Capitol Update, Aug. 16, 2012

Last month, state workforce development officials took initial steps to develop the State’s first Strategic Workforce Investment Plan (Plan).  By law, the California Workforce Investment Board (CWIB) has been required to develop this Plan since 2006.  According to the California State Auditor in her report (www.bsa.ca.gov/pdfs/reports/2011-111.pdf) from March 2012, without this Plan, “… the State cannot ensure that its workforce investment system … links education and training to economic development and prepares California to compete successfully in the global economy as the Legislature intended.”

When completed, the Plan will contain the goals for how to integrate education, training and employment funding to support regional collaborations to meet workforce needs in growing industry sectors over the next five years.

Leading this effort is the State Working Group (www.cwib.ca.gov/res/docs/Regional%20Focus%20Groups/State%20Working%20Group%208-14-12.pdf), comprised of state education and workforce and economic development officials.  To date, the State Working Group has held three regional focus groups (one in the Bay Area, the Central Valley and in Southern California) in an effort to reach consensus on common goals for the Plan that are both actionable and achievable and to solicit ideas for next steps.

On the legislative front, there have also been a few bills introduced to encourage regional collaborations to address current and future workforce needs. CMTA is a strong supporter of the following:

• SB 275 (Loni Hancock, D-Berkeley) – Authorizes the use of regional collaborations to develop and maintain high-quality Career Technical Education programs to meet local workforce needs.
• SB 1401 (Ted Lieu, D-Torrance) – Requires the CWIB to work with employers, educators, state and local workforce development and training organizations to implement regional strategies to identifying and funding local industry sector workforce needs.
• SB 1402 (Lieu) – Revises the California Community Colleges Economic and Workforce Development Program to better respond to current labor needs and extend its operation to January 1, 2018.

To learn more about the Strategic Workforce Investment Plan process, you can visit the CWIB website here (www.cwib.ca.gov/Goals_2012.htm).