Session I: Effective Local Strategies to Boost Quality Job Creation, Employment

and ParticipationRandall W. Eberts

W. E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research

U.S. Department of Labor-OECD LEED Workshop on Workforce Development and Local Job Creation:

An International Perspective18-19 November, 2014

Local Job Creation Strategies

• OECD multi-country project goes beyond the traditional supply-side view of a publicly provided workforce development system

• The project’s innovation is to recognize that the public workforce system can be a more powerful and effective force in helping to create jobs by:– Aligning labor supply-oriented workforce programs with labor demand– Better coordinating programs and services– Partnering with key stakeholders to leverage public resources

• For some countries, these concepts may be revolutionary • For the United States, they have been practiced for some time

– WIA created a governance structure and service-delivery system that offered the opportunity for the U.S. workforce system to integrate workforce development and economic development activities and partner with key stakeholders in local labor markets

• However, practices may be uneven across the decentralized workforce development system

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U.S. Study

• The U.S. study illustrates how LWIAs can create opportunities within the structure of WIA to align, coordinate, and leverage resources

• The study is by no means an evaluation• Rather, the common thematic structure of the study and

the 100-item questionnaire provides a objective and consistent framework with which to compare the workforce development programs across countries

• The lessons drawn from the study and the recommendations offered may be useful in understanding how various factors and circumstances contribute to the ability of some LWIBs to pursue the concepts of integration, alignment, and partnerships more than others

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Four Study Sites

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California Michigan

NorTECH

Sacramento Employmentand Training Agency

SEMCA

Great Lakes BayMichigan Works!

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Job Creation

Boosting skills that meet demand

Stimulating demand by better skill utilization

Aligning programs and

policies

Supporting inclusion

OECD’s four pillars of local job creation strategies

Not simply supply-side concepts, but all require the active engagement of businesses, economic development entities, and educational institutions with workforce agencies.

• Decentralization

• Local decision making

• Alignment with higher-level government agencies

Flexibility and Alignment

• Employers

• Job seekers

• Local providers and intermediaries

Integration and Engagement

• Individualized re-employment programs

• Customized services

• Specialized training

Targeted Services

• Local labor market conditions

• Performance monitoring

• Longitudinal data

Data and Evidence-based

Decisions

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Four Attributes of the U.S. Workforce Systemthat Help Promote Local Job Creation

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Flexibility and Alignment

• Local workforce investment boards (WIBs) are arguably the heart of the WIA system– They administer federal and state labor exchange and job training programs

• WIA is a partnership among the federal, state and local governments– Local WIBs are not agencies of the federal or state governments but are

extensions of a local government unit—typically a county government– Local non-profit organizations are often the administrative entity for the WIB– A fixed-term renewable master contract governs the relationship between the

WIB and the county government• WIBs are governed by their own board, which by law is comprised

predominantly of business leaders who help design local workforce strategy and oversee its implementation and administration

• Most federal and state funding flows through WIBs, which subcontract with other local government agencies and non-government organizations to provide services– Most services are delivered through one-stop career centers– WIA does not allow WIBs to provide services

• This structure allows WIBs to be a catalyst for local collaboration– Partnerships are the focal point for both vertical and horizontal relationships

among the various partners within the workforce development system

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Federal

WIB

State

County Government

WIBs can Serve as Catalysts for Local Partnerships

WIA

Local organizations:

Under contract

Sub-contracts

Businesses

Horizontal relationships extend from the WIBs to their workforce intermediary partners and local social service organizations

Memoranda ofUnderstanding

Other serviceorganizations

WIBs serve as conveners and facilitators of informal relationships among organizations within their jurisdictions

Flexibility and Alignment: Examples

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• In Southeast Michigan LWIBs partner with WIN (Workforce Intelligence Network), a 9-county consortium that includes 7 LWIBs, 8 community colleges, and numerous economic development organizations– Six LWIBs have formed a formal partnership through an MOU that establishes

joint processes that enable the LWIBs to support regional initiatives

• In Sacramento, four LWIBs developed integrated plans for the broader metro region – WIB directors meet regularly among themselves and with key leaders from

partnering organizations, such as SACTO (economic development) Valley Vision (community organizing and minority inclusion) and Los Rios College District

– Informal partnerships are critical in that region, and strong personal relationships and trust among partner leaders have held the partnerships together

Integration and Engagement

• Services are integrated through the one-stop service centers– Services from 16 mandated programs are delivered through the

centers– Job search assistance, training, employer services

• Collaboration among providers and coordination of services• Catalyst for collaboration and formation of partnerships

among economic development organizations and education institutions

• Engage businesses through – Participation on Workforce Investment Boards– As customers of the system– Through partnerships with economic development and

education institutions

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Business Engagement: Examples

• State of California created a state-wide information system (CalJOBS) and made it available to all one-stop service center partners so that they can record contacts made with employers as a method of co-ordinating those contacts

• NoRTECH employs six full-time staff to continuously call on businesses and maintains a “business first” system that assists businesses with retention and expansion efforts

• The Sacramento Training and Response (START) is a partnership of regional economic development entities, business, education, labor, and government and provides businesses with a one-stop services.– To attract a large firm to the Sacramento area, it recruited and trained nearly

4,000 workers within eight months

• Los Rios College District’s Next Skills Institute addresses the soft and employability skills deficiencies among individuals in the area by providing certification in employability skills

• Delta College in Michigan is set up to offer “just-in-time” training within four weeks by hiring qualified trainers from outside the college and working with business to design the curricula.

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Targeted Services

• Tailor services to meet the specific and varied needs of individual customers

• Job seekers– Individualized reemployment plans– Career pathways– Sector partnerships to increase employment in in-demand

industries and occupations– Individual Training Accounts

• Employers– Match employers with qualified workers – Customized incumbent worker training

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Targeted Services: Examples

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• A principle problem affecting people living in poverty in Michigan was a lack of transportation (with city bus routes under threat and difficulties obtaining insurance for car ownership), but this was less of a problem in California which is better served by public transport.

• The Sacremento board in California had a strong focus on helping local disadvantaged neighbourhoods, with a recent strategy to tackle youth gang membership: the Sacramento Works CalGRIP Program.

• There were one-stop services embedded in local communities dominated by particular immigrant and ethnic groups. These are often delivered through not-for-profit agencies targeted at these communities, which may lead to problems in terms of isolation from broader networks.

• There appeared to be a general lack of services to help immigrants to convert their skills to new labour markets, partly because many recent immigrants are required to already have jobs secured in order to receive visas.

Data and Evidence-Based Decisions

• Accountability of WIA programs based on labor market outcomes of participants, not on process

• Performance measures use objective administrative data • Individual outcome and transaction data

– Workforce Investment Act Standardized Record Database (WIASRD)– Workforce Data Quality Initiative– Increased use of internet job postings

• Performance goals set at national and state levels• WIA legislation requires local economic conditions and participant’s

personal characteristics to be considered in negotiating goals• Regression-adjusted performance goals used on a voluntary basis by states

in recent years• ETA requires states to include analysis of local labor market conditions in

strategic plans • WIBs must determine what occupations are in demand for training

referrals

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Data: Examples

• WIN in Michigan delivers real-time, actionable marketplace intelligence to support better and more efficient solutions for employers by compiling and analyzing internet job postings

• NoRTECH developed a set of indicators to track their progress, including developing a ROI procedure

• They also developed a model that estimates the impact of filling job openings for the region

• SETA depends upon the strong analytical capabilities of SACTO and Los Rios College’s Centers of Excellence to provide detailed information about jobs in demand and sectors with future job growth potential

• Updated the occupational content of regional critical occupational clusters lists, which guides job seekers

– Michigan is developing the Workforce Quality Initiatives, with financial assistance from the federal government

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Recommendations

1. Reinforce the multi-level and flexible approach to workforce development, encouraging policy coordination and integration

2. Consider what mechanisms exist to provide staff with training to build their local labor market capacity to serve clients

3. Performance measures could take into account the variation in personal characteristics and labor market conditions more rigorously

4. Continue to collect and share information and data locally about what works

5. Ensure community colleges are able to achieve the right balance between responding to businesses and offering diverse curricula

6. Build capacities at the local level with employers on maximizing effective work organization to better utilize skills

7. Ensure efforts take to serve employers do not displace resources for the most vulnerable groups

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What’s Next: WIOA

• Emphasizes federal-state-local partnerships• Places WIBs at the center of the design and delivery of

services • Places an even greater emphasis on the local WIB as a

catalyst for fostering partnerships with education, economic development, workforce development entities and businesses

• Requires educational institutions to provide information on job prospects of their graduates

• Establishes outcome-based performance measures and targets, and

• Embeds evidence-based decision making into the management of the system.

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