Narrative: III. b. 3. B. ii.

The Workforce Training and Education Coordinating Board is a Governor-appointed partnership of nine voting members from business, labor, and government. Non-voting members also participate.

The Workforce Board:

• Advises the Governor and Legislature on workforce development policy.
• Ensures the state’s workforce services and programs work together.
• Evaluates the performance of Washington's key workforce programs.

Two-thirds of voting seats are held equally by business and labor representatives. Remaining seats are held by major service providers. This means customers have a direct, influential voice in all decision-making. With business and labor at the table, we get a real-world view of our challenges and opportunities--and take action on them.

Our workforce customers have a broad range of ages, abilities and backgrounds--from high school students who require relevant, applied learning to stay in school, to low-skilled working adults who need more education to earn a living wage, to the recently laid off retooling for new careers. We advocate for lifelong learning so all workers become better educated and better skilled--keeping our workforce, and our state, competitive.

The Workforce Board coordinates 16 workforce programs (Title I, Title II, Title III, and Title IV WIOA Programs; Postsecondary Professional Technical Education, Worker Retraining Program, Job Skills Program, Customized Training Program, Secondary Career and Technical Education Programs, Training Benefits Program, Apprenticeships, Perkins Act programs, and the Private Vocational Schools Act), administered by seven agencies. We measure the performance of programs accounting for about 95 percent of federal and state dollars spent on our workforce system--or roughly $780 million per year.

Researchers, policy analysts and managers prepare and analyze our detailed reports on everything from worker skill gaps to how effectively our state's programs train workers to fill jobs. Staff members have expertise in a wide range of disciplines but specialize in outreach and building partnerships.

Washington state law provides an explicit list of the Board’s functions at RCW 28C.18.060. The board, in cooperation with the operating agencies of the state training system and private career schools and colleges, shall:  

• Concentrate its major efforts on planning, coordination evaluation, policy analysis, and recommending improvements to the state's training system;
• Advocate for the state training system and for meeting the needs of employers and the workforce for workforce education and training;
• Establish and maintain an inventory of the programs of the state training system, and related state programs, and perform a biennial assessment of the vocational education, training, and adult basic education and literacy needs of the state; identify ongoing and strategic education needs; and assess the extent to which employment, training, vocational and basic education, rehabilitation services, and public assistance services represent a consistent, integrated approach to meet such needs;
• Develop and maintain a state comprehensive plan for workforce training and education, including but not limited to, goals, objectives, and priorities for the state training system, and review the state training system for consistency with the state comprehensive plan. In developing the state comprehensive plan for workforce training and education, the board shall use, but shall not be limited to: Economic, labor market, and populations trends reports in office of financial management forecasts; joint office of financial management and employment security department labor force, industry employment, and occupational forecasts; the results of scientifically based outcome, net-impact and cost-benefit evaluations; the needs of employers as evidenced in formal employer surveys and other employer input; and the needs of program participants and workers as evidenced in formal surveys and other input from program participants and the labor community;
• In consultation with the student achievement council, review and make recommendations to the office of financial management and the legislature on operating and capital facilities budget requests for operating agencies of the state training system for purposes of consistency with the state comprehensive plan for workforce training and education;
• Provide for coordination among the different operating agencies and components of the state training system at the state level and at the regional level;
• Develop a consistent and reliable database on vocational education enrollments, costs, program activities, and job placements from publicly funded vocational education programs in this state;
  • Establish standards for data collection and maintenance for the operating agencies of the state training system in a format that is accessible to use by the board. The board shall require a minimum of common core data to be collected by each operating agency of the state training system;
• Develop requirements for minimum common core data in consultation with the office of financial management and the operating agencies of the training system;
• Establish minimum standards for program evaluation for the operating agencies of the state training system, including, but not limited to, the use of common survey instruments and procedures for measuring perceptions of program participants and employers of program participants, and monitor such program evaluation;
• Every two years administer scientifically based outcome evaluations of the state training system, including, but not limited to, surveys of program participants, surveys of employers of program participants, and matches with employment security department payroll and wage files. Every five years administer scientifically based net-impact and cost-benefit evaluations of the state training system;
• In cooperation with the employment security department, provide for the improvement and maintenance of quality and utility in occupational information and forecasts for use in training system planning and evaluation. Improvements shall include, but not be limited to, development of state-based occupational change factors involving input by employers and employees, and delineation of skill and training requirements by education level associated with current and forecasted occupations;
• Provide for the development of common course description formats, common reporting requirements, and common definitions for operating agencies of the training system;
• Provide for effectiveness and efficiency reviews of the state training system;
• In cooperation with the student achievement council, facilitate transfer of credit policies and agreements between institutions of the state training system, and encourage articulation agreements for programs encompassing two years of secondary workforce education and two years of postsecondary workforce education; 
• In cooperation with the student achievement council, facilitate transfer of credit policies and agreements between private training institutions and institutions of the state training system; 
• Develop policy objectives for the workforce investment act, P.L. 105-220, or its successor; develop coordination criteria for activities under the act with related programs and services provided by state and local education and training agencies; and ensure that entrepreneurial training opportunities are available through programs of each local workforce investment board in the state; 
• Make recommendations to the commission of student assessment, the state board of education, and the superintendent of public instruction, concerning basic skill competencies and essential core competencies for K-12 education. Basic skills for this purpose shall be reading, writing, computation, speaking, and critical thinking, essential core competencies for this purpose shall be English, math, science/technology, history, geography, and critical thinking. The board shall monitor the development of and provide advice concerning secondary curriculum which integrates vocational and academic education; 
• Establish and administer programs for marketing and outreach to businesses and potential program participants;
• Facilitate the location of support services, including but not limited to, child care, financial aid, career counseling, and job placement services, for students and trainees at institutions in the state training system, and advocate for support services for trainees and students in the state training system;
• Facilitate private sector assistance for the state training system, including but not limited to: Financial assistance, rotation of private and public personnel, and vocational counseling; 
• Facilitate the development of programs for school-to-work transition that combine classroom education and on-the-job training, including entrepreneurial education and training, in industries and occupations without a significant number of apprenticeship programs; 
• Include in the planning requirements for local workforce investment boards a requirement that the local workforce investment boards specify how entrepreneurial training is to be offered through the one-stop system required under the workforce investment act, P.L. 105-220, or its successor; 
• Encourage and assess progress for the equitable representation of racial and ethnic minorities, women, and people with disabilities among the students, teachers, and administrators of the state training system. Equitable, for this purpose, shall mean substantially proportional to their percentage of the state population in the geographic area served. This function of the board shall in no way lessen more stringent state or federal requirements for representation of racial and ethnic minorities, women, and people with disabilities; 
• Participate in the planning and policy development of governor set-aside grants under P.L. 97-300, as amended; 
• Administer veterans' programs, licensure of private vocational schools, the job skills program, and the Washington award for vocational excellence; 
• Allocate funding from the state job training trust fund; 
• Work with the director of commerce to ensure coordination among workforce training priorities and economic development and entrepreneurial development efforts, including but not limited to assistance to industry clusters; 
• Conduct research into workforce development programs designed to reduce the high unemployment rate among young people between approximately eighteen and twenty-four years of age. In consultation with the operating agencies, the board shall advise the governor and legislature on policies and programs to alleviate the high unemployment rate among young people. The research shall include disaggregated demographic information and, to the extent possible, income data for adult youth. The research shall also include a comparison of the effectiveness of programs examined as a part of the research conducted in this subsection in relation to the public investment made in these programs in reducing unemployment of young adults.