state to promote Registered Apprenticeship as the solution to their workforce needs.
A key strategy identified in the Louisiana Combined Plan goals and objectives is the expansion of the use of Registered Apprenticeship programs where employer and employee are equally committed to the program’s success. Registered Apprenticeship programs have demonstrated that employers benefit from lower employee turnover, increased employee productivity, improve employee problem-solving skills, and enhance employee relations.
LWC continues working to develop new non-traditional programs in industries such as health care, information technology, transportation, utilities, and more. The Apprenticeship Division continues to encourage new and existing programs to take advantage of partnership opportunities within our workforce system. We have also presented the benefits of joining the Eligible Training Provider List to Registered Apprenticeship programs not yet included and the process to opt-in.
Provisions in WIOA clearly support the expansion and incorporation of registered apprenticeship as an evidence-based approach to workforce development. Louisiana sees this as an opportunity to create a statewide vision that supports substantive partnerships between LWDBs and Registered Apprenticeship program sponsors.
V. HUD/Public Housing
As with the aforementioned strategies to engage out-of-school youth through partnerships with high schools, efforts to work with public housing authorities funded with Department of Housing and Urban Development dollars have begun and will continue throughout the life of this state plan. The goal is to partner and share resources to provide education and employment services to out-of-school youth and adults living in public housing.
VI. Re-Entry-Department of Corrections
LWC and its local workforce partners have aligned with the Louisiana Department of Corrections on several reentry initiatives across the state. Participants are justice invovled individuals and sentenced to serve time in the re-entry program. This alternative sentencing structure is designed to work with men and women while they are incarcerated in an effort to provide job skills in demand occupations, reducing the chances of recidivism among participants and complying with the terms and conditions of sentencing. Minimally, engagement in the re-entry program ensures the following:
• Inmate receives workforce individualized career services prior to release.
• Inmate must secure employment prior to release.
• Peer mentors are assigned to each inmate.
• Peer mentor must verify the inmate’s readiness for release.
OWD is 100% dedicated to this initiative and has specifically assigned specialized staff toward this initiative working in/with Day Reporting Centers (DRC) to provide individualized career services through the case management framework. LWC has added workforce specialist to assist the DRCs in the Orleans, Jefferson, St Tammany, East Baton Rouge and Caddo Parishes. Furthermore, OWD has increased its presence at nine different specialty courts throughout the state to assist with re-entry barriers to employment.
Additionally, OWD’s Veterans’ Unit offer re-entry services to incarcerated veterans statewide. Staff work with these individuals starting nine months prior to release. They continue to engage both parish and state formerly incarcerated personnel with significant barriers to employment in a concentrated effort of giving people a second chance to become productive, gainfully employed citizens.
LWC ensures that all workforce programs maintain access, equity, inclusion and diversity within a universal service delivery.
VII. Community Service Block Grant
The Community Services Block Grant Unit, as a component of the LWC, Office of Workforce Development, will provide leadership and technical assistance to the local Community Action Agencies (CAAs) to support the collaboration and coordination of their employment and training activities, as well as their supportive services with their local and regional WDBs. CAAs in each region will be included in the Louisiana Career Pathways model development, and are well-positioned to serve as lead partners in the development of “supportive service pathways” or service flow charts for vulnerable populations (i.e. low-skilled, low income, individuals with disabilities, re-entering citizens) focusing on reduction of barriers to employment. The CSBG Unit will achieve this commitment by providing best practices models and supporting innovative strategies that align services to ensure that customers receive the best available employment and training services and employment supports, to achieve their employment and self-sufficiency goals.