WIOA Youth Career Pathways 2017 Technical Assistance Session 4: December 16, 2017

Webinar

Agenda

1:30-1:50 Introductions

1:50-2:10 Setting the stage, Theory of Action

2:10-2:30 Specific expectations of the NOFO, Logic Model

2:30-3:00 Walking through the toolkit in detail

3:00-3:15 Questions and answers

3:15-3:30 Finding opportunities for alignment in communities

3:30-4:00 Building an FAQ and addressing next steps

Introductions

Name

Organization

What role do you play? How does your work intersect with Opportunity Youth?

What do you hope that this pilot funding opportunity will do/enable for Opportunity Youth?

Objectives

By the end of the pilot period:

1) Department of Commerce will have supported approximately 8-12 regional partnerships in Illinois to develop innovative regionally-based, cross-sector partnership programs. The number of regions will depend on the quality, quantity, and location of applications.

2) The cross-sector partnership programs will have provided multiple best-practice models and outcome results for the development of continued funding support through WIOA Youth funding

3) At least 2 employers in each regional program will have committed to providing future support

4) Youth ambassadors from each program will have met multiple times and have provided program feedback to the Illinois Standing Youth Committee.

Setting the stage: Defining Career Pathways

The term ‘‘career pathway’’ means a combination of rigorous and high-quality education, training, and other services that—

a. Aligns with the skill needs of industries in the economy of the State or regional economy involved

b. Prepares an individual to be successful in any of a full range of secondary or postsecondary education options

c. Includes counseling to support an individual in achieving the individual’s education and career goals

d. Includes, as appropriate education offered concurrently with and in the same context as workforce preparation activities and training for a specific occupation or occupational cluster

e. Organizes education, training, and other services to meet the particular needs of an individual in a manner that accelerates the educational and career advancement of the individual in a manner that accelerate the educational and career advancement of the individual to the extent practicable

f. Enables an individual to attain a secondary school diploma or its recognized equivalent, and at least 1 recognized postsecondary credential

g. Helps an individual enter or advance within a specific occupation or occupational cluster

Vision and Theory of Action: Career Pathways

Ownership

CapacitySustainability

Work-Based Learning

Education and Training

Foundational Skills

A career pathway system emphasizes the connections between a learner focused framework and a system focused framework.

Learner focused framework: progression through an education program and into a career

System focused framework: career pathway system development key elements to ensure long-term feasibility and inclusiveness

Vision and Theory of Action: Addressing Youth Needs

Developing a career pathway system appropriate for opportunity youth requires an assessment of two factors: their degree of preparation for work or education and their ability to take advantage of that opportunity

Vision and Theory of Action: Addressing Youth Needs

Identifying obstacles, challenges, loss points, and opportunities allow communities to determine critical needs and the types of support required.

Vision and Theory of Action: Additional elements

oCommunity Ownership: Community co-ownership among partners at the local and regional level helps to build capacity among local actors and builds mechanisms for sustainability

oConsortia Models: Building a consortium helps to consolidate partners who are often servicing similar constituencies and/or connecting with the same partners and employers.

oYouth Ownership: Young people can and should be given the opportunity to speak for their community and their needs

Vision and Theory of Action: Sector-based strategies and career pathways

What opportunity youth face now

Vision for the Future

Specific expectations of the NOFO

Core components

Program applicants must complete a logic model, the career pathways self assessment tool, and a subsequent action plan.

These tools will be used as part of the pilot program to benchmark progress and highlight milestones

Logic Model Career

Pathways ToolAction Plan

Logic Model

Logic Models help an organization to define:

• What are short and long term goals?

• What are the inputs? What will you invest (staffing, funding, technology, etc.)

• What are the outputs? What we are doing? (activities and interventions)

• External factors? What are some things we cannot control?

• Assumptions? What do we already know (what is the existing knowledge)

Logic Model

Framework for Activity

Process Measures and the Development of Evaluation Tools

Pilot programs will be measured on Process Measures as well as WIOA Youth Performance Measures

Process Measures: Pilot programs will be assessed on a series of process measures which will help to determine what processes are most important for the development of a model which support the goal of this pilot period, which is to develop an approach which supports regions to work collectively using a career pathways model to address Opportunity Youth needs.

Program Activity Process Measure

Participation in

Community of

Practice

Program leads identify 1 lead to act as program emissary on monthly

calls and bi-annual meetings

Program emissary participates regularly in the Community of Practice

monthly calls and bi-annual meetings

Youth Participation

in the Opportunity

Youth Ambassador

Program

Program leads identify 2 opportunity youth to act as program

ambassador

Youth Program Ambassador participate regularly in monthly calls and

bi-annual meetings

Development of a

Continuous

Improvement Plan

Program leads provide a continuous improvement plan by the end of

the 2nd quarter of the grant

Program leads provide regular updates on the continuous

improvement plan during monthly calls

The continuous improvement plan is used to develop an interim

report at the end of 18 months

Assessing activities and developing evaluation tools

Pilot programs will also be assessed on their ability to follow through on activities outlined in their action plan that are directly aligned to the needs identified in the development of Career Pathways Self-Assessment Tool and the outcomes identified in the development of their Logic Model.

The evaluation tool for future programs will be co-created with programs as part of this pilot process.

Career Pathways Tool Kit

Catalyst for Community Organization!

This tool allows for a self-assessment of how your organization’s proposed program meets these core elements and will be used in order to assess progress and continuous improvement in program evaluation during the life of the grant.

This tool identifies basic and advanced program criteria that helps to identify at which stage of development a career pathway program is in currently.

Value judgements will not be made based on the stage of development of a career pathway program. Rather, program applications will be assessed on the development of the tool and action plan in relation to the elements.

This tool will be used in conjunction with technical assistance sessions that will be held throughout the application period and will be used as a continuous improvement resource throughout the life of the grant .

Career Pathways Tool Kit

This tool should be developed with cross-sector partners (as appropriate to the program in question), including:

1. 2 employer partners

2. Local workforce innovation board

3. Local development agency (if different from the IWIB)

4. An area chamber of commerce, CEO roundtable, or similar private association of businesses

5. Participating community college(s) (as appropriate)

6. Participating school district(s) (as appropriate)

7. Participating 4 year University (as appropriate)

8. Participating community-based and/or faith-based organizations

Career Pathways Backbone

Career Pathway

Backbone

Partnerships

Business Engagement

Measuring Results &

Continuous Improvement Methodology

Sustainability

Career Pathway Program Elements

Career Pathway Program

Work-Based Learning

Credentials, Certifications, and

Postsecondary Access

High Demand, High Skill

Individual Plans and Supports

Contexualized Learning and

Workplace Skills

Action Steps/

Tasks

What will be

done?

Responsibility

Who will do it?

Timeline

When will it

begin and when

will it be

completed?

Resources

What resources

are available and

still need to be

obtained?

Partners

Who will be

(need to be

involved) to

carry out this

task/step?

Challenges

What

challenges/

barriers do you

anticipate?

Communication

How will you

communicate

this task/step to

partners?

Accomplishment

/ Outcome

What will this

task/step

accomplish?

Specific Project Requirements (page 10-11)

Applicants are highly encouraged to participate in a consortium If they choose not to participate in a consortium, they must explain

their rationale

Applicants must include a labor market analysis and sound data that illustrates both the needs of business and opportunity youth to find points of connection

Applicants should clearly describe any elements of their projects they consider innovative (with supporting evidence and specific intended outcomes)

Priority Consideration

Priority consideration will be given to regional projects that: Develop innovative programs and strategies that are designed to

meet the talent pipeline needs of business

Identify and/or document partnership with a regional intermediary who will act as the go-between to coordinate the work of the separate partners in the development of the career pathway system

Develop innovative programs that identify activities to improve linkages and alignment between workforce partners

Intermediary

Making the connections between organizations, managing day to day items, and acting as the backbone organization for the initiative.

11:00-11:30 Community Individual Time with the Toolkit

Additional Questions:

1. What are the unique characteristics of your local Opportunity Youth population (disaggregated by race, ethnicity, age, gender, background)?

2. What are the challenges that Opportunity Youth in your community face?

3. What do the education and career outcomes look like for Opportunity Youth in your community?

4. Who are the key stakeholders and influential champions who should be at the table when planning a program for Opportunity Youth?

5. How do you plan to engage youth in the development of this career pathway system?

Take this time to address the various components of the toolkit. Where do you feel that your program has addressed this core component? Who could you partner with that could address this? Who is not at the table that should be?

Debrief: What are some observations that emerged as part of your group work?

Questions for consideration by local communities

Next Steps

What additional resources would be helpful to you?

Additional technical assistance offerings will be available: Developing the Logic Model (Available by December

Questions and Answer Sessions (Early January)

Employer Engagement

Applications must be received no later than 5:00 pm February 1, 2017