[Senate Hearing 117-180]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]


                                                       S. Hrg. 117-180

                 COVID-19 RECOVERY: SUPPORTING WORKERS
                     AND MODERNIZING THE WORKFORCE
                  THROUGH QUALITY EDUCATION, TRAINING,
                      AND EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITIES

=======================================================================

                                 HEARING

                                 OF THE

                    COMMITTEE ON HEALTH, EDUCATION,
                          LABOR, AND PENSIONS

                          UNITED STATES SENATE

                    ONE HUNDRED SEVENTEENTH CONGRESS

                             FIRST SESSION

                                   ON

    EXAMINING COVID-19 RECOVERY, FOCUSING ON SUPPORTING WORKERS AND 
  MODERNIZING THE WORKFORCE THROUGH QUALITY EDUCATION, TRAINING, AND 
                        EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITIES

                               __________

                             APRIL 20, 2021

                               __________

 Printed for the use of the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and 
                                Pensions
                                
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        Available via the World Wide Web: http://www.govinfo.gov
        
                              __________

                    U.S. GOVERNMENT PUBLISHING OFFICE                    
46-760 PDF                 WASHINGTON : 2022                     
          
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          COMMITTEE ON HEALTH, EDUCATION, LABOR, AND PENSIONS

                    PATTY MURRAY, Washington, Chair
BERNIE SANDERS (I), Vermont          RICHARD BURR, North Carolina, 
ROBERT P. CASEY, JR., Pennsylvania       Ranking Member
TAMMY BALDWIN, Wisconsin             RAND PAUL, M.D., Kentucky
CHRISTOPHER S. MURPHY, Connecticut   SUSAN M. COLLINS, Maine
TIM KAINE, Virginia                  BILL CASSIDY, M.D., Louisiana
MAGGIE HASSAN, New Hampshire         LISA MURKOWSKI, Alaska
TINA SMITH, Minnesota                MIKE BRAUN, Indiana
JACKY ROSEN, Nevada                  ROGER MARSHALL, M.D., Kansas
BEN RAY LUJAN, New Mexico            TIM SCOTT, South Carolina
JOHN HICKENLOOPER, Colorado          MITT ROMNEY, Utah
                                     TOMMY TUBERVILLE, Alabama
                                     JERRY MORAN, Kansas

                     Evan T. Schatz, Staff Director
               David P. Cleary, Republican Staff Director
                  John Righter, Deputy Staff Director
                           
                           
                           C O N T E N T S

                              ----------                              

                               STATEMENTS

                        TUESDAY, APRIL 20, 2021

                                                                   Page

                           Committee Members

Murray, Hon. Patty, Chair, Committee on Health, Education, Labor, 
  and Pensions, Opening statement................................     1
Burr, Hon. Richard, Ranking Member, a U.S. Senator from the State 
  of North Carolina, Opening statement...........................     3

                               Witnesses

Flynn, Maria, President and CEO, Jobs for the Future, Boston, MA.     6
    Prepared statement...........................................     8
    Summary statement............................................    17
Thomas, Deniece, Deputy Commissioner of Workforce Learning and 
  Development, Tennessee Department of Labor and Workforce 
  Development, Nashville, TN.....................................    18
    Prepared statement...........................................    20
    Summary statement............................................    21
Ralls, Scott, President, Wake Technical Community College, 
  Raleigh, NC....................................................    22
    Prepared statement...........................................    24
    Summary statement............................................    27
Mendoza, Alejandro, Human Resources Director, Optimax Systems 
  Inc., Ontario, NY..............................................    28
    Prepared statement...........................................    30
    Summary statement............................................    33

                          ADDITIONAL MATERIAL

Statements, articles, publications, letters, etc.
Murray, Hon. Patty:
    National Urban League letter.................................    56
Hassan, Hon. Maggie:
    Statement of The Society for Human Resource Management.......    57

 
                 COVID-19 RECOVERY: SUPPORTING WORKERS
                     AND MODERNIZING THE WORKFORCE
                  THROUGH QUALITY EDUCATION, TRAINING,
                      AND EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITIES

                              ----------                              


                        Tuesday, April 20, 2021

                                       U.S. Senate,
       Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions,
                                                    Washington, DC.
    The Committee met, pursuant to notice, at 10 a.m., in room 
430, Dirksen Senate Office Building, Hon. Patty Murray, Chair 
of the Committee, presiding.
    Present: Senators Murray [presiding], Casey, Kaine, Hassan, 
Smith, Rosen, Hickenlooper, Burr, Cassidy, Murkowski, Braun, 
and Tuberville.

                  OPENING STATEMENT OF SENATOR MURRAY

    The Chair. Good morning. The Senate Health, Education, 
Labor, and Pensions Committee will please come to order.
    Today, we are holding a hearing on how we can strengthen 
our Nation's workforce programs in light of the jobs crisis 
caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. Ranking Member Burr and I will 
each have an opening statement, and then Senator Burr and I 
will introduce today's witnesses. After the witnesses give 
their testimony, Senators will each have five minutes for a 
round of questions.
    Before we begin, I do want to walk through the COVID-19 
safety protocols in place today. We will follow the advice of 
the Attending Physician and Sergeant at Arms in conducting this 
hearing. We are all very grateful to our Clerks and everyone 
who has worked hard to get this set up and to help everyone 
stay safe and healthy.
    Committee Members are seated at least six feet apart, and 
some Senators are participating by videoconference. And while 
we are unable to have the hearing fully open to the public or 
media for in-person attendance, live video is available on our 
Committee website at help.senate.gov. And, if you are in need 
of accommodations, including closed captioning, you can reach 
out to the Committee or the Office of Congressional 
Accessibility Services.
    We are here today because our Nation is in the middle of 
the most unequal jobs crisis in modern history. Millions of 
people have lost jobs they relied on to put food on the table, 
keep a roof over their heads, pay their bills, and afford a 
post-secondary education, and some estimates suggest at least a 
third of COVID-related job loss will be permanent.
    Millions of people have also been forced out of the 
workforce, including by issues like our Nation's shortage of 
quality, affordable childcare, and millions of workers are 
struggling. We know a disproportionately high number have been 
women, people of color, people with disabilities, and people in 
rural communities.
    This is not a problem that is going to fix itself. Not in 
Washington State, not in North Carolina, not anywhere. Because, 
while the people facing the worst rates of unemployment and 
underemployment are those who are paid the lowest wages, a 
recent study suggests future job growth will be mainly in 
higher-wage occupations, meaning workers will need access to 
greater competencies and skills to have more opportunities for 
employment.
    For example, with so many businesses adapting their 
operations and service models as a result of the pandemic, the 
demand for digital skills has accelerated. Yet, according to 
the National Skills Coalition, at least 48 million Americans 
lack foundational digital skills.
    But, the problem is not simply about helping employers find 
skilled workers. It is about providing workers new 
opportunities, tearing down barriers, helping people find 
quality jobs that lead to economic self-sufficiency.
    While it is important the workforce system adapts to the 
needs of employers, this cannot be the only focus. We must 
provide workers with pathways to good jobs and support lifelong 
learning opportunities. That is why our Nation's workforce 
programs are so important. Apprenticeship and other job 
training programs can help people stay competitive and grow in 
the careers they have, or develop new skills, start new 
careers.
    But, we have to make sure these programs are truly working 
for working families. That means providing services and support 
people need to get into training programs and stay in them, 
like childcare to help them manage a busy family schedule, or 
financial support to help cover costs associated with an 
education or training program.
    It means tearing down barriers that can make these programs 
hardest to reach for those who most need them, like formerly 
incarcerated people, people who have been unemployed for a long 
time, youth who are neither in school nor participating in the 
labor market.
    It means making sure we are really reaching the people who 
are struggling the most by accounting for longstanding 
inequities in the workforce.
    We also have to keep in mind the ultimate goal here is 
economic security for workers and families, which is not just 
about how quickly people can get trained and get jobs, but how 
good that training is and the quality of jobs associated with 
that training.
    It is about making sure workers are getting good wages and 
benefits, making sure they have the data and guidance they need 
to make informed decisions, helping workers get credentials 
that are portable and relevant if they decide to look for 
another job, and preparing them for fields where there is high 
demand, like STEM, clean energy, manufacturing, and 
infrastructure--fields where President Biden is also proposing 
significant investments--and healthcare and public health 
sectors in which the pandemic has worsened longstanding 
shortages.
    I know in my home state, tribal hospitals are understaffed, 
and some rural counties lack an adequate number of healthcare 
providers, underscoring the need for far more primary care 
physicians, nurses, and specialists in fields like behavioral 
health, oral health, women's health, and pediatrics.
    To tackle all of these challenges and strengthen our 
workforce the way we need to, we also have to make fundamental 
investments, like the $15 billion to support workforce training 
programs I called for in my Relaunching America's Workforce 
Act, and the $100 billion for workforce development and 
programs President Biden called for in his American Jobs Plan.
    We have a lot of work ahead of us to respond to this 
pandemic and the current job crisis, and a lot at stake for 
families in my home State of Washington and across the Country, 
who are counting on us to make sure workers, who have been set 
back by this pandemic, have the opportunity to get new skills, 
new jobs, and economic security.
    I will also say for me--this is really personal--one of the 
reasons my family was able to make it through hard times was 
because my mom was able to go back to school, get training, and 
ultimately a higher-paying job, and it made a huge difference 
for us. So many families today have had the rug completely 
pulled out from under them, and I want to make sure people in 
Washington State and across the Country have that same 
opportunity.
    I am optimistic about what this Committee can accomplish 
together. We have got a bipartisan track record on workforce 
issues, like when we passed the Workforce Innovation and 
Opportunity Act in 2014; and when we reauthorized the Perkins 
Career and Technical Education Act in 2018.
    I know my colleagues on the Committee on both sides of the 
aisle are focused on this important issue, so I really feel we 
have got an opportunity to come together, get this done, and 
help workers across the Country. So, I look forward to working 
with my colleagues, to listen to the stakeholders, look at 
commonsense solutions, and build on our bipartisan track record 
here in the months ahead.
    With that, I will recognize Ranking Member Burr for his 
opening remarks.

                   OPENING STATEMENT OF SENATOR BURR

    Senator Burr. Good morning, Madam Chair, and I want to 
thank you for working with me to schedule this hearing. I am 
glad we are working together in a bipartisan effort to 
modernize our workforce programs, and I hope the Democrat 
leadership will stop their threats to use partisan 
reconciliation bills and commit to listening to Republican 
ideas, working together as we are doing on this Committee.
    I want to thank our witnesses, both those that are here in 
person and those that are here virtually. Today, we are here to 
discuss the state of the American workforce.
    COVID-19 has changed a lot about the way we live, including 
the way we learn and the way we work. Before the pandemic, our 
economy was booming. Jobs were available, and unemployment was 
at a fifty-year low. Today, a year later, nearly 10 million 
people are out of work. Unemployment is at 6 percent, and some 
suggest 9 percent.
    At the same time, as of today, more than 84.3 million 
Americans have been fully vaccinated. By May, every American 
who wants a vaccine should be able to get one. And I suspect 
very soon, our bigger problem is going to be convincing people 
to get a vaccine rather than a concern about the supply.
    If we want to return to a booming economy, we need to plan 
to get there. As part of that plan, we need to make sure we 
have better systems in place that are equipped to connect job 
seekers, employers, and education opportunities. Last month, 
Chair Murray and I asked the public to send in ideas for this 
Committee to consider to strengthen workforce development and 
job training. I thank the Chair for joining me in this call to 
action and for her commitment to address these issues in a 
bipartisan way.
    As we begin these discussions on how best to help America's 
workers get the skills they need, we have to look at what we 
have already done and what new ideas we need to include. We can 
start with the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act. This 
is our Country's primary law focused on workforce development, 
and it is due to be reauthorized. We need to take this 
opportunity to see how this important law can be updated to 
meet the needs of workers and employers.
    What does that look like? We need to be innovative. More 
bureaucracy and paperwork is not the answer. We have to look at 
the system as a whole and make sure it is equipped to meet the 
demands of 2021 and beyond. If we just add another layer of 
requirements to an already-complex system and call it a day, we 
have not done our job.
    If we want these programs to prepare people for good jobs, 
employers need to have a seat at the table. If training 
programs do not teach anyone the skills employers are actually 
looking for, then we have not really helped anyone.
    We need to make sure that this law fosters strong 
collaboration between the public and private sector. Job 
seekers should know that if they go to a one-stop center, they 
will get the assistance they need to find a good job. Employers 
should know that if they need skilled workers, the workforce 
system can help.
    Last year, state and local workforce boards had to respond 
to the pandemic and quickly adapt to a world where virtual 
services became the norm. These systems should be able to 
rapidly respond to meet the needs of their community, and we 
need to make sure that the law supports that responsiveness.
    Many Members of this Committee are also interested in 
expanding apprenticeship programs. The apprenticeship model is 
a great way for individuals to earn a wage while learning an 
in-demand skill.
    Unfortunately, many employers are unable to access the 
Federal system because of red tape and rules that favor labor 
unions. We saw a glimpse of the type of innovation we need 
through the Department of Labor's rule on industry-recognized 
apprenticeship programs that was issued by the previous 
administration. This policy can expand these apprenticeship 
models to include more industries and provide new opportunities 
for training.
    To build on this idea, a bipartisan apprenticeship bill, we 
will need to find a way to support both traditional, registered 
apprenticeship programs and programs that are developed and 
recognized by industry. I understand that there are important 
conversations to be had about accountability and quality for 
industry-recognized apprenticeship programs, and, quite 
frankly, I welcome that.
    For example, we should look to work done with our military 
veterans and how we have successfully helped veterans leave the 
military with training from the military, and then test out 
state-based occupational licensing standards and be certified 
for occupational licensure in that state.
    In 2018, the program defense bill, we create a pathway for 
military-trained medics to ease into civilian life more 
efficiently without having to jump through a lot of unnecessary 
hoops.
    We need all the tools in our toolbox to get people back to 
work, and an above-all approach is appropriate. But, that does 
not mean we need to create a variety of new programs. The 
Federal Government already has dozens of training programs 
across multiple Federal agencies. We need to take a look at how 
we could improve and better align these programs, not just add 
a new layer of programs and mandates so that state and local 
leaders, employers, and job seekers can reap the maximum 
benefits.
    Workforce development has been and should continue to be a 
space with bipartisan solutions. In 2014, Congress achieved a 
bipartisan victory when the Workforce Innovation and 
Opportunity Act was signed into law. We saw the same effort in 
2018 with the reauthorization of Perkins Career and Technical 
Education Act.
    I know this Committee in this chamber can achieve the same 
success this year. Bipartisan solutions exist to all of these 
problems. Today's hearing is the first step to finding them. 
This is just the beginning of the conversation. We all have a 
big task ahead of us.
    I look forward to working with our witnesses, the Chair, 
our colleagues to get our workforce programs up to speed and 
our Country back to work. I thank the Chair for her indulgence.
    The Chair. Thank you, Ranking Member Burr.
    We will now introduce today's witnesses. I am very pleased 
to start by welcoming Maria Flynn. Ms. Flynn is the President 
and CEO of Jobs for the Future, a national non-profit that is 
focused on the American workforce and education systems; a 
former member of the Senior Executive Service in the U.S. 
Department of Labor; and a national authority on the future of 
labor, the role of technology in the labor market, career 
pathways for underserved individuals, and employer engagement.
    Ms. Flynn, thank you for joining us today. Welcome.
    Next, I would like to introduce Deniece Thomas. Ms. Thomas 
is the Deputy Commissioner of Workforce Learning and 
Development for the Tennessee Department of Labor and Workforce 
Development; the state workforce liaison for the National 
Governors Association; and serves as vice chair of the 
Employment and Training Committee for the National Association 
of State Workforce Agencies.
    Welcome, Ms. Thomas. We are glad to have you with us today.
    Next, I will turn it over to Ranking Member Burr, who will 
introduce Dr. Scott Ralls.
    Senator Burr. Thank you, Madam Chair.
    I am pleased to welcome Dr. Scott Ralls to our hearing 
today. Dr. Ralls serves as President of Wake Technical 
Community College in Raleigh, North Carolina.
    Wake Tech is North Carolina's largest community college 
with 70,000 students, six campuses, and a variety of online 
learning options. Wake Tech offers over 200 degrees, diplomas, 
and certificates, as well as other short-term programs to 
prepare students for in-demand careers.
    As president, Dr. Ralls has led efforts to support student 
success and further Wake Tech's impact on economic development 
in the region by increasing employer engagement, developing 
stackable credentials and degree pathways, and creating the 
WakeWorks Apprenticeship Program.
    Previous, Dr. Ralls served as President of Northern 
Virginia Community College and, I might say, Madam Chair, as 
President of the North Carolina Community College System.
    Scott, I look forward to your testimony today. I thank you 
for being here.
    The Chair. Thank you.
    Dr. Ralls, welcome. Thank you for joining us.
    Finally, I would like to introduce Alejandro Mendoza. Mr. 
Mendoza is the Human Resources Manager for Optimax Systems Inc. 
of Rochester, New York, and was recently appointed to serve on 
a national manufacturing panel that will advise the Biden 
Administration on its Made in All of America initiative.
    Mr. Mendoza, thank you for joining us today.
    With that, we will begin our testimony. And, Ms. Flynn, we 
will begin with you if you would like to give your opening 
statement.

   STATEMENT OF MARIA FLYNN, PRESIDENT AND CEO, JOBS FOR THE 
                       FUTURE, BOSTON, MA

    Ms. Flynn. Good morning, Chair Murray, Ranking Member Burr, 
and Members of the Committee. My name is Maria Flynn. I am 
President and CEO of Jobs for the Future. We are a national, 
non-profit organization that has worked for nearly 40 years to 
drive change in America's workforce and education systems to 
promote economic advancement for all, especially 
underrepresented individuals.
    This past year has been devastating for America's workers, 
with over 40 million U.S. workers losing their jobs and 
financial ground since the start of the pandemic. While last 
month's unemployment numbers are trending down, we still have 
9.7 million workers who remain unemployed, four million more 
Americans who are out of work now than in February 2020. And 
these numbers do not reflect those who have dropped out of the 
labor market completely or who are working part time or in low-
wage jobs.
    Probably most devastating is the fact that the workers who 
are suffering the greatest economic hardships as a result of 
the crisis are low-wage earners and individuals with no post-
secondary credentials, many of whom are Black, Latino, 
indigenous, or from other underrepresented populations. Women 
have also been disproportionately hurt by the crisis, losing 
jobs at far higher rates than men.
    When COVID hit last March, our education and workforce 
systems were caught flat footed, unprepared for the sudden, 
dramatic economic downturn. While we may hope that this is a 
once-in-a-lifetime crisis, the pandemic has exposed how 
critical it is to be prepared for the worst, while keeping up 
with the rapid pace of change in our economy. Even in times of 
low unemployment, we must build and scale solutions that 
prepare workers today for the demands of tomorrow.
    The U.S. needs a workforce ecosystem that is modern, agile, 
equitable, resilient, and innovative enough to keep up with the 
skill needs of individuals and in-demand employers alike. It is 
what all of our people deserve. To make that a reality, 
Congress should take a holistic approach to looking at the 
existing array of programs and how they can be modernized and 
streamlined.
    The U.S. has an array of post-secondary education, skills 
training, and workforce development programs that provide vital 
education and employment services for America's workers. These 
programs and institutions have worked hard to adapt throughout 
the pandemic, but these systems were built in large part for a 
different era, are not adequately funded, nor agile enough to 
fully meet the needs of America's workforce, especially in 
today's turbulent economy.
    The Federal Government last made significant changes to the 
Nation's primary workforce development system in 2014 through 
the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act, or WIOA. However, 
the system has not been adequately funded, nor is it currently 
designed to meet the extensive needs of the Nation's workforce.
    The WIOA system is responsible for a wide range of 
functions, from the direct provision of services to job seekers 
and employers, to our Nation's one-stop career centers, to 
arranging for skills training to the extent resources are 
available. Workforce boards are also responsible for convening 
system partners in support of comprehensive service delivery in 
communities and for engaging with employers and system 
stakeholders in support of strategic initiatives, including 
career pathways and sector strategies.
    Successful WIOA programs are doing this well. However, the 
system's limited resources are spread very thin. Performance 
across the more than 500 local workforce areas varies, and the 
entire workforce system needs significant modernization.
    We need a workforce system that is adequately funded. In 
Fiscal Year 2021, funding for WIOA's Dislocated Worker Program 
was just $1.3 billion for the entire Country. The total for 
WIOA adults, youth, and dislocated workers combined was just 
$3.6 billion. In comparison, funding for Pell Grants is close 
to $30 billion, but cannot fund many short-term, workforce-
oriented programs.
    To address the Nation's training needs, we would like to 
see significant increase in funding for skills training through 
WIOA, an expansion of Pell to include high-quality, short-term 
credentialing programs, and exploration of other funding 
mechanisms, such as income-share agreements.
    Of equal importance to increased investments are critical 
changes to the ecosystem, such as a robust and expansive career 
navigation system for students, job seekers, and workers that 
is offered through an in-person and virtual service options.
    A lifelong learning system that is easily accessible, where 
the structure and delivery of education and skills training is 
transformed so that training is accelerated.
    Adoption of evidence-based strategies, including sector 
focus and career pathways systems.
    The creation of grants to community college systems for the 
scaling of models, such as those tested under the TAACCCT 
Program.
    Modernization of the system using full use of the latest 
digital technologies to expand and improve service delivery for 
participants.
    Strong ability to meet the needs of diverse populations, 
including opportunity youth who are dislocated from school and 
employment, as well as people of color who have been 
exceptionally hard hit by the pandemic.
    We must find authentic ways to incorporate worker voice in 
the design of systems and programs.
    Finally, deep partnership with employers and other key 
stakeholders to leverage resources, extend capacity, and 
provide an expanded array of service.
    Thank you for the opportunity to testify before the 
Committee. The American workforce development system is a 
crucial piece of our Country's economic mobility puzzle. 
However, at present, it is undervalued, underfunded, and in 
need of modernization. We urge you to invest in and consider 
changes holistically so the Nation's workforce system can meet 
the complex needs of today and the future.
    [The prepared statement of Ms. Flynn follows:]
                   prepared statement of maria flynn
    Good morning Chair Murray, Ranking Member Burr, and Members of the 
Senate HELP Committee. My name is Maria Flynn. I am President and CEO 
of Jobs for the Future, a national nonprofit organization that has 
worked for nearly 40 years to drive change in America's workforce and 
education systems to promote economic advancement for all--especially 
for people who earn low incomes, have been underserved by our current 
systems, and are underrepresented in high-wage, high-growth jobs.

    Even before the COVID-19 crisis, the United States workforce 
development ecosystem was overdue for increased investments and 
transformation to meet the vast skill and employment requirements of 
today's workers and employers and prepare our labor force for the jobs 
of tomorrow. The pandemic has exponentially increased this need for 
change. Millions of Americans have lost jobs that won't return and they 
require new skills to get back to work in our ever-evolving economy. We 
must learn from this crisis and use this moment of urgency as an 
opportunity to make the kinds of changes that are necessary if our 
economy is to rebound, our employers are to remain competitive, and our 
workers are to thrive.
  The Devastation of the Pandemic Creates an Opportunity We Must Seize
    It's indisputable that the pandemic has been devastating for many 
American workers and the children, parents, and spouses who rely on 
them to help provide life's necessities. More than 40 million U.S. 
workers have lost jobs and substantial financial ground since the start 
of the pandemic. \1\ While unemployment trended down in March 2021, our 
Nation still faces 9.7 million people who remain unemployed--4 million 
more than in February 2020. \2\ And we must remember the millions of 
additional people who have given up on finding work and dropped out of 
the labor market completely--and the many people who are trying to get 
by on part-time and low-wage jobs.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \1\  Nelson D. Schwartz, Ben Casselman, and Ella Koeze, ``How Bad 
Is Unemployment? `Literally Off the Charts' '' The New York Times, May 
8, 2020, https://nytimes.com/interactive/2020/05/08/business/economy/
april-jobs-report.html.
    \2\  Bureau of Labor Statistics, ``The Employment Situation--March 
2021,'' news release no. USDL-21-0582, U.S. Department of Labor, April 
2, 2021, https://www.bls.gov/news.release/pdf/empsit.pdf.

    Most devastating is the fact that the workers who are suffering the 
greatest economic hardship as a result of the crisis are the people our 
society has repeatedly left behind: low-wage earners and individuals 
with no postsecondary credentials--many of whom are Black, Latino, or 
from other underrepresented populations. Frontline workers, who missed 
out on the decade of growth that followed the Great Recession, were on 
shaky economic ground even before COVID-19. Women have been 
disproportionately hurt by the crisis, losing jobs at far higher rates 
than men, and squeezed by the closing of schools and the decimation of 
the U.S. child care sector. Nearly 3 million American women have left 
the labor force over the past year. \3\ Black workers and Hispanic and 
Asian women face significantly higher unemployment than other racial 
and ethnic groups. At the end of the fourth quarter of last year, the 
gap between white and Black unemployment grew to more than 4 percentage 
points. \4\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \3\  Megan Cerullo, ``Nearly 3 Million U.S. Women Have Dropped Out 
of the Labor Force in the Past Year,'' CBS News Moneywatch, February 5, 
2021, https://www.cbsnews.com/news/covid-crisis-3-million-women-labor-
force/.
    \4\  ``Table E-16. Unemployment Rates by Age, Sex, Race, and 
Hispanic or Latino Ethnicity,'' Labor Force Statistics from the Current 
Population Survey, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, last modified 
January 8, 2021, https://www.bls.gov/web/empsit/cpsee-e16.htm.

    To help people return to the workforce and find better jobs than 
they had before, we must enable them to overcome the multiple barriers 
that impede their economic advancement. Since opportunities for 
education and economic advancement have not been shared equitably in 
the United States, it is critical that we close gaps in skills, 
credentials, employment attainment, and career progression associated 
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
with gender, race, ethnicity, and income status.

    In the 21st-century economy, most in-demand jobs have required at 
least some postsecondary education and training. Before the pandemic, 
the United States faced severe shortages of workers with associate's 
degrees and certain technical credentials. The current crisis has 
exacerbated this trend. Economists have characterized the pandemic as 
an ``automation forcing event'' and increased demand for new ways of 
working require new kinds of knowledge, skills, and abilities. \5\ 
According to a recent study by The McKinsey Global Institute, more than 
half of the low-wage workers currently in declining occupations will 
need to shift to new occupations that require different skills. The 
study found that demand for workers in health care and STEM fields 
could grow now more than before the pandemic--and that ``workers will 
need to learn more social and emotional skills, as well as 
technological skills, in order to move into occupations in higher-wage 
brackets.'' \6\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \5\  Allison Dulin Salisbury, ``COVID-19 May Become `An Automation 
Forcing Event': Already Vulnerable Workers Look to Reskilling For Path 
Forward,'' Forbes, May 7, 2020, https://www.forbes.com/sites/
allisondulinsalisbury/2020/05/07/covid-19-may-become-an-automation-
forcing-event-already-vulnerable-workers-look-to-reskilling-for-path-
forward.
    \6\  Susan Lund et al., The Future of Work After COVID-19 (New 
York, NY: McKinsey Global Institute, February 2021), https://
www.mckinsey.com/featured-insights/future-of-work/the-future-of-work-
after-covid-19.

    It is clear that reskilling is more important than ever. Millions 
of workers will be challenged to retool themselves for new roles and 
industries. Already we are seeing changes in the kinds of postsecondary 
programs that people are seeking. A growing body of evidence has 
identified an uptick in demand for shorter-term credentialing programs 
designed to help people learn the skills necessary to get back to work 
quickly. \7\ However, our financial aid systems rarely cover short-term 
workforce-oriented programs--even those with strong outcomes. These are 
some of the most important, yet still only some, of the challenges we 
face.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \7\  Paul Fain, ``Alternative Credentials on the Rise,'' Inside 
Higher Ed, August 27, 2020, https://www.insidehighered.com/news/2020/
08/27/interest-spikes-short-term-online-credentials-will-it-be-
sustained.

    In order to create an inclusive economic recovery, ensure lasting 
economic growth, and maintain our Nation's economic competitiveness, we 
need to meet the needs of individual workers, employers, and broader 
societal forces simultaneously. Looking at our current workforce 
ecosystem, it's clear that it cannot keep up with current demands. It's 
time to invest in transforming our array of workforce development and 
postsecondary programs into a truly modern system that is agile, well-
resourced, equitable, and resilient, capable of innovating to take on 
whatever the future brings.
                Our Current Workforce Development System
    Our Nation's current workforce development system is an array of 
postsecondary education, skills training, and workforce programs that 
provide vital education and employment services for America's workers. 
Many of these programs and institutions have worked hard to adapt to 
the new landscape the pandemic created--switching from in-person 
services to remote delivery and adjusting programming to meet the 
changing needs of the labor market. But the system, much of which was 
designed in previous eras, is not adequately funded nor agile enough to 
fully meet the skill needs of America's workers or employers in today's 
turbulent economy.

    The Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA)

    The Federal Government's primary workforce development system is 
authorized under the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA), 
which was enacted in 2014. WIOA's goal was to update the system and 
make a number of changes to programs under its jurisdiction in order to 
do the following:

          Better align workforce programs with the skill needs 
        of in-demand industries and occupations

          Adopt evidence-based strategies, such as career 
        pathways, sector strategies, and connections to apprenticeship 
        programs, to help jobseekers and workers attain industry-
        recognized postsecondary credentials needed for in-demand 
        careers

          Improve services provided through the ``one-stop'' 
        delivery system for jobseekers and employers

          Strengthen the strategic functions of workforce 
        boards

          Encourage regional approaches to workforce 
        development

          Better align WIOA initiatives with partner programs 
        to leverage resources, system reach, and participant outcomes

    Even with these changes, the WIOA system has not received adequate 
funding, nor is it currently designed to meet the Nation's extensive 
career navigation, skills development, and worker transition needs as a 
stand-alone program.

    The WIOA system performs many functions in our broader workforce 
ecosystem. It serves as a connector of programs, a convener of partners 
and stakeholders, and a translator of labor market information. It's 
also the access point through which learners, jobseekers, and workers 
gather the labor market and career information they need to make 
informed employment decisions, and where skills training can be 
arranged when resources are available. WIOA is responsible for the 
nationwide system of one-stop centers, which provide an array of 
employment services and connect customers to work-related training and 
education.

    WIOA programs are also places where employers can go to search for 
skilled workers and to receive services in support of their human 
capital needs. Whether through services provided by business 
representatives or directly provided through American Job Centers, 
workforce systems arrange for on-the-job and customized training, work 
with employers to identify skill and employment needs, provide layoff 
aversion services, and work to identify quality jobs. Workforce 
development boards are intended to play pivotal strategic roles in the 
design of comprehensive workforce development systems; engage with 
regional employers; lead innovative initiatives, including career 
pathways and sector strategies; and leverage additional resources to 
support workforce programming.

    Successful WIOA programs are carrying out these and other high-
quality evidence-based strategies to address the employment needs of 
their regional economies. However, the system's limited resources are 
spread too thin, performance across the more than 500 local workforce 
areas varies, and the entire workforce ecosystem needs significant 
modernization. The workforce system has also been forced to turn to 
virtual service delivery over the past year, with limited exceptions, 
due to the pandemic--a significant challenge for a system that was 
initially designed around brick-and-mortar structures.
  The Workforce System We Need: Modern, Agile, Equitable, Resilient, 
                     Innovative, and Well Resourced
    We know that calls for reform are not new. Before joining JFF, I 
served as a member of the Senior Executive Service at the U.S. 
Department of Labor's Employment and Training Administration. In that 
capacity, I worked closely with Congress on the design and 
implementation of the Workforce Investment Act, the legislation that 
served as the foundation for WIOA. All told, I have focused my 30-year 
career on these issues, following in my father's footsteps. In fact, 
back in 1986, he testified before the House Ways and Means Committee 
calling for reforms to the Unemployment Insurance system so that it 
would be ready to meet the demand caused by future unemployment.

    Yes, there have been calls for reform before. But this time truly 
is different. When COVID hit last March, our education and workforce 
systems were caught flat-footed, unprepared for the sudden, dramatic 
economic downturn. While we can hope that this has been a crisis of a 
generation or even a century, we have seen how critical it is to be 
fully prepared, which means developing the agility we need to meet 
rapidly changing demand in major sectors of our economy. And even in 
times of low unemployment, which we're all hoping to see again soon, we 
know that the jobs of tomorrow will look very different from the jobs 
of today.

    Workforce development has become a lifelong mandate for every 
worker. Upskilling, reskilling, transition assistance, and career 
navigation services, are essential to help every individual create and 
sustain a career that will enable them to support themselves and their 
loved ones. Employers must also be able to readily access the talent 
they need to compete. The nation's workforce development ecosystem--
programs authorized under WIOA and its related partner programs--must 
work collaboratively to meet these needs.

    The United States needs a workforce ecosystem that is modern, 
agile, equitable, resilient, and innovative enough to keep up with the 
skill needs of individuals and in-demand employers alike. It is what 
all of our people deserve. To make that a reality, Congress should take 
a holistic look at how these programs can be modernized and streamlined 
to meet the needs of our economy and workers today and in the future. 
Specifically, we'd like to call attention to the following essential 
changes in the system's design.

    We need a robust career navigation system. Few people have access 
to effective career navigation services today. We need to develop a 
comprehensive approach to helping students, jobseekers, and incumbent 
workers navigate the increasingly complex labor market and make well-
informed education, career pathway, and employment decisions that will 
make or break their ability to support themselves and their families. 
These services should be offered in a variety of ways, at a variety of 
times, with in-person and remote options, so they are equally 
accessible to all.

    We need a flexible, lifelong learning system. We need a skills 
development system that is adequately financed and easily accessible, 
where the structure and delivery of education and skills training are 
transformed. We need training options that allow learners to progress 
at an accelerated pace, award credit for prior learning, and offer 
stackable credentials that learners can accumulate as they move along 
pathways to further learning and degrees. And we need to find ways to 
capture skills and credentials in skills ``passports'' that are 
recognized across the education and workforce systems, and by 
employers. Equally critical is providing support services, ranging from 
academic tutoring to food assistance, transportation vouchers, and 
more, to ensure people can focus on their futures.

    We need a system that makes full use of the latest in digital 
technologies to expand and improve service delivery for participants. 
We have learned through this pandemic that we must significantly 
bolster our ability to provide technology-enabled career navigation and 
training to meet the changing skill needs of in-demand employers and 
deliver customer experiences that meet the needs and expectations of 
today's jobseekers.

    We need a system that supports the scaling of evidence-based models 
and strategies, including sector-focused, career pathways, and 
apprenticeship programs, and a wide array of work-based learning 
programs which provide essential experiences for adults and young 
people on pathways to family supporting careers.

    We need a system that partners in meaningful ways with employers, 
both on the design of education and skills training programs, and to 
encourage employers to provide training for their own frontline 
workers, set goals for diverse and inclusive hiring, identify ways to 
improve job quality for workers, and to adopt skills-based hiring 
practices for making employment decisions. Both the public and private 
sector have important roles to play in talent development and in 
designing an approach that maximizes the impact of each.

    We need a system that can successfully meet the needs of diverse 
populations, including Black, Latino, and Indigenous people, and others 
who have been hit hard by the pandemic. These are populations that have 
not shared equitably in earlier recoveries, and have not benefited 
equitably in America's education and workforce systems. We must be 
intentional in our efforts to ensure equity in workforce programs and 
their outcomes; and we must find authentic ways to incorporate worker 
voice in the design of systems and programs.

    We need a system that values and invests in opportunity youth--one 
that builds bridges that link disconnected youth and young adults to 
postsecondary education and employment. This system would embrace 
evidence-based strategies that work for this population and expand 
opportunities for work-based learning and employment that lead to in-
demand careers.

    Achieving these goals will require reforms across the entire 
workforce development ecosystem. Siloed policy development for U.S. 
workforce, higher education, career and technical education, poverty 
alleviation, and economic development systems can no longer be 
accepted. These systems must all be considered--and transformed--so 
they can work together to form the critical workforce preparation 
ecosystem needed today and in the future.
                We Can't Skimp on Workforce Investments
    Federal funding for postsecondary education and workforce 
development programs amounts to about $58 billion per year. That total 
includes education and training assistance for U.S. veterans and Pell 
Grants which help low-income students pay for college. \8\ Pell Grants 
make postsecondary education possible for millions of Americans who 
couldn't otherwise afford it. But the program is not flexible enough to 
meet the needs of a growing number of workers and learners who want to 
pursue short-term credentials or accelerated training. And while the GI 
Bill and related veterans employment assistance programs provide 
critical aid to former members of the military as they prepare for new 
jobs in civilian life, there are fewer options for nonveterans.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \8\  JFF, America's Untapped Workforce: Federal Programs to Help 
Develop a Critical Talent Pipeline (Boston, MA: JFF, March 2019), 
https://jfforg-prod-new.s3.amazonaws.com/media/documents/BRF-DC-
Untapped-Workforce-Federal-Programs-030719-FINAL.pdf.

    When Pell Grants and veterans programs are taken out of the 
equation, the United States invests only about $16 billion annually in 
programs that provide workforce-focused education, employment, and 
training assistance for the rest of America's students, jobseekers, and 
workers. This funding is divided among 17 different education and 
workforce development programs, including career and technical 
education, adult education, and vocational rehabilitation programs, and 
initiatives authorized under the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity 
Act (WIOA). In Fiscal Year 2020, funding for WIOA state formula 
grants--the primary employment and training assistance resource for 
low-income adults, youth, and dislocated workers--was a scant $3.6 
billion for all 50 states. \9\ .Only $1.3 billion of that went to 
employment and training assistance for dislocated workers.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \9\  JFF, America's Untapped Workforce, https://jfforg-prod-
new.s3.amazonaws.com/media/documents/BRF-DC-Untapped-Workforce-Federal-
Programs-030719-FINAL.pdf.

    It is no surprise that the Nation's workforce development system 
cannot keep up with the immense needs of workers who have been 
devastated by the COVID-19 crisis, despite the efforts of many high-
quality and innovative state and local systems. A June 2020 report by 
the previous administration's White House Council of Economic Advisors 
noted that the United States would have to spend an additional $80.4 
billion on employment and training per year to match the average 
expenditures of other Organization for Economic Cooperation and 
Development (OECD) member countries (based on percentage of GDP). With 
millions of Americans out of work and millions of others underemployed, 
the United States must do better.
  Recommendations for Transforming the Nation's Workforce Development 
                                 System
    I. Increase Investments in America's Workforce.

    JFF supports funding for workforce programs at levels consistent 
with those proposed for workforce development in the Biden 
Administration's The American Jobs Plan ($100 billion). That level of 
funding would support the employment and skill needs of U.S. workers 
and employers, allow for needed transformation of workforce programs, 
and bring workforce investments into parity with those of other OECD 
countries. We urge Congress to do the following:

          Dedicate $10 billion in funding for comprehensive 
        career navigation services, including a graduated public-
        private matching requirement for states and regions

          Significantly increase investments in skills 
        development in the following ways:

                Y  Provide $50 billion for WIOA skills accounts, adult 
                education, apprenticeships, and other forms of high-
                quality skills-based training for adults and youth

                Y  Expand Pell Grant eligibility to include high-
                quality short-term credentialing programs

                Y  Examine the potential of alternative financing 
                mechanisms, such as income share agreements (ISA) and 
                tax incentives for training, with adequate guardrails 
                to protect consumers

                Y  Provide incentives for employers to engage in 
                workforce efforts and invest in frontline worker 
                training

          Invest $10 billion in the alignment and modernization 
        of the workforce development ecosystem by funding:

                Y  Systems change research, with an advanced research 
                projects agency for the Department of Labor (modeled 
                after DARPA), where rich new data sources, advances in 
                data analysis, and experiments in training and 
                technology can be turned into practical solutions for 
                workers and employers

                Y  A Federal technology fund to expand states' and 
                regions' use of digital technologies

                Y  Cross-system investments in adult education, 
                community colleges, and workforce development systems 
                focused on increased collaboration, effective 
                programming, professional development, and system 
                innovation

                Y  Scaling of reforms in the delivery of education and 
                training through Federal-state partnership grants, 
                similar to reforms funded through TAACCCT

          Invest $10 billion in comprehensive programs for 
        opportunity youth to serve an additional 1 million to 2 million 
        young people annually

          Invest in job creation, subsidized employment, and 
        training opportunities in upcoming infrastructure, green 
        energy, and health workforce initiatives

    II. Make Systemic Changes in the Workforce Development 
Infrastructure

    To get ahead of the challenges workers face in today's economy, we 
need a new era of research, innovation, and modernization of the 
Nation's workforce development ecosystem. To help achieve this, 
Congress should take the following steps:

    At the Federal level:

          Fund research and development, providing assistance 
        to states and regions on the use of technology and the latest 
        innovative tools and strategies

          Fund the departments of Labor and Education to 
        provide capacity-building and technical assistance to state and 
        local staff--a downside of having a decentralized system is the 
        lack of standardization in the delivery and quality of services

          Ensure that the departments of Labor and Education 
        disseminate the findings from prior evaluations and products 
        developed under prior Federal investments, in actionable ways, 
        to provide lessons for future actions and avoid the need to 
        reinvent the wheel

          Fully align disconnected Federal employment and 
        training activities and funding at the Federal, state, and 
        regional levels through a streamlined workforce development 
        fund

    At the state and regional levels:

          Require systemic regional approaches in workforce 
        development that are tied to regional economic development 
        efforts (strengthening provisions already in WIOA)

          Dedicate funding for regional career pathways and 
        sector strategies in the delivery of education and training, 
        with expectations established for all partner programs

          Elevate the role of regional workforce boards with 
        decision-making authority over comprehensive workforce 
        programming with explicit funding for such activities

          Expand the vision of workforce development systems, 
        accompanied by robust professional development supports for new 
        modes of service delivery, tech-enabled services, data 
        analysis, and interoperability with high-quality private 
        offerings

          Implement changes in the structure and delivery of 
        education and training that significantly expand opportunities 
        for accelerated skills and credential attainment

    III. Develop a Robust, Modernized Career Navigation System

    The WIOA workforce system provides career navigation assistance to 
youth and adults who are enrolled to receive services under its 
programs, but these services are in need of modernization and are not 
accessible to non-WIOA participants. JFF urges Congress to do the 
following:

          Establish a robust career navigation system 
        throughout the United States that:

                Y  Is comprehensive, offering real-time labor market 
                information, career counseling, skills assessments, 
                skill matching, and referral to training strategies; 
                access to career pathways and accelerated reskilling 
                services; and access to support and reemployment 
                services

                Y  Provides all services virtually and through in-
                person networks via American Job Centers and affiliated 
                sites (community colleges, secondary schools, 
                libraries, community-based organizations) to increase 
                access for all individuals, especially members of 
                underserved and underrepresented populations and people 
                in rural areas

                Y  Connects to existing national education and career 
                counseling platforms offered through multiple access 
                points (in person and virtually) and in multiple 
                languages

                Y  Augments traditional labor market information made 
                available through the Bureau of Labor Statistics with 
                publicly available real-time labor market information 
                currently available only through proprietary platforms

                Y  Increases the emphasis on and funding of 
                professional development, including approaches that use 
                new technologies and those that support racial equity

          Establish a new entity called the Career Advising 
        Corps through the Corporation for National and Community 
        Service that works with the workforce system's career 
        navigation system and leverages emerging technology platforms.

    IV. Create a Lifelong Learning System

    The United States must invest in the education and training of its 
workforce and make changes in the ways education and training are 
provided to meet the needs of today's students, jobseekers, and workers 
and to ensure equitable employment outcomes. JFF urges Congress to do 
the following:

          Expand skills financing to increase funding for 
        skills development in the following ways:

                Y  Establish skill grants under WIOA to pay for high-
                quality training programs on WIOA's Employment Training 
                Provider Lists (ETPL) for training not covered by Pell

                Y  Expand tax advantaged skills training to encourage 
                individual and employer investments in education and 
                training, including Section 127 plans, lifelong 
                learning accounts, and Earned Income Tax Credits

                Y  Transform the structure and delivery of education 
                and skills training provided through workforce systems, 
                community colleges, and other high-quality providers to 
                ensure that skills training is more innovative and 
                agile; responsive to the skill needs of in-demand 
                employers; available in person and online; open to an 
                expanded array of high-quality training providers and 
                delivery structures with strong participant outcomes; 
                augmented with expanded earn-and-learn opportunities; 
                and scaling evidence-based strategies, including career 
                pathways and sector strategies

                Y  Create incentive grants for state community college 
                systems and for consortia of institutions to scale 
                evidence-based practices and innovations, including 
                those tested through TAACCCT, that transform the 
                Nation's community college systems.

    V. Ensure That U.S. Workers Are Protected in Times of Transition

    The Nation's response in helping workers who have lost jobs as a 
result of the COVID-19 crisis has been mixed at best. While certain 
shortcomings in unemployment insurance (UI) eligibility have been 
addressed through COVID-19 relief legislation, too many workers remain 
unemployed without adequate retraining and reemployment assistance, and 
without access to essential benefits. To address the transition needs 
of displaced workers, Congress should do the following:

          Enact systemic UI reforms that retain the CARES Act's 
        expanded eligibility provisions, provide incentives for shared 
        work and part-time UI, and adopt other system innovations that 
        expand the flexibility and depth of coverage

          Ensure that Federal infrastructure and job creation 
        initiatives provide employment opportunities for individuals 
        who have experienced long-term unemployment, and for 
        opportunity youth

          Ensure greater connectivity and collaboration across 
        the UI and workforce development systems and expand 
        reemployment assistance that builds upon services provided 
        under the Reemployment Services and Eligibility Assessment 
        program

    VI. Ensure the Quality of Education and Training Programs

    In today's economy, there is a significant increase in demand for 
short-term occupational skills training. Individuals who are looking to 
quickly reenter the labor market are increasingly pursuing education 
that is tied to in-demand employment, and secondary and postsecondary 
students are doing the same. This makes our ability to determine the 
quality of short-term and other postsecondary education programs more 
important than ever, especially as we consider public funding for such 
programs. To address this need, Congress should take the following 
steps:

          Implement a universally accepted quality control 
        mechanism to ensure that programs and providers that receive 
        Federal workforce funding meet accepted levels of performance 
        based on participant outcomes.

          Champion an interagency data connectivity and 
        transparency initiative to improve data availability and 
        promote its use by consumers making education, training, and 
        employment decisions. This initiative should promote effective 
        data privacy while building upon current efforts, such as the 
        College Scorecard and the WIOA Employment and Training Provider 
        List (ETPL).

          Establish a national reporting process whereby all 
        federally funded education and workforce training programs must 
        provide data on the labor market outcomes of students and 
        participants, based on standards established by the departments 
        of Labor and Education.

          Require that participant data related to the services 
        provided and program outcomes be disaggregated for each 
        subpopulation by race, ethnicity, sex, age, and socioeconomic 
        status. Policies should build in performance incentives for 
        providers based on outcomes for subpopulations served.

          Require states to update their Eligible Training 
        Provider Lists quarterly. Such updates should consider access 
        to services and ongoing economic shifts in the labor market to 
        ensure that training options are relevant to current and 
        emerging in-demand industries and occupations. Consideration 
        should also be given to the establishment of a national-level 
        ETPL for high-quality training providers that operate 
        nationwide.

          Extend WIOA measures to other education and training 
        programs included in system alignment efforts.

    VII. Encourage Employer Engagement

    Employer engagement is key to the success of workforce development 
efforts. Employers must help inform the development and implementation 
of workforce development programs to ensure that the skills and 
credentials offered are of value to regional economies. Employers can 
also implement new practices that better serve jobseekers and workers, 
such as adopting skills-based hiring practices. To encourage these 
behaviors, as well as increased employer investments in their own 
frontline workers, Congress can take these actions:

          Enhance business services provided through the 
        workforce system that reflect regional economic priorities and 
        are relevant to the needs of in-demand industries. Examples 
        include the following:

                Y  Investments in workforce intermediaries and industry 
                partnerships

                Y  Funding for the expansion of apprenticeships

                Y  Funding of professional development and other human 
                resources activities for midsize and small employers 
                that can focus on issues ranging from job quality and 
                diversity and inclusion to the use of workforce tools 
                and technologies

          Provide economic incentives to employers for 
        investing in their current and future workers.

          Support efforts, such as those being led by the Open 
        Skills Network, to accelerate the shift to skills-based hiring 
        through the development and implementation of a common skills 
        language used by employers, learners, jobseekers, and education 
        providers, including development of skills ``passports.'' 
        Federal support for these efforts may include pilots that use 
        innovative technologies, such as blockchain, to ensure 
        portability and verification; convening key stakeholders; and 
        supporting research and development.

    VIII. Target Programming to Individuals Facing Barriers to 
Education and Employment

    To address the needs of people who face the greatest barriers to 
employment and who have been disproportionately impacted by COVID-19, 
Congress can focus on providing supports like these:

          Access to high-quality skills development 
        opportunities as well as on-ramps to career pathways. Federal 
        policy needs to promote skills development as an economic 
        mobility strategy by providing funding and expanding evidence-
        based strategies, such as sector-focused career pathways.

          Services that address the unique needs of members of 
        specific populations by helping them persist in education and 
        work.

          Expanded opportunities to gain employment through 
        strategies that may include transitional jobs, subsidized 
        employment, earn-and-learn arrangements, and other models that 
        result in skills and credential attainment and lead to family 
        supporting careers.

    IX. Increase Investments in and Programming for Opportunity Youth

    Even before COVID-19, young people, especially young people of 
color and those who come from low-income backgrounds, were facing 
declining economic prospects. \10\ Youth unemployment rates were, and 
continue to be, twice as high as the national average: 4.6 million 
young adults ages 16 to 24 were out of school and unemployed before the 
pandemic struck, and more than one-third of those young people were 
living in poverty. This population, known as opportunity youth, has 
grown significantly during the pandemic. Now roughly 10 million young 
people are out of school (at both the high school and college levels) 
and out of work. \11\ For these individuals, building skills and 
gaining work experience are key to upward mobility, however the 
pandemic has all but shut off opportunities for employment.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \10\  JFF, Investments in Opportunity Youth Fuel Prosperity 
(Boston, MA: JFF, December 4, 2018), https://www.jff.org/resources/
investments-opportunity-youth-fuel-prosperity.
    \11\  Richard Fry and Amanda Barroso, ``Amid Coronavirus Outbreak, 
Nearly 3 in 10 Young People Are `Disconnected,''' State Legislature 
Magazine (Washington, DC: National Conference of State Legislatures, 
August 6, 2020), https://www.ncsl.org/bookstore/state-legislatures-
magazine/covid-19-nearly-3-in-10-young-people-are-disconnected-
magazine2020.aspx.

    To address the needs of vulnerable youth, Congress should take the 
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
following steps:

          Increase investments in programs that serve this 
        population, as described earlier.

          Continue to prioritize services for out-of-school 
        youth in WIOA youth programs, while also ensuring that the 
        Nation's K-12 education system devotes adequate funding and 
        attention to young people who are at risk of disengaging from 
        high school. We urge the expansion of policies that support 
        reengagement of these young people through evidence-based 
        strategies such as pathways approaches (such as Back on Track) 
        and other models with proven success.

          Establish a new competitive grant program to serve 
        local areas with high concentrations of opportunity youth. This 
        program should align multiple initiatives and partners through 
        collective impact strategies for serving in-school and out-of-
        school youth who are at risk of disconnection; expand evidence-
        based strategies for helping opportunity youth succeed; and 
        focus on solutions that address the education and employment 
        needs of underrepresented youth, including members of Black, 
        Latino, and Indigenous populations, who have been historically 
        underserved, with special attention to racial equity.

    Ensure that youth programs build upon evidence-based models and 
service delivery strategies that have proved to be successful in 
serving opportunity youth. These approaches include career navigation 
services that use technology, such as MyBestBets; career pathways 
models, such as JFF's Back on Track initiative, that provide on-ramps 
to postsecondary education and employment opportunities that end with 
the attainment of valued credentials and in-demand careers; expanded 
opportunities to participate in work-based learning programs, including 
pre-apprenticeships and apprenticeships; and mentoring, mental health 
services, trauma-informed counseling, and other critical wraparound 
supports.
                               Conclusion
    Before the onset of COVID-19, the United States was already facing 
labor market disruption that was pushing policymakers, systems leaders, 
and practitioners to rethink the status quo and design modern 
approaches to address the skill needs of today's jobseekers, workers, 
and employers. The pandemic exacerbated these shifts, causing a 
devastating economic downturn that has left people, businesses, and 
local economies struggling to survive.

    Now is the time to transform our Nation's workforce development 
system. We must devote more resources for skills development, modernize 
career navigation services, offer more assistance to people who are 
planning their career pathways, provide necessary transition assistance 
to displaced workers, and ensure that our Nation's most underserved 
populations are able to succeed. If we do these things, we will meet 
the needs of today's workers and our evolving economy, while building a 
strong foundation for the future.

    JFF urges the Members of the HELP Committee and Congress to take 
action and create a workforce system that works.

    Thank you for this opportunity to testify before the Senate HELP 
Committee. I look forward to continuing to work with you on these 
critical issues.
                                 ______
                                 
                   [summary statement of maria flynn]
    This past year has been devastating for many American workers, 
especially those who have been disproportionately impacted by the 
pandemic: low-wage earners and individuals with no postsecondary 
credentials, many of whom are Black, Latino, or from other 
underrepresented populations. More than 40 million U.S. workers have 
lost jobs and substantial financial ground since March 2020. While 
unemployment trended down last month, our Nation still faces 9.7 
million people who remain unemployed. And the latest figures do not 
reflect the millions more who have dropped out of the labor market 
completely or the many who are trying to get by on part-time and low-
wage jobs.

    The majority of in-demand jobs today require at least some 
postsecondary education and training, and this trend is expected to 
continue as new ways of working, sparked by technological advancements, 
demand higher-level knowledge, skills, and abilities.

    For a full and equitable recovery, the United States must invest in 
the skills of its workers--and those investments must benefit all 
Americans. We must close longstanding gaps in skills, credentials, and 
career progression associated with gender, race, ethnicity, and income 
status.

    The United States has an array of postsecondary education, skills 
training, and workforce development programs that provide vital 
education and employment services for America's workers. These programs 
and institutions have worked hard to adapt throughout the pandemic--
moving from in-person to virtual service delivery and adjusting to meet 
the needs of a changing labor market. But they are not adequately 
funded, nor are they agile enough to fully meet the skill needs of the 
U.S. workforce, especially in today's turbulent economy.

    To meet the needs of workers, employers, and the economy, Congress 
must do the following:

          Significantly increase investments in our collective 
        workforce development efforts, especially in skills development 
        programs, to meet the needs of America's workers and employers 
        and the U.S. economy.

          Make needed changes in America's workforce 
        development ecosystem to:

                Y  Transform services for jobseekers and workers by 
                modernizing and expanding career navigation and skills 
                training systems, as well as the workforce system 
                infrastructure

                Y  Strengthen employer engagement to ensure system 
                relevance and increase the value that employers place 
                on skills attainment and quality jobs

                Y  Improve the effectiveness of systems serving workers 
                in transition, especially those with barriers to 
                employment--including Black, Latino, and Indigenous 
                people and opportunity youth--and ensure equity in the 
                provision and outcomes of services
                                 ______
                                 
    The Chair. Thank you very much.
    Ms. Thomas, we will turn to you.

 STATEMENT OF DENIECE THOMAS, DEPUTY COMMISSIONER OF WORKFORCE 
  LEARNING AND DEVELOPMENT, TENNESSEE DEPARTMENT OF LABOR AND 
              WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT, NASHVILLE, TN

    Ms. Thomas. Good morning. Thank you, Chair Murray, Ranking 
Member Burr, and Members of the Committee for inviting me to 
speak today. My name is Deniece Thomas, and I serve as Deputy 
Commissioner of Workforce and Learning for the Tennessee 
Department of Labor and Workforce Development.
    Tennessee, like most states across the Country, has 
experienced disruption in the workforce as a result of the 
pandemic. Whereas our most recent unemployment rate of 5 
percent looks promising, we recognize there are challenges that 
exist outside of the official numbers.
    Also, unlike the Great Recession when jobs were more scarce 
in our state, we have a significant amount of jobs available to 
Tennesseans. Currently, over 250,000 jobs remain unfilled in 
our jobs data base. However, as vaccination rates increase and 
hopefully overall conditions improve, we are seeing a real push 
to reengage sidelined workers.
    In order to breach the divide between those needing and 
wanting quality jobs and employers who desire skilled workers, 
we must collaborate with other workforce agencies and partners 
to provide comprehensive services, both in the American Job 
Centers and Community Access Points across the state, to 
include mobile units.
    We officially launched a Tennessee Virtual American Job 
Center in December of last year in order to maintain 
connectivity to our citizens, even when our physical doors 
could not be open due to the pandemic. This service model is 
key in advancing opportunities for all.
    We must continue to work with human services agencies to 
create, collect, and share common intake information in order 
to best identify and coordinate eligibility for appropriate 
programs and services that meet the overall needs of the 
individual and their family.
    The availability of these services outside the traditional 
walls of the American one-stop system has helped to expand 
access for many Tennesseans, as have many pandemic era programs 
that rely on a more remote service delivery.
    Given the workforce vulnerability of minority workers 
across certain industry sectors, individualized and equitable 
access must continue to be broadened to ensure workers most at 
risk for job loss or disruption can participate in training 
programs that offer the best path to connect to high-demand and 
high-wage employment opportunities. This includes an expansion 
of worker supports, such as access to high-quality childcare, 
transportation, and broadband.
    This work will be strengthened by partners at the Federal 
level by further aligning policies, eligibility and benefit 
structures, regulation, state plan requirements, and 
performance metrics across systems. Employee-integrated 
approaches will bolster and support evidence-based outcomes for 
several workforce, human services, and education programs.
    We continue to forge ahead with ways to provide access to 
quality workforce and education training to those incarcerated. 
In partnership with our Tennessee Board of Regents and 
Department of Corrections, we are offering a unique virtual 
technology platform that offers instruction, career 
exploration, and skills assessment prior to release.
    Whereas Tennessee has had some success with education 
partners, namely adult education, career and technical 
education, and those at the post-secondary level, we recommend 
policymakers ensure all future investments in infrastructure 
around education, public health, and transportation are 
inclusive of the public workforce system to ensure holistic and 
overall outcomes for those we serve.
    One such example is our soon-to-be-released Summer Work 
Experience. This is a project modeled for in-school and out-of-
school youth that will support work-based education, as well as 
the expansion of pre-apprenticeship and apprenticeship 
opportunities. Our Apprenticeship Tennessee initiative has 
experienced nearly 30 percent growth in the number of 
registered apprenticeships over the last year, despite the 
pandemic.
    Another highlight is our Reconnect the Workforce project 
that was launched last year. This is a cooperative effort 
between the Tennessee Higher Education Commission and the 
Tennessee Department of Labor and Workforce Development to 
design a data-sharing initiative in order to facilitate access 
to post-secondary education for unemployment claimants and 
adult education students in targeted sectors.
    By leveraging the tuition-free Tennessee Reconnect program 
for adult learners, our organizations could utilize resources 
to create a suite of services to address barriers to post-
secondary credential attainment. During initial rollout of the 
program, we reached over 500,000 individuals.
    These examples of state-level coordination can lead to 
sustainable and scalable models throughout our entire system, 
and it is a spirit we all need as we emerge from the pandemic. 
However, public workforce here in Tennessee and at large will 
need sustainable and flexible funding options to continue to 
support both emergent and incumbent workers. Investments must 
be consistent over time to allow for maneuverability to address 
needs as they arise as opposed to reactive and restricted 
funding that hinders states' ability to plan and execute as 
needed.
    The public workforce system will continue to play a vital 
role in economic and workforce recovery by providing access to 
training opportunities to individuals desiring reskilling or 
upskilling opportunities through traditional and work-based 
education. When positioned well, programs and services within 
the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act can provide 
foundational economic stability and drive the labor market 
incomes for all.
    Thank you for the opportunity to share.
    [The prepared statement of Ms. Thomas follows:]
                  prepared statement of deniece thomas
    Good Morning. Thank you, Chair Murray, Ranking Member Burr, and 
Members of the Committee, for inviting me to speak today.
                                Overview
    Tennessee, like most states across the country, has experienced 
disruption in the workforce as a result of the pandemic. Whereas our 
most recent unemployment rate of 5 percent looks promising, we 
recognize there are workforce challenges that exist outside of the 
official numbers.

    Also, unlike during the Great Recession when jobs were more scarce 
in our state, we have a significant amount of jobs available to 
Tennesseans. Currently, we have over 250K available positions posted in 
our jobs data base. The state experienced its most substantial job 
growth in the trade/transportation/utilities sector.

    The leisure/hospitality sector experienced the biggest loss of jobs 
over the last year. However, as vaccination rates increase and overall 
conditions improve, we are seeing a real push to reengage sidelined 
workers.
                           Equity and Access
    In order to bridge the divide between those needing and wanting 
quality jobs and employers who desire skilled workers, we collaborate 
with other workforce agencies and partners to provide comprehensive 
services, both in American Job Centers and community access points 
across the state, including mobile units. We officially launched the 
Tennessee Virtual American Job Center in December of last year in order 
to maintain connectivity to our citizens even when our physical doors 
could not be opened due to the pandemic. This service model is key in 
advancing opportunities for all. We also coordinate with our Human 
Services agency to create, collect and share common intake information 
in order to best identify and coordinate eligibility for appropriate 
programs and services that meet the overall needs of the individual and 
their family. The availability of these services outside the 
traditional walls of the American One Stop System has helped to expand 
access for many Tennesseans, as have pandemic era programs that rely 
more on remote service delivery.

    Given the workforce vulnerability of minority workers across 
certain industry sectors, individualized and equitable access must 
continue to be broadened to ensure workers most at risk for job loss or 
disruption can participate in training programs that offer the best 
path to connect to high demand and high wage employment opportunities. 
This includes an expansion of worker supports such as access to high-
quality childcare, transportation, and broadband. This work will be 
strengthened by our partners at the Federal level further aligning 
policies, eligibility and benefit structures, regulations, state plan 
requirements and performance metrics across systems. Employing 
integrated approaches will bolster and support evidence-based outcomes 
for several workforce, human services, and education programs. We 
continue to forge ahead with ways to provide access to quality 
workforce education and training to those incarcerated. In partnership 
with the Tennessee Board of Regents and Department of Corrections we 
are offering a unique virtual technology platform that provides 
instruction, career exploration and skill assessments prior to release.
                    Integration and Service Modeling
    Whereas Tennessee has successful coordination with several 
education partners such as Adult Education, Career and Technical 
Education, and technical and community colleges at the post-secondary 
level, we recommend policymakers ensure all future investments in 
infrastructure around education, public health, and transportation are 
inclusive of the public workforce system to ensure holistic and overall 
outcomes for those we serve. One such example of that coordination in 
our state is the soon-to be summer work experience project for in-
school and out-of-school youth that will support work-based education 
as well as the expansion of pre-apprenticeship and apprenticeship 
opportunities. Our ApprenticeshipTN initiative has experienced nearly 
30 percent growth in the number of registered apprentices over the last 
year despite the pandemic.

    Another highlight is our Reconnect the Workforce project that was 
launched early. This was a cooperative effort between the Tennessee 
Higher Education Commission and the Tennessee Department of Labor and 
Workforce Development to design a data sharing initiative in order to 
facilitate access to post-secondary education for unemployment 
claimants and adult education students in targeted sectors. By 
leveraging the tuition free TN Reconnect program for adult learners, 
our organizations could utilize resources to create a suite of services 
to address barriers to post-secondary credential attainment. During 
initial rollout of the program we reached over 500k individuals.

    These examples of state-level coordination can lead to sustainable 
and scalable models throughout our entire system and it is the spirit 
we all need coming out of this recession. However, the public workforce 
here in Tennessee and at large will need sustainable and flexible 
funding options to continue to support both emergent and incumbent 
workers. Investments must be consistent over time to allow for 
maneuverability to address needs as they arise as opposed to reactive 
and restrictive funding that hinders states' ability to plan and 
execute as needed.
                               Conclusion
    The public workforce system at large will continue to play a vital 
role in economic and workforce recovery by providing access to training 
opportunities to individuals desiring reskilling or upskilling 
opportunities through both traditional and work-based education. When 
positioned well, programs and services within the Workforce Innovation 
and Opportunity Act can provide foundational economic stability and 
drive good labor market outcomes for all.
                                 ______
                                 
                 [summary statement of deniece thomas]
    Tennessee, like most states, has experienced workforce challenges 
as a result of the COVID 19 Pandemic. In order to strengthen workforce 
participation and recovery we must rely on partnerships not only within 
the public workforce system but also the private sector community. 
Although challenged, there remains optimism that the workforce 
community can rally together with innovative approaches and renewed 
vigor to support workers most impacted by the pandemic. To experience 
both short-and long-term success access must be expanded to ensure 
equity in workforce funded programs and services. Funding for these 
programs must be sustainable and flexible to allow states the ability 
to plan and execute at the onset of need rather than rely on 
competitive funding where there is oftentimes a lag. Agility and 
expediency of the public workforce system response is vital to help 
mitigate the effects of potential long-term unemployment.

    The expansion of work-based training and education is also 
necessary to facilitate a robust workforce pipeline of existing and 
emerging workers. Programs such as apprenticeships, on the job training 
and incumbent worker training remain vitally important and will be 
needed as we continue to move more of our citizens back to work.

    Last, the gears of innovation and creativity must continue to turn 
to improve career pathway progression for youth and adults. The 
buildout of these programs will yield greater versatility and viability 
for our state's workforce.
                                 ______
                                 
    The Chair. Thank you.
    Dr. Ralls.

    STATEMENT OF DR. SCOTT RALLS, PRESIDENT, WAKE TECHNICAL 
                 COMMUNITY COLLEGE, RALEIGH, NC

    Dr. Ralls. Good morning, Chair Murray, Ranking Member Burr, 
and Members of the Committee. I am very honored to be with you 
today. Our college, Wake Technical Community College, takes 
particular pride in the community part of our name, and this 
challenging past year has sharpened even more our community 
emphasis.
    A year ago this month, we quickly moved every course and 
service we provide online. And, since that time, we have been 
safely nudging back to normalcy. A majority of our students 
work. You could say colleges like ours are the colleges of 
essential workers, and our role in that regard has been clear, 
beginning with the physical reopening of our Public Safety and 
Health Sciences campuses last June. Since that time, 136 
nursing graduates have moved directly to the healthcare 
frontlines, and our pharmacy tech students have been trained 
for vaccine delivery.
    Like all community colleges, our students are more than 
likely to come from working and lower-income families, and also 
to be classified as non-traditional. This year has been 
particularly non-traditional for them--the working student, who 
is also the essential clerk in the grocery checkout line; the 
student parent, who is also serving as a teacher at home.
    To address these greater challenges, we have amplified our 
communications, accelerated and expanded our student supports, 
and tried to serve where we can as a lifeline for our 
community.
    In the fall, we waived all our student fees to give our 
students a financial break. And, as of this week, we will have 
distributed emergency financial aid to over 12,000 students in 
an average award amount of $700, provided $125 grocery gift 
cards to over 4,300 students, and distributed over 1,200 free 
laptops.
    At the outset of the pandemic, we scooped up all our 
existing PPE, donating 74,000 gloves, 3,000 masks, our only 
ventilator, and other supplies to our hospitals.
    We raised $194,000 in private funds for grants to local 
small businesses started through our Launch Entrepreneurship 
programs.
    Today, one of our campuses serves as a site where 1,800 
people per week are receiving vaccinations.
    We are providing free job training to individuals in our 
community economically impacted by COVID in 21 in-demand job 
areas.
    As we have reached the one-year COVID anniversary, we are 
extremely grateful for the Federal, the state, the county 
resources, the private donations that enabled us to earn our 
stripes this year as our community's college.
    While we are keeping our eye on the ball with respect to 
safety, we are excited to be reaching this transition as I 
believe the road to economic recovery and workforce opportunity 
is running right through the middle of America's community 
colleges.
    In no way is this a new role for our college. And in the 
year leading up to the pandemic, we were already framing our 
role as our region's largest ladder college and furthering the 
practice of what we will sometimes refer to as ladder 
economics. Here is what we briefly mean by that.
    The region we serve, the Research Triangle, is a high-tech 
hub that is blessed by economic opportunity and significant 
population growth and job growth, and our region's strong 
universities serve as a talent magnet for individuals from 
around our state, our Country, and the world.
    However, we have not been as strong a talent ladder. 
Economic analyses indicate that despite the richness of the 
opportunities, we lag in economic mobility, meaning if you grow 
up poor in our region, the chances of remaining poor as an 
adult are greater, higher, than in some other metropolitan 
areas. That significant challenge has only been exacerbated 
this year by the pandemic, and at Wake Tech, we are taking that 
on as a unique mission to change that.
    One way we attempt to do that is by not forcing upon our 
students a choice between skills and degrees. While training 
too often leads to the necessary skills that are required to 
get a job, too often they do not connect to the degree pathways 
that are necessary for career promotion--like a ladder with 
only the bottom rungs. And many higher education degree 
pathways are like a ladder with only the top rungs--unreachable 
for many people who need to work so they can continue higher 
education to prepare for a lifelong career.
    At Wake Tech, we are sharpening our focus on the 
development and alignment of each rung--the ladders leading to 
career opportunity, as well as the vital partnerships, employer 
partnerships, educational partnerships, workforce system 
partnerships that form the vital planks that connect the rungs 
of the ladder together. In my written testimony, I gave 
examples of that in terms of our information and biotechnology 
pathways.
    Some of the rungs of the ladder there are important. 
Frequent and meaningful employer engagement; data-infused 
career development; training opportunities providing both a 
foothold to a job with industry certifications, recognized 
industry certifications, and footholds to degrees with prior 
learning credit; coordinated high school pathways; CTE; dual 
enrollment; early colleges; stackable community college 
degrees; second-chance recovery efforts; strategic university 
partnerships; plus-up training for degree holders for lifetime 
learning; and well-developed apprenticeship and work-based 
learning opportunities.
    There are several opportunities for the Federal Government 
to further development of meaningful career ladders at 
America's community colleges, which I believe are the backbone 
of workforce development and at the heart of creating career 
ladders:
    Extending Federal financial aid eligibility to students and 
workers enrolled in short-term programs; authorizing a 
community college-led training program that provides meaningful 
funding for the development and initiation of career ladders in 
high-demand job areas; establishing education and training 
innovation funds through the Departments of Labor and 
Education; and strengthening the Federal apprenticeship 
policies.
    Thank you again for this opportunity to participate in 
today's hearing, and I look forward to the discussion generated 
by your questions.
    [The prepared statement of Dr. Ralls follows:]
                 prepared statement of dr. scott ralls
    Good morning Chair Murray, Ranking Member Burr and Members of the 
Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee. I am honored to be 
with you today. My name is Scott Ralls and I am President of Wake 
Technical Community College. Serving approximately 70,000 individuals 
per year with six campuses and three training sites in the Greater 
Raleigh metropolitan region, our college is not only the largest 
community college in our state but also one of the largest higher 
education institutions in North Carolina.

    As a community college, we take particular pride in the 
``community'' part of our name, and this challenging past year has 
sharpened even more our community emphasis. We have been privileged and 
honored to help provide a bridge to recovery for the students and 
community we serve.

    A year ago this month, we quickly moved every course and service we 
provide online, and since that time we have been safely nudging back to 
normalcy. A majority of our students work--you could say that colleges 
like ours are the colleges of ``essential workers''--and our role in 
that regard was clear, with the physical reopening of both our Public 
Safety and Health Sciences Campuses last June. Since that time, 136 
Wake Tech nursing graduates moved to the healthcare frontlines with the 
aid of a new ``graduate nurse status'' designation by the North 
Carolina Board of Nursing, and our pharmacy tech students and faculty 
have received special training for vaccine administration. In August, 
we began bringing back our skilled trades and technical programs into 
socially distanced, in-person courses in our shops and labs, and we 
hustled to ensure that all our faculty had a completed a unique on-line 
instruction certification program called EPIC that we created a few 
years ago, not knowing how vital it would be to us this year.

    Like all community colleges, our students are more likely to come 
from working and lower income families, and also to be classified as 
non-traditional. This year was a particularly non-traditional year for 
them--the working student who also is the essential clerk in the 
grocery checkout line, the student parent who is also serving as a 
teacher at home. To address their greater challenges, we have attempted 
to amplify all of our communications, accelerate and expand our student 
supports, and serve where we can as a lifeline for our community under 
a college mantra we have called ``Reach and Rally.''

    At the onset of the pandemic, we reached out with an outbound 
calling campaign to check in on each of our students and revamped 
delivery of our vital tutoring services. In the Fall, we waived all of 
our student fees to give our students a financial break, and as of this 
week, we will have distributed emergency financial aid to over 12,000 
students at an average award amount of $700, provided $125 grocery gift 
cards to over 4,300 students, and distributed over 1,200 free student 
laptops.

    While reaching out to our students, we rallied around our community 
as well. At the onset of the pandemic, we collected all of our existing 
PPE, donating 74,000 gloves, 3,000 masks, hundreds of bottles of 
sanitizer and our only ventilator to our local hospitals. We also 
raised $192,000 in private funds to be distributed as ``rally grants'' 
to 85 local small businesses that had started in recent years with the 
assistance of our Wake Tech small business programs. Today, one of our 
campus gyms is a site where 1,800 people a week are receiving COVID 
vaccinations.

    As we have reached the one-year COVID-19 anniversary, we are 
extremely grateful for the Federal, state and county resources, as well 
as the private donations during a record setting fundraising year, that 
enabled us to earn our stripes this year as our community's college. 
While we are keeping our eye on the ball with respect to all safety 
protocols, we are excited to be reaching a transition point where our 
support becomes focused on economic and workforce recovery.

    In no way is this a new role for our college. Workforce development 
that enables broadly shared economic prosperity has always been at the 
heart of our mission, and in the year leading up to the pandemic, we 
were already framing our role as our region's largest ``ladder 
college'' and furthering the practice of what we sometimes refer to as 
``ladder economics.'' Here's briefly what we mean by that and what it 
looks like.

    First a glimpse into the region we serve, the Research Triangle. 
Our region is a high-tech hub, blessed by economic opportunity, 
population growth, and trailing only Austin, Texas in STEM job growth 
over the past decade. Our region can be found at the top of most 
positive economic indicators, and higher education has been at the core 
of our region's economic development, with strong universities serving 
as a talent magnet for individuals from around the country.

    However, we have not been as strong a talent ladder. Economic 
analyses indicate that despite the richness of opportunities, we lag as 
an economic ladder, meaning if you grow up poor as a child in our 
region, the chances of remaining poor as an adult are higher than in 
many other metropolitan areas. We know that significant challenge has 
only been exacerbated by the pandemic. Defining ourselves as our 
region's largest ladder college, Wake Tech has taken it on as our 
unique mission to change that, and thus a focus on ``ladder 
economics.''

    Here's what we mean. Prior to the pandemic, you could hear the 
debate in many places about skills vs. degrees. I've personally had 
several corporate executives tell me they don't care about degrees 
anymore, only skills, and then later learn that the memo never reached 
the H.R. department where degrees were very much a criteria for 
potential promotions. Why should an individual have to choose? Training 
often leads to the necessary skills required to land a job, but too 
often does not connect to the degree pathways necessary for career 
promotion--like a ladder with only the bottom rungs. On the flip side, 
many higher education degree pathways are like a ladder with only the 
top rungs, unreachable to many people who need to work so they can 
continue higher education to prepare for a career.

    Skills vs. degrees, the workforce system vs. the education system, 
short-term vs. long-term--our workforce development deliberations have 
too often been focused around the debates of ``or,'' while so many 
people need us to be focused around ``and.'' Our conversations and 
plans should be more about connective ladders to opportunity, less 
about disconnected siloed programs, and that's where ``ladder 
economics'' comes in.

    Ladder economics means fostering a focus on each important rung of 
the career ladder and the partnerships that create the vital 
connectivity. In my opinion, the important rungs of ladder economics 
include:

          frequent and meaningful employer engagement,

          data-infused career development,

          training opportunities providing both a foothold to a 
        job with recognized industry certifications and foothold to 
        degrees with prior learning credit,

          coordinated high school pathways through CTE and dual 
        enrollment,

          well-developed apprenticeship and work-based learning 
        opportunities,

          stackable community college degrees,

          second chance recovery efforts,

          strategic university articulations, and

          plus-up training for degree holders that fosters 
        meaningful career-based, lifetime learning.

    These ladder rungs are not unique to most community college 
programs, and at Wake Tech, we are sharpening our focus on each rung 
and the partnerships--employer partnerships, educational partnerships, 
workforce system partnerships--that form the vital planks that connect 
the rungs of the ladder together.
    Three of the vital rungs fall within the realm of outreach and 
information. Perhaps the most vital outreach is active employer 
engagement which we continuously cultivate so as to hit employer skills 
targets and give our students a hiring advantage. Like most community 
colleges, each of our applied degree programs have active employer 
advisory committees and it is a rare day when I am not personally 
engaged with at least one local employer regarding workforce 
development.
    Data science is opening the development of two new ladder rungs 
related to career development and stop-out recovery. With the data 
science company, Burning Glass, we have initiated career mapping for 
each of our degree pathways which will provide up-to-date regional wage 
and employment data for students and potential students regarding what 
is possible with each credential step. We also innovated our own data 
science tool, Finish First, which allows us to identify at the course 
level, the degree award proximity of all our recent stop-outs, which we 
also hope to connect back to the career maps. By coordinating that 
information this past spring with a targeted student outreach effort 
with the company Inside Track, we were able to foster a stop-out 
recovery effort that was 50 percent more effective than our normal 
outreach and had a 343 percent return on investment. The model is now 
being piloted statewide in North Carolina with the assistance of the 
North Carolina Community College System, the UNC System, Lumina 
Foundation and the John M. Belk Endowment.
    Much of the work of what we call ladder economics revolves around 
programmatic alignment--alignment of high school dual enrollment 
opportunities, short-term training and prior learning credit, applied 
degrees, and strategic university transfer options--and the notion of 
credential ``stackability.'' In North Carolina we have an advantage, as 
our North Carolina Community College System revamped the statewide 
applied degree structure almost a decade ago with a major goal to 
foster opportunity through credential stackability.
    Through our laddering goals at Wake Tech, we are attempting to take 
the concepts of program alignment and stackability to new levels. Here 
are a couple of examples in job areas that have continued to boom in 
growth in our region even during the height of the pandemic: Biotech 
and IT.
    The pandemic has spurred the exponential growth of biotech jobs in 
our region with major jobs and investment announcements becoming a 
common occurrence as exemplified by the recent company announcements 
from Fujifilm Diosynth Biotechnologies, Biogen, and Eli Lilly to name 
just a few. A gateway to the entry jobs for many of those companies is 
our short-term, non-degree BioWork program, a statewide community 
college program developed years ago in close partnership with our 
biotech companies. BioWork is now offered as one of 21 programs 
provided free of charge at our college to individuals facing employment 
impacts of COVID, thanks to Federal GEER funding made available by the 
CARES Act. Students in that program get a strong foothold to a first 
job in biotech, and also a foothold through prior learning credit into 
our two-year Biopharmaceutical Technology degree. For high school 
students at our Vernon Malone College and Career Academy, one of our 
three Early College partnerships we share with Wake County Public 
Schools, students there have an accelerated dual enrollment jump start, 
with several finishing our biopharmaceutical technology degree and 
other programs at the same time they graduate from high school.
    Students who complete our biopharmaceutical technology degree can 
seamlessly transfer that degree and the credits into the Bachelor of 
Science in Industrial Technology degree at East Carolina University, 
and the UNC System recently approved the onsite delivery of that 
program by ECU on our Wake Tech campuses. Finally, once the entry level 
skills and degrees are attained, further skills-focused lifetime 
learning is needed, what we sometimes call ``plus-up training.'' That 
is where our BioNetwork Capstone Center comes in, a unique training 
center Wake Tech operates for the North Carolina Community College 
System. Located within the Biomanufacturing Training and Education 
Center on the Centennial Campus of our close partner, NC State 
University, it offers a ``biotech teaching factory'' where we offer 
``plus-up'' training in areas like clean room operations, Good 
Manufacturing Practices, validation and instrumentation.
    Let me switch to another high demand opportunity in our region, 
information technology, where job openings have grown 20 percent year 
over year since January 2020. We now call our short-term IT offerings, 
``Power Packs,'' because like BioWork, they provide the ultimate in 
foothold short-term training programs--accelerated training like a boot 
camp that results in in-demand industry certifications, but also the 
power of prior learning credit for our multiple information technology 
degrees. And like BioWork, our PowerPack IT programs are currently 
offered to many individuals free of charge thanks to the Federal GEER 
funding.
    Here's a practical example of the power of the ladder model in IT--
a student at Wake Tech can take a non-degree, accelerated short-term 
program in software development using Python. That short-term program 
opens the door to immediate potential employment opportunities in our 
region, as well as prior learning credit to our computer programming, 
cybersecurity and cloud infrastructure degrees. Those degrees are 
stackable, leading to additional industry recognized credentials, such 
as the IBM Blockchain Badge which was the first IBM badge offered 
outside of the IBM system. We have also fostered strategic university 
articulations for each of our IT degrees and over the past two years 
established seamless 2+2 pathways in computer programming and 
cybersecurity degrees with North Carolina A&T, UNC Charlotte, ECU, NC 
Central and Northeastern University out of Boston, where our students 
have been able to participate in virtual coop experiences this year. 
Through our very affordable non-degree programs, funded by our state at 
the same level as our degree programs, and our stackable certificate 
models, students with degrees have a valuable resource for IT plus-up 
training. A great example is our Business Analytics Certificate which 
we have specially aligned to employer defined knowledge skills and 
abilities through our participation in the Business Roundtable 
Workforce Partnership Initiative (WPI). Recently, half of our students 
enrolled in that certificate program had bachelor's degrees and 15 
percent had master's degrees or higher.
    Finally, one of the most important rungs we believe in ladder 
economics is work-based learning and apprenticeship. Thanks to funding 
from Wake County, we are doubling down on these opportunities as our 
county is funding a Wake Tech program we call WakeWorks to facilitate 
employers in becoming registered, and provide the tuition and other 
expense needs of apprentices gaining their related training through 
Wake Tech. The recent story of one of our computer programming students 
demonstrates the great power of work-based learning as a vital rung in 
the economic ladder model. Tiffany Harrell grew up as a foster youth in 
Eastern North Carolina and came to Wake Tech for the first time many 
years ago when she earned her GED. Lacking additional money for college 
at the time, she left school and was married. One day, her husband 
suddenly died of a heart attack leaving Tiffany a widow with five kids 
and no job. However, with natural computing instincts and a ton of 
desire, Tiffany made her way back to Wake Tech and into our computer 
programming degree program. Not long afterwards came an opportunity 
through our work-based learning partnership with Lenovo, where she 
thrived and was eventually awarded a full-time job. Today, Tiffany 
works as a Team Lead with the North American ThinkAgile Premier Support 
Team at Lenovo. Should she want to further ladder into an IT bachelor's 
degree with one of our strategic university partners, while continuing 
to work, those further opportunities now also await her, and I have no 
doubt she will be successful.
    To conclude, for non-traditional students like Tiffany, traditional 
college degree pathways are too often inaccessible while isolated 
skills training programs and boot camps are insufficient. America's 
community colleges are the at the heart of the potential for ladder 
economics because they are the natural places where employer and 
educational partnerships abound, career ladders are constructed, and 
students like Tiffany Harrell thrive.
    There are several opportunities for Congress and the Federal 
Government to further the development of meaningful career ladders at 
America's community colleges by among other things:

          Extending Federal Financial Aid eligibility to 
        students and workers enrolled in short-term programs, 
        particularly when those programs are third-party assessed, lead 
        to meaningful industry certifications, and articulate into 
        academic degree credit;

          Authorizing a community college-led job training 
        program that provides meaningful funding for the development 
        and initiation of career ladders in high demand job areas where 
        the instructional expenses are also more costly;

          Establishing education and training innovation funds 
        at the Departments of Labor and Education, and incentivizing 
        creative laddering partnerships between the WIOA system, high 
        school CTE programs, and community colleges; and

          Strengthening Federal Apprenticeship policies that 
        foster alignment with educational ladders including competency-
        based programs.

    Thank you again for the opportunity to participate in today's 
hearing and I look forward to the discussion generated by your 
questions.
                                 ______
                                 
                 [summary statement of dr. scott ralls]
    Wake Tech, North Carolina's largest community college, takes great 
pride in the ``community'' part of its name. This year the college 
served as a bridge to recovery for its students and its community by 
accelerating and expanding its student and community supports. At the 
onset of the pandemic, the college collected all of its existing PPE, 
donating 74,000 gloves, 3,000 masks, hundreds of bottles of sanitizer 
and the college's only ventilator to local hospitals. It has 
distributed emergency financial aid to over 12,000 students at an 
average award amount of $700, provided $125 grocery gift cards to over 
4,300 students, and distributed over 1,200 free student laptops. It 
also raised $192,000 in private funds to be distributed as ``rally 
grants'' to 85 local small businesses and is providing free short-term 
training leading to in-demand certifications and licensures in 21 
program areas for individuals facing employment impacts from COVID. The 
college is also a vaccination site where 1,800 people a week are 
receiving COVID vaccinations.

    Now Wake Tech's support is turning to economic and workforce 
recovery, framing itself as the region's largest ``ladder college'' and 
furthering the practice of what it sometimes refers to as ``ladder 
economics.'' The college sees this role as important to its region 
which although an economic dynamo, is also an area where economic 
mobility is relatively challenging.

    From the Wake Tech perspective, ``ladder economics'' means 
fostering a focus on each critical rung of the career ladder and the 
partnerships that create the vital connectivity. Important rungs of 
economic laddering include:

          frequent and meaningful employer engagement,

          data-infused career development,

          training opportunities providing both a foothold to a 
        job with recognized industry certifications and a foothold to 
        degrees with prior learning credit,

          coordinated high school pathways through CTE and dual 
        enrollment,

          well-developed apprenticeship and work-based learning 
        opportunities,

          stackable community college degrees,

          second chance recovery efforts,

          strategic university articulations, and

          plus-up training for degree holders that fosters 
        meaningful career-based, lifetime learning.

    Detailed examples of these connected workforce development ladder 
rungs at Wake Tech are presented as related to programs in 
biotechnology and information technology. Policy can further the 
development of meaningful career ladders at America's community 
colleges by extending Federal Financial Aid eligibility to students and 
workers enrolled in short-term programs; authorizing a community 
college-led job training program; establishing education and training 
innovation funds at the U.S. Departments of Labor and Education; and, 
strengthening Federal Apprenticeship policies.
                                 ______
                                 
    The Chair. Thank you very much.
    We will now turn to Mr. Mendoza.

   STATEMENT OF ALEJANDRO MENDOZA, HUMAN RESOURCES DIRECTOR, 
               OPTIMAX SYSTEMS INC., ONTARIO, NY

    Mr. Mendoza. Good morning, Chair Murray, Ranking Member 
Burr, and distinguished Members of the Committee. Thank you for 
convening today's hearing. My name is Alejandro Mendoza, and it 
is an honor for me to be here today to testify and to share my 
experience as a private sector employee.
    Optimax Systems is a precision optics manufacturer located 
in Upstate Western New York. We were founded in 1991 and have 
grown to become America's largest precision optics 
manufacturer. We manufacture high-end lenses to customer-
supplied specifications for research and industry. So, 
organizations such as NASA use our lenses for high-quality 
imaging systems that can be found on the Mars Rovers and the 
International Space Station.
    We have approximately 400 employees, including hundreds of 
skilled technicians, each of whom are artisans that have had to 
learn the skills required to produce a precision lens from 
start to finish. Fundamentally, our technicians need to have 
basic math and computer skills to manufacture the lenses by 
using computer-controlled machinery and metrology instruments, 
and they must be able to work within teams. Once we bring on a 
technician, they begin our formal on-the-job learning process 
that includes both hands-on and classroom training.
    In the end, our goal is to create a profitable company that 
provides good jobs and career opportunities for our employees 
and prosperity for our region, and we do this by investing in 
emerging technology, by investing in workers to ensure that 
they have the needed skills, and by sharing our wealth with our 
employees.
    However, one of the greatest challenges is that we struggle 
to find workers necessary to grow the business and to fulfill 
our customer orders, and we know we are not alone. In New York, 
49 percent of jobs require skills training beyond high school, 
but not a four-year degree. But, too few of New York's workers, 
just 37 percent, have had access to the skills training 
necessary to fill these in-demand careers, and the current 
crisis has only exacerbated this challenge.
    Over the past year at Optimax, our business demand has 
continued to grow, but we have only been able to hire 13 
employees compared to our needs of 30 to 40, so our workforce 
strategies around recruiting, training, and retaining our 
workforce has been heavily stressed.
    The strategies in which we invest the most amount of time 
and energy fit into two key categories: One is collaboration 
through industry or sector partnerships, as well as extensive 
in-house training and development.
    Engagement in industry partnerships within our community to 
scale best practices has been vital. With our partners, we have 
shared best practices to recruiting and training skilled 
workers.
    We have worked a direct curriculum development at community 
colleges.
    We have engaged hundreds of students and re-careering 
adults by providing facility tours, internships, and job shadow 
opportunities.
    We have conducted outreach in the community.
    We have sponsored and hosted network events and created 
educational tools and information to support the advanced 
manufacturing sector.
    But, in addition to industry partnerships, we have 
incorporated continuous on-the-job and classroom learning for 
our existing workers. We prioritize opportunities for employees 
to learn on the job through several structured worker training 
programs, including a registered apprenticeship program, 
tuition-supported upskilling, and customized tutoring for 
technical skills development, corporate culture, and leadership 
fundamentals.
    At Optimax, we provide our workforce with, on average, 
about 1,000 hours of training each month. And additionally, 
during any given semester, we have between 20 and 25 employees 
enrolled in courses at our local community and technical 
colleges.
    Optimax is committed to investing in our workers and 
community, but we also need Congress to be our partner in this. 
Congress can do this by ensuring public support for 
partnerships that bring together small and midsize companies, 
community and technical colleges, and the public workforce 
systems.
    The Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act currently 
supports these industry or sector partnerships, but provides no 
dedicated resources to empower states and local areas to invest 
in this strategy. Dedicated resource to support industry 
partnerships through WIOA reauthorization, the National 
Apprenticeship Act reauthorization, and any response or 
recovery to the current crisis allows Optimax to better support 
our training programs.
    Advanced manufacturing businesses like Optimax need you to 
invest aggressively and effectively in the skills that 
industries demand, and workers need to be competitive in a 
global marketplace, an idea over 80 percent of voters do 
support.
    To be the most effective to Optimax, these investments 
would also support costs of providing incumbent worker training 
and of helping our workers enhance their digital skills. 
Investing in incumbent worker training like the type Optimax 
supports would help us and our workers meet different skill 
needs, like the technological changes we saw during COVID.
    Finally, better aligning post-secondary policy with 
industrial demand and worker need would revolutionize our 
capacity to upskill and reskill our workers. If Congress 
expanded financial aid to anyone seeking skills training, 
students in high-quality, short-term training programs and not 
just those seeking traditional college degrees, Optimax could 
offer career progression for even more workers than we do 
today.
    Thank you kindly for your time and dedication to ensuring 
the strength of America's workforce.
    [The prepared statement of Mr. Mendoza follows:]
                prepared statement of alejandro mendoza
    Madam Chair Murray, Ranking Member Burr, and distinguished Members 
of the Committee, thank you for convening today's hearing on ``COVID-19 
Recovery: Supporting Workers and Modernizing the Workforce Through 
Quality Education, Training, and Employment Opportunities.''

    My name is Alejandro Mendoza and I am the Director of Human 
Resources of Optimax Systems Inc, \1\ a precision optics manufacturer, 
located in Ontario, New York. It is an honor for me to be here today to 
testify before the Committee and to share my experience as a private 
sector employer, committed to expanding opportunities for workers to 
access good jobs at Optimax and in Rochester, NY. I have over 14 years 
of day-to-day experience with staffing and workforce development in an 
advanced manufacturing environment. In addition to my role at Optimax, 
I serve the local community as a member of the Finger Lakes Advanced 
Manufacturing Enterprise (FAME), the Finger Lakes Community College 
foundation board and the Greater Rochester Chamber of Commerce H.R. 
Executive forum while regionally, I'm a member of the NY state 
workforce strategy group--Invest in skills NY1F \2\ coalition and 
nationally, I serve as a board member of the National Fund for 
Workforce Solutions \3\ and partner with the National Skills Coalition 
\4\ and Business Leaders United, \5\ including a member of their 
Manufacturing Industry Recovery Panel.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \1\  https://www.optimaxsi.com/.
    \2\  https://www.investinskillsny.org/.
    \3\  https://nationalfund.org/.
    \4\  https://www.nationalskillscoalition.org/.
    \5\  https://www.businessleadersunited.org/.

    Optimax was founded in 1991 and has grown to become America's 
largest precision optics manufacturer. That means we manufacture lenses 
to customer-supplied specifications for research and industry. For 
example, we have supplied NASA with high-quality imaging lenses 
designed for position sensing, mapping landforms and optical analysis 
including lenses for the Mars Rovers and the International Space 
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
Station.

    We have approximately 400 employees, including hundreds of skilled 
technicians. Each of these technicians is really an artisan, who will 
eventually learn all the skills required to produce a precision lens--
each lens is unique, as is the process to create it, from start to 
finish. Workers need to have basic math and computer skills--to 
manufacture the lenses using computer-controlled machinery and 
metrology instruments however, they also must be able to work within 
teams. Once we bring on a technician, they'll generally access our 
formal on-the-job learning process that requires both on-the-job and 
class room training which focuses on both technical and interpersonal 
development.

    We have a three-pillar strategy for growing our company and 
enhancing the skills of our workers--we invest in emerging technology 
to meet production needs, we invest in workers to ensure they're well 
prepared with the needed skills and we share our wealth with our 
employees. Our goal is to create a profitable company that provides 
good jobs and career opportunities for our employees and prosperity for 
our region.

    Across our workforce, employees have access to tuition assistance, 
401(k) retirement savings, company matched HSA, medical/dental 
insurance, significant personal time-off and short and long-term 
disability insurance. We also share, monthly, $0.25 of each profit 
dollar with employees which over the last year averaged out to $7000 
annually per employee. Since the COVID-19 crisis, we have enhanced our 
communication efforts to ensure we stay connected with both onsite and 
remote employees. This has included video messaging, online discussion 
platforms, a comprehensive wellness effort to address Emotional, 
Financial, Physical and Social well-being and multiple employee 
taskforces that included custom CDC compliant facemask sewing for each 
employee and rapid response disinfection teams across all shifts of our 
operations.

    On average, Our Technicians earn a base pay of $21.00/hr and 
receive an additional pay increase of 10 percent when they work B-shift 
and 15 percent when they work the C-shift (Overnights). Optimax's 
operates on a 24/7 basis.
              Optimax Commitment to Workforce Development
    Even with this commitment to investing in employees, we struggle to 
find workers necessary to run the business and to fulfill customer 
orders, and we know we're not alone. According to analysis from 2019, 
in New York, a plurality of jobs (49 percent) require skills training 
beyond a high school, but not a four-year degree. But too few of New 
York's workers--just 37 percent--have had access to the skills training 
necessary to fill these in-demand careers \6\ And the current crisis 
has only exacerbated this challenge.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \6\  https://www.nationalskillscoalition.org/wp-content/uploads/
2020/12/NY-Skills-Mismatch-Fact-Sheet-2020.pdf.

    Over the past year, our business demand has continued to grow, but 
we have only been able to hire 13 employees, compared to our need of 
30-40. Some of the challenges we are facing are because workers lack 
access to developing necessary skills and some are challenges outside 
of skillsets. Just this week, one of our technicians came to me 
frustrated that he did not see a path forward in his role due to low 
computer literacy. Last month, we tried to hire two candidates from 
downtown Rochester, about a thirty-minute drive away, and neither of 
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
them had a way to get out to our plant due to the lack of a bus route.

    At Optimax, our mission is focused on enabling customer success and 
employee prosperity. Part of how we achieve both of these--and address 
the challenges I described above--is by engaging in workforce 
strategies to recruit, train and retain our workers.

    The two strategies in which we invest the most time and energy fit 
into two key categories: collaboration with other companies, community 
and technical colleges, the public workforce system and K-12 system 
through industry or sector partnerships and extensive in-house and 
classroom training for incumbent workers.

    Engagement in Industry Partnerships--working with partners to scale 
best practices across our community
    Optimax President, Mike Mandina, founded the Finger Lakes Advanced 
Manufacturing Enterprise, \7\ or FAME, a partnership of 54 business, 
community and technical college and workforce partners. FAME has three 
key priorities: to collaborate with local colleges and workforce 
development programs, to build a regional pipeline of qualified 
advanced manufacturing technicians, and to create awareness of 
employment opportunities among people in the community.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \7\  https://www.nyfame.org/.

    FAME--and our participation in it--has been critical to our success 
as a company and our success as a community. With our partners, we have 
shared best practices to recruiting and training skilled workers, 
worked to direct curriculum development at community colleges, engaged 
students in facility tours and established internship and job shadow 
opportunities. We have conducted outreach in the community, sponsored 
and hosted network events and created educational tools and information 
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
to support the advanced manufacturing sector.

    We also have leveraged relationships with FAME partners to grow a 
high school recruiting strategy that provides career exploration to 
interested students. We make presentations at area high schools and 
offer a path to an extensive job shadow, and potential paid internship. 
This began with three schools, yielding six interns, and grew to 
presentations in 21 schools prior to the pandemic. In 2019, we hosted 
20 students for three-day job shadows, and had 13 paid interns, several 
of whom are now full-time employees. In 2018 and 2019 we also began to 
include other like-minded employers in our school presentations, and 
they have offered similar programs at their companies. To deal with the 
pandemic, we created a virtual tour presentation and have been sharing 
with a wider range of school districts to continue our momentum and 
efforts. We are beginning to have job shadows again and hope to offer 
10 or 12 internships this summer.

    Even with Mike's dedication and the dedication of other business 
leaders in the area, we could not have started or sustained FAME 
without public investment. No one company can do it alone. FAME was 
founded with funding from the state's Workforce Innovation and 
Opportunity Act dollars and has been sustained through both 
contributions from member businesses and continued public investment by 
several other Federal and state grant opportunities.

    Fostering upskilling through continuous on-the-job and classroom 
learning for existing workers

    To support a worker's healthy career, we prioritize opportunities 
for workers to learn on the job through several, structured, incumbent 
worker training programs including a registered apprenticeship program, 
tuition supported upskilling, internal training programs and customized 
tutoring for technical skills development, corporate culture and 
leadership fundamentals.

    Our registered Precision Optics Manufacturing apprenticeship 
program is designed to help our existing technicians meet the demands 
of our customers as well as advance into more senior positions. Once 
accepted into the program, apprentices spend three years rotating 
through all departments at Optimax, with a focus on the full 
manufacturing process, as well as materials selection, sales and 
quality. Each apprentice goes through a series of rotations while 
taking a minimum of two formal education courses a year at our local 
community college, Monroe Community College.

    In addition to the apprenticeship program, Optimax provides our 
workforce with, on average, 1,000 hours of training each month. Workers 
are also eligible for tuition reimbursement for courses at our local 
community and technical colleges. During any semester, we generally 
have 15-20 employees enrolled in courses in our region.

    One of our apprentices, Genny Kingsley, joined Optimax in 2019, 
after trying a variety of jobs after high school. She worked in food 
service, retail, and then loaded packages for a railroad. From word of 
mouth, she heard about Optimax and started on B-shift, polishing and 
manufacturing lenses. In the past year, she enrolled in our 
apprenticeship program and has evolved technically and financially as 
an outcome. She has said in the past that one of the best things about 
her career at Optimax is that you don't need a degree to get started as 
you can access all the skills in on-the-job learning. And we agree--
ensuring workers like Genny have access to on-the-job learning, like 
apprenticeship, is one of our key retention strategies.
            How Congress can Support Companies Like Optimax
    Optimax Systems is committed to investing in our workers and our 
community and passionate about workforce development. Even with that 
commitment, we rely on public policy and public investments to meet our 
needs and the needs of our community. There are a few key things 
Congress could do to better support the needs of businesses like ours.

    First, ensuring public support for partnerships that bring together 
small and mid-size companies, like Optimax and our partners at FAME, 
and community and technical college and the public workforce system 
would make a huge impact in our community. The Workforce Innovation and 
Opportunity Act (WIOA) currently supports these industry or sector 
partnerships but provides no dedicated resources to empower states and 
local areas to invest in this strategy. For Optimax, dedicated 
resources to support industry partnerships--through WIOA 
reauthorization, National Apprenticeship Act reauthorization and any 
response or recovery to the current crisis is critical to our ability 
to support the infrastructure we already have established.

    Next, advanced manufacturing businesses like Optimax need you to 
invest aggressively and effectively in the skills that industries 
demand and workers need to be competitive in a global marketplace. 
According to polling in spring of 2020, \8\ 82 percent of voters wanted 
to see public investments in skills training in response to the crisis 
and 81 percent wanted to see investments over the long-term. Right now, 
the U.S. invests less in workforce and active labor market policies 
than every other industrialized nation except for Mexico and we would 
need to invest $80 billion more annually just to reach the median of 
other industrialized countries. \9\ Companies like Optimax are making 
the investment in our workers, and we can best leverage and scale 
investments like ours when matched with robust public investment. To be 
the most effective to Optimax, these investments would also support 
costs of providing incumbent worker training and of helping our workers 
develop digital skills.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \8\  https://www.nationalskillscoalition.org/wp-content/uploads/
2020/09/09-2020-NSC-Skills-for-an-Inclusive-Economic-Recovery.pdf.
    \9\  https://www.americasworkforce.org/latest-action-list/2019/9/
19/investing-in-americas-workforce-a-national-imperative-for-the-21st-
century.

    Optimax supports extensive training for our incumbent workers, and 
with public investments in these strategies we could better support 
shifts--like those we saw during the Covid pandemic or those required 
to address technological changes in our workplace--that means our 
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
workers need different skills.

    Finally, better aligning postsecondary policy with industry demand 
and worker need would revolutionize our capacity to upskill and reskill 
our workers. If Congress expanded financial aid to anyone seeking 
skills training, students in high-quality, short-term training 
programs, not just those seeking traditional college degrees, Optimax 
could offer career progression for even more workers than we do today.

    Thank you for your time and dedication to ensuring the strength of 
America's workforce.
                                 ______
                                 
                [summary statement of alejandro mendoza]
    Optimax is America's largest precision optics manufacturer, with 
400 employees, including hundreds of skilled technicians. Optimax 
manufactures lenses to customer-supplied specifications for research 
and industry. For example, supplying NASA with high-quality imaging 
lenses. As Director of Human Resources, I have over 14 years of day-to-
day experience with staffing and workforce development.

    On average, our technicians earn a base pay of $21.00/hr with 
strong benefits. Even with a commitment to investing in employees, we 
struggle to find workers necessary to run the business and to fulfill 
customer orders. Too few of New York's workers--just 37 percent--have 
had access to the skills training necessary to fill these in-demand 
careers. And the current crisis has only exacerbated this challenge.

    Over the past year, our business demand has continued to grow, but 
we have only been able to hire 13 employees, compared to our need of 
30-40. The challenges we face are because workers lack access to 
developing necessary skills, such as digital literacy skills, and 
others lack access to necessary tools to complete on-the-job training, 
like transportation.

    We employ two strategies to meet these challenges. The first is 
through industry or sector partnerships. Finger Lakes Advanced 
Manufacturing Enterprise, or FAME, is a partnership of 54 business, 
community and technical college, and workforce partners. FAME 
collaborates with local colleges and workforce development programs, 
builds a regional pipeline of qualified advanced manufacturing 
technicians, and creates awareness of employment opportunities among 
people in the community. We also have leveraged relationships with FAME 
partners to grow a high school recruiting strategy that provides career 
exploration to interested students.

    Our other strategy is fostering upskilling through continuous on-
the-job and classroom learning for existing workers. To support a 
worker's healthy career, we prioritize opportunities for workers to 
learn on the job through several, structured, incumbent worker training 
programs including a registered apprenticeship program, tuition 
supported upskilling, internal training programs and customized 
tutoring for technical skills development, corporate culture and 
leadership fundamentals.

    Congress can support companies like Optimax by:

          Providing dedicated resources through WIOA to empower 
        states and local areas to invest in industry partnerships. For 
        Optimax, dedicated resources to support industry partnerships--
        through WIOA reauthorization, National Apprenticeship Act 
        reauthorization, and any response or recovery to the current 
        crisis is critical to our ability to support the infrastructure 
        we already have established.

          Investing aggressively and effectively in the skills 
        that industries demand and workers need to be competitive in a 
        global marketplace.

          Aligning postsecondary policy with industry demand 
        and worker need would revolutionize our capacity to upskill and 
        reskill our workers.
                                 ______
                                 
    The Chair. Thank you very much.
    Thank you to all of our witnesses for your excellent 
testimony.
    I would also like to note that we received a letter from 
the National Urban League regarding the topic of today's 
hearing, and I ask unanimous consent this letter is entered 
into the record.
    So ordered.

    [The following information can be found on page 56 in 
Additional Material]

    The Chair. With that, we will now begin a round of five-
minute questions. I ask all of our colleagues to keep track of 
your clock and stay within those five minutes.
    Again, thank you to all of you for your testimony.
    Ms. Flynn, I will start with you. Thank you.
    Workers who are paid low wages have felt the worst of this 
impact from the pandemic, and we are seeing disproportionately 
high levels of unemployment and underemployment among women and 
communities of color. Additionally, people with disabilities 
have experienced significant rates of job loss associated with 
this economic downturn. So, as we build back our economy, we 
have to make sure that our most vulnerable populations are part 
of the economic recovery and no one is left behind.
    I wanted to ask you, how can we ensure that all workers 
have a pathway to long-term economic self-sufficiency?
    Ms. Flynn. Absolutely, Senator, and I completely agree. It 
is low-wage workers, people of color, women, individuals with 
disabilities who have been hit the hardest. And I think in 
response to that, we need to consider how we would truly put 
equity at the center of our recovery efforts and how we really 
do that in a proactive manner.
    First, I would say an investment in skills training is 
critical. So, more investment, I would say, across the board, 
including, expansion of Pell for short-term credentials.
    I would say it is really enhancing outreach efforts and 
making it easier for individuals who have been adversely 
affected by the pandemic to access the services that they need. 
So, really looking to see how to enhance kind of the digital 
transformation of the public workforce system; looking at how 
to enhance career navigation so that individuals, as well as 
the staff at the American Job Centers, can provide better 
information.
    Then, I would also say, looking at the reporting 
requirements of the statute to ensure that we are collecting 
the type of disaggregated data that is necessary to be able to 
track the outcomes of these individuals over time.
    The Chair. Thank you very much. I appreciate that.
    Ms. Thomas, you mentioned the importance of additional 
support for people in training programs, like childcare, 
transportation, broadband accessibility. Those are challenges I 
hear a lot about in my home State of Washington. And, in the 
coming weeks, Congress is going to consider additional ways to 
help people who have lost their jobs as a result of this 
pandemic, and that may include additional supports for 
workforce training programs. And we need to make sure people 
are not only able to access these training opportunities, but 
are able to complete them, as well.
    Can you elaborate for us on why supportive services, like 
childcare and career navigation, are important for participants 
in workforce training programs?
    Ms. Thomas. Yes, and thank you, Senator, for your question. 
Absolutely. Oftentimes, with access to skills training or post-
secondary education comes with the consideration for most of 
those seeking it on how will my children be taken care of, or 
how will I afford some of the additional supports that come 
along. So, by expanding worker supports to ensure that there is 
no question that there is childcare available to individuals 
who are looking to not just begin their matriculation toward a 
degree and/or credential, but also completion is vital.
    This could be done, particularly under the Workforce 
Innovation and Opportunity Act, by expanding funding to allow 
us to really create a suite of services. So, when someone is 
interested in going to school or reskilling, we can talk about 
how all of these supports come together to really mitigate 
barriers to completion.
    We found this works very well for those who are looking, 
particularly first-generation students or those who have been 
out of the education space for some time. If we can address the 
challenges before entering, it helps that person in completing.
    Additionally, with the expansion of the fiscal investments 
into worker support, it allows us to help individuals during 
the career exploration and navigation phase to really dream of 
opportunities that are not always available to them when they 
are considering what is my next path, particularly for those 
who have been sidelined during the pandemic and those who are 
currently in entry-level positions. So, worker supports are 
vital as we continue to have these conversations.
    The Chair. I could not agree more. Thank you very much for 
that.
    Senator Burr, I will turn it to you.
    Senator Burr. Scott, what does employer engagement look 
like on your campus? And how do you design programs that meet 
the specific needs of the employer?
    Dr. Ralls. Well, it means many things, but it means that 
every one of our applied workforce degrees has a very active 
advisory committee made up of the employers of our community, 
telling us what the skills should be.
    It means for me, personally, I rarely have a day when I am 
not engaging with at least one employer or more about career 
ladders.
    For all of us, it is a full-engagement sport in terms of 
employer engagement, primarily because we want for our students 
to have those job opportunities that exist in our community.
    It also means for us working very closely with our 
employers to find those ladders as I was talking about, 
starting from skills training, how those build into our degree 
programs, how our degree programs stack, and where we partner, 
such as our university partners. So, it is all the way around, 
and it is all of us involved.
    Senator Burr. How much counsel of a future student of Wake 
Community College goes into trying to direct them on a path 
that you have got employer pools that are anxious to hire?
    Dr. Ralls. Yes. Frankly, not enough. That is why we are 
working on it right now, and we have to look at new models. For 
instance, as I mentioned, infusing data into our career 
development. So, students are very--are becoming more and more. 
They do not need to always sit in front of a counselor, but 
they need direction in terms of where some of that information 
is, what some of the job opportunities are, how many postings, 
what the wage levels are, and what are the steps getting to 
from one place to the next. And that is what we are working, 
striving at Wake Tech, to accomplish.
    Senator Burr. I want to ask you a little tougher question. 
You can dance around it if you want to.
    Should the faculty at today's community colleges be 
mandated to be vaccinated?
    Dr. Ralls. Well, we do not believe in mandates, but we 
certainly encourage everyone to. I do not think we are going to 
get to normalcy unless we are all vaccinated, so I would like 
to think we would not have to mandate.
    But, if we had to mandate, I would, because I think we are, 
at community colleges, the ultimate essential workers for 
getting the workforce back on track. So, if that is what it 
would take, then I would say yes, but I do not think with most 
of our faculty that will be required.
    Senator Burr. I think just as a general statement, your 
response is probably the response of faculty. It is probably 
the response of teachers in K through 12.
    I find it somewhat odd that we mandate that students, 
before they attend K though 12, are required to have 
vaccinations for certain things, but all the sudden mandatory 
vaccinations as it relates to COVID is something that does not 
seem achievable.
    Mr. Mendoza, can you speak more about your engagement with 
community colleges, specifically how you have worked with them 
and worked to develop programs to meet the needs of that 
employer?
    Mr. Mendoza. Yes. Good morning. Thank you.
    We have engaged with the community college systems on a lot 
of different levels. A lot of our technicians are non-
traditional students. I am talking about gamers, artists, 
musicians, chefs, fine arts. And we have partnered with the 
community college to not just focus on their technical 
programs, but also their non-technical programs. And the 
community college has embraced us going in to continue to 
communicate and educate their students, and also recruit and 
provide opportunities for those students to see different 
career paths that they did not necessarily think would be an 
opportunity when they started.
    What we found has very good direct correlation to the type 
of work that we do. So, the willingness for the community 
colleges to understand that there may be non-traditional 
pathways that local industry can utilize their students from 
has been very well received.
    We partner very regularly on numerous advisory boards, but 
we also work within the corporate college system within our 
community college to do a couple of things. A, the facilitation 
of grants, workforce development grants, upskilling grants, has 
been really important to us, as well as the creation of 
customized grants specifically for both our business, as well 
as other partners, as part of our industry partnerships.
    Senator Burr. Thank you for that.
    Ms. Flynn, just real quickly.
    Ms. Flynn. Sure.
    Senator Burr. Because you raised the question of Pell 
Grants, and I think we all share the need to fund better.
    Does it concern you at all that valuable Pell dollars 
currently are being given to student athletes in higher 
education who are on full scholarship? Their education, their 
room and board, everything is paid for, their books, their 
laundry, and that they are pocketing Pell money because they 
technically qualify for it, and it is not going for the 
students that actually could benefit from? Does that burn you 
up a bit?
    Ms. Flynn. I am not familiar with the issue, but that does 
concern me, yes.
    Senator Burr. Good. Thank you.
    Thank you, Madam Chair.
    The Chair. Senator Casey.
    Senator Casey. Thanks very much, Chair Murray.
    I want to start with Ms. Thomas on a question relating to 
community health workers. We know that, Ms. Thomas, in your 
testimony, you emphasized the need for training programs that 
offer a path to high-demand, high-wage employment 
opportunities. The healthcare sector offers many such 
opportunities, and within it, community health workers are 
critical, but often under-resourced, an under-resourced part of 
the workforce.
    These workers, as you know better than I, live in and 
represent communities they serve. They build trusted 
relationships with community members over time. And we all know 
that during the pandemic, we have seen the importance of 
culturally appropriate health education and outreach by trusted 
community members to address health inequities.
    I am told by my staff that randomized, controlled trials 
that were conducted at the University of Pennsylvania has shown 
that community health workers serving individuals with chronic 
illnesses save our healthcare system both money and improve 
outcomes, and those results are important to emphasize.
    As we move into this what we hope will be a full recovery 
from the pandemic, we should continue to build our community 
health workforce to achieve more inclusive, high-value 
healthcare.
    Here is my question. How are states and community colleges 
helping to train this workforce and build this workforce a 
promising career path?
    Ms. Thomas. Senator, thank you for your question, and I 
could not agree more around the value of our community health 
workers. And, in our state in particular, I think this is where 
apprenticeship is really at its best. It is where they look at 
where those needs exist and how we can really explore what in 
some means would be non-traditional means to help community 
health workers by engaging in pre-apprenticeship and 
apprenticeship opportunities.
    This not only gives individuals an opportunity to really 
step forward and do work that is vital to the recovery of our 
Country from the pandemic, but also in a meaningful career that 
will give them the in-demand experience, that will give them 
the high wages, and obviously could really change the 
trajectory of that person's individual career and their family.
    I would argue that apprenticeships is a viable option for 
that, and we are exploring that in our state, and I am certain 
other states are doing that, as well.
    Senator Casey. Thanks very much.
    I wanted to move to a question for Ms. Flynn and Dr. Ralls 
on community colleges. We know that in 2019, a report by the 
Jain Institute found that more than 10 million Americans live 
in public education deserts and that these deserts tend to 
include low-income communities.
    In my home State of Pennsylvania, we currently have 14 
community colleges, but that means that 29 counties in our 
state have zero facilities. They are not--they do not have 
access to a community college, at least not by way of something 
being proximate. Folks who live in those areas have to travel 
great distances, obviously.
    I have prepared legislation that would help close these--
reduce a number of these education deserts by providing 
resources to help community colleges or state and local 
governments establish community colleges or expand an existing 
community college into an underserved area.
    Ms. Flynn, can you discuss how expanding community colleges 
into underserved communities could impact students who live in 
those communities and also promote equity?
    Ms. Flynn. Absolutely, Senator. So, I would say definitely 
looking at how to expand coverage of community colleges into 
those areas is critical, and also seeing if there are 
opportunities for community colleges to partner with other 
high-quality providers, whether those be online providers or 
some of the kind of newer, non-traditional providers that we 
see coming into the market.
    I think kind of a combination of expansion of coverage 
combined with new strategic partnerships could be really 
interesting to pursue.
    Senator Casey. Thanks very much.
    Dr. Ralls, I know that in your testimony, you talk about 
the role that your institution plays for both students, as well 
as the community. How do you think creating community college 
presence in these underserved areas would help spur economic 
development?
    Dr. Ralls. Well, I think physical presence is vital. Within 
every part of North Carolina, you are within 30 miles of a 
community college campus. But, what is even more important is 
being present in these communities, and that is why within our 
particular college, we are targeting that as part of our 
strategic plan. Identifying with our county the vulnerable 
economic regions health--in terms of economic health, and then 
going into those regions for more proactive outreach to help 
bring students into our college and support them when they are 
with us at our college.
    Senator Casey. Thanks very much.
    The Chair. Thank you.
    Senator Cassidy.
    [Brief silence.]
    The Chair. I think you are on mute.
    Senator Cassidy. Oh, I am sorry. No, I am not. I am not on 
mute. You cannot hear me?
    The Chair. You were muted. You are now good. Go for it.
    Senator Cassidy. You were muting me.
    [Laughter.]
    The Chair. Not me.
    Senator Cassidy. Like my family. They always attempt to 
mute me.
    Anyway, I have a--to Ms. Thomas and Dr. Ralls, I have a 
real interest in dyslexia. Twenty percent of the population is 
dyslexic, and if you are dyslexic, you are dyslexic for life. 
It is seldom screened for and seldom effectively addressed in 
most schools.
    Now, if you cannot read, you learn to read grades one to 
three, and you read to learn after grade four, and our current 
system of screening does not start screening until grade three 
or four, so we have somewhat predetermined a whole class of 
children to be poor readers. You and I both know that reading 
well is a prerequisite for most jobs that pay well.
    My wife has done screening for dyslexia within a prison 
system and found a very high incidence of those who are inmates 
read way below high school graduating level.
    Now, many of those whom you are attempting to reach, I 
gather--and thank you for doing so--have poor educational kind 
of background. They have not graduated from high school. 
Intuitively, since there is a high incidence of dyslexia among 
those who drop out--they cannot read, they get frustrated, they 
quit--then I would suspect that you may have a higher percent 
of dyslexics, particularly severe dyslexics, in your service 
population, more than the 20 percent, which is in the general 
population.
    With all of that to say, do either of your workforce 
centers screen for dyslexia upon entrance into your training 
program? Ms. Thomas? Dr. Ralls?
    Ms. Thomas. Sir, I will address that first. So, currently, 
in our American Job Centers, that screening does not occur. We 
do work--and there is a physical presence of our partners in 
vocational rehabilitation. And, so, once that referral is made, 
they can then start to consider if there are some extenuating 
circumstances to help an individual prior to enrollment or 
prior to assessment. That is not a common skill set that a lot 
of the folks in our American Job Centers have, but we do rely 
on our partners to help us in that work prior to sending 
someone on to any post-secondary or upskilling opportunities.
    Senator Cassidy. Do you have a sense of the average read--
average grade level of reading ability of someone who is in 
your job center? You know, do they read on a college level? A 
high school? An eighth grade? A sixth grade?
    Ms. Thomas. It varies. It varies widely. I will tell you, 
it is not unusual for individuals that come in and take part in 
assessments before we apply our Title 1 funding to credential 
or skill training to have to retake those assessments or need 
services from our partners in adult education in the literacy 
space for measurable skill gains prior to moving on. That is 
not uncommon. And again, we see this particularly with 
individuals who may have been out of the educational space for 
some time, and particularly for those who do not have a high 
school diploma or equivalency.
    Senator Cassidy. Dr. Ralls, could you answer those two 
questions? Do you screen and what is kind of the mean level of 
educational achievement among those who you serve?
    Dr. Ralls. No, sir, we do not screen for dyslexia. But, 
what we do strive to do is provide and be very proactive in any 
types of accommodations for students who are coming into our 
degree programs.
    I think something else that is very important for us is 
being so comprehensive that, it is not just degree college 
programs, but it is also we provide the adult basic education 
programs, which provide the opportunity for students to start 
wherever, and essentially, in many cases, learn to read while 
they are at college but keep going further.
    We certainly probably could do a better job in screening 
and other forms of services, but we--our comprehensiveness 
allows for recovery, and I think that is part of the beauty of 
community colleges.
    Senator Cassidy. Do you have a sense of the percent of your 
incoming students who are very poor readers?
    Dr. Ralls. In terms of the definition of very poor readers, 
one of the things we have worked on is what we define as 
college-ready, which then does look at the readiness skills of 
individuals that come in through various testing. Our state has 
been kind of a model in terms of testing around that, which 
certainly does get at reading skills. But, it is one of the 
most difficult challenges we face in making those 
determinations.
    Senator Cassidy. Yes, but no percent--can you give me a 
percent of how many read below a high school senior level?
    Dr. Ralls. Well, if you did our college readiness, years 
ago, when I was assistant president, about two-thirds fell 
below that. The truth is, though, our testing was not very 
strong and we were over-testing students. And I cannot tell you 
specifically how many were falling below a third-grade level.
    Still, too many students come in not reading at the level 
they need to at college level, and that is why many students, 
but a smaller percentage, go into than used to years ago, our 
developmental education. And we focus very much on that aspect 
of our college to make sure that they can catch up in a 
reasonable amount of time, if possible.
    Senator Cassidy. Madam Chair, I will--I am over, so I will 
concede after this or yield back my time.
    That if dyslexia is the No. 1 reason for poor reading, or 
even illiteracy--and no fault of these folks--but we are not, 
on a Federal level, encouraging the screening of dyslexia at 
every point along the way in which we are trying to capture 
these folks, I feel like we have program failure. And nothing 
criticizing these folks. They are doing God's work. Oh, my 
gosh. It is just the children themselves who are being failed 
by a system which fails to--which itself fails to go after this 
particular issue.
    With that, I yield back and I thank you all for your good 
work to our folks.
    The Chair. Thank you.
    Senator Kaine.
    Senator Kaine. Thank you, Chair Murray and Ranking Member 
Burr. And another thank you, Madam Chair. Today is thank-you 
day for me at all my Committee hearings. I am thanking the 
staffs who have been working so hard to make these hybrid 
hearings, where witnesses appear both in person and virtually, 
and somewhat technically unsavvy Senators, who appear both 
virtually and in person. The staffs have done a really good job 
of making these work, and I just wanted to open off with----
    The Chair. Thank you.
    Senator Kaine [continuing]. Thanking them, the HELP 
Committee staff.
    The Chair. I totally agree. Thank you.
    Senator Kaine. Dr. Ralls, really good to see you again. We 
are so sorry you left Virginia to go to North Carolina. But, 
you are like Johnny Appleseed. You are----
    [Laughter.]
    Senator Kaine [continuing]. Spreading good CTE wherever you 
go, and I am really happy to be with you today.
    According to some of the DOL data that I have looked at in 
the sort of, a year into this pandemic, we have just got 
significant, sizable workforce challenges, and that is what we 
are trying to address today. I think the DOL suggests that 
about four million people are still classified as long-term 
unemployed. They have been out of work more than 6 months, and 
that total is likely an undercount.
    We have got the opportunity and the imperative to help 
unemployed individuals access job training to re-enter the 
workforce, but many of these workers need access to short-term 
programs that will help them earn credentials and re-enter the 
workforce quickly, particularly older workers, who need short-
term intents because of the demands that their families and 
other obligations they have.
    Community and technical colleges in Virginia and all across 
the Country are really at the forefront of this, working to 
provide these high-quality, short-term programs. And these 
programs provide post-secondary pathways, but also immediate 
job skills.
    In Virginia, Dr. Ralls, as you are very familiar, we have a 
program called FastForward that is offered at community 
colleges, and it has had very encouraging results leading to 
employment for adult learners, and traditionally maybe--
traditionally, in this program, kind of non-traditional 
students--more likely to be older; more likely to be people of 
color; more likely to be first in the family to be at a 
college; more likely to be receiving TANF benefits.
    In each testimony today, folks mentioned the need for 
Federal financial aid to extend to these short-term programs if 
they are high quality. My colleague, Rob Portman, and I, 
together with more than 30 Democrats and Republicans, have a 
bipartisan bill called the JOBS Act that would extend Pell 
Grant eligibility to students who attend high-quality programs 
at community colleges and public institutions.
    Dr. Ralls, how do you think expanding Pell Grant 
eligibility to students for enrollment in high-quality, short-
term programs might open doors both for first time college 
students, but also for adult students with families who have 
faced hardships in this most challenging time?
    Dr. Ralls. I very much endorse that proposal, which 
prevent--making Pell eligible for quality, short-term 
credentials because so many students, non-traditional workers, 
and people in the workforce, they need those short-term 
credentials to get the skills to get a job. And a lot of times, 
they need those jobs to get the further higher education they 
need to further their career.
    To me, it is not as much an either-or as it is made out to 
be. It is really an `and,' and we need to work more diligently 
to make it an `and.' And I think you can make it more `and' by 
providing Pell for short-term credentials.
    We have been having a skills-versus-degree debate, and I 
have frequently heard corporate execs say they do not care 
about degrees anymore; they only care about skills, only to 
find out that memo never really reached the H.R. department.
    If we do it the right way, we can do it well and benefit 
our students. You mentioned Virginia. Cloud computing, where 
you can start with short-term credentials, and FastForward at 
Northern Virginia Community College, you can start an 
apprenticeship program and short-term credentials and then move 
that into the cloud degree, which then moves over through the 
advanced partnership at George Mason.
    Same thing in North Carolina. Our BioWorks short-term 
credential is an entryway into our fast-growing biotech 
ecosystem in the Research Triangle. It gets folks the skills 
they need for that job, but then they can bring that into our 
degree and then onto the university.
    Senator Kaine. Let me just interrupt you for a second and 
say I have been a supporter of this JOBS Act for a while before 
the pandemic. The pandemic, with this chronic, now long-term 
unemployment, makes it seem even more imperative. But, with 
President Biden now committed to an infrastructure plan, where 
we will have to train and upskill a significant workforce to do 
an infrastructure plan of the size we are contemplating, it 
would seem even more likely that the skills needed to do the 
infrastructure work are likely to be found in these high-
quality, short-term programs. We should not wall off those 
necessary careers from Pell Grant eligibility if we want to get 
infrastructure done, in my opinion.
    Dr. Ralls. I agree. And our degrees need to stack with 
those high-quality programs so our students do not have to 
start over. You can start in those workforce skill training 
programs, third-party assessment, high-quality, short-term 
certification. And then we have to do a stronger job to make 
sure that they walk into our degrees so that our students are 
not stunted, if you will.
    Senator Kaine. Yes.
    Dr. Ralls. That they have a ladder, that they can keep 
moving forward, and they always have opportunities for career 
advancement.
    Senator Kaine. Great. Thank you. Thanks, Chair Murray.
    The Chair. Thank you.
    I will turn to Senator Hassan.
    Senator Hassan. Well, thank you, Madam Chair, and our 
Ranking Member, Senator Burr. I want to thank all of the 
witnesses, as well, for joining us today for a really important 
conversation on how we can best support workers who are 
unemployed, underemployed, or who have fallen out of the labor 
force.
    Before I start with questions, Madam Chair, I would like to 
ask for unanimous consent to enter into the record this 
statement from the Society of Human Resource Managers about the 
importance of employer-provided education assistance.
    The Chair. Without objection.

    [The following information can be found on page 57 in 
Additional Material]

    Senator Hassan. Thank you.
    Ms. Flynn, I would like to start with a question to you. 
Good morning. A workforce strategy I have long supported, first 
as Governor of New Hampshire and now in the Senate, are career 
pathways programs, and we have certainly talked about those a 
bit this morning. These programs engage workers, who have 
fallen out of the labor force, to make progress in their career 
through industry partnerships with higher education so 
participants can receive educational credentials while also 
earning an income.
    I recently re-introduced the Gateway to Careers Act with 
Senators Young, Kaine, and Collins. That is a bipartisan bill 
to expand career pathways, as well as provide wrap-around 
supports for learners who face barriers to completion--supports 
like help in accessing affordable housing or covering 
transportation costs.
    Do you agree that supporting career pathways is an 
important investment to help our most vulnerable workers re-
enter or advance in the workforce?
    Ms. Flynn. Thank you, Senator. I wholeheartedly agree with 
that. At Jobs for the Future, we have been supporters of career 
pathways now for several decades, and we are proud to support 
the bill that you mentioned. I think that particularly now, as 
we recover from the pandemic, really ensuring that the 
individuals, the workers, who have been left behind, really 
have that comprehensive set of supports to help them move back 
into the labor market and along a career pathway to economic 
self-sufficiency. So, I think it is really critical.
    We have been involved over the years in helping to 
replicate the I-BEST program in Senator Murray's home State of 
Washington, really looking at how to help low-wage, low-skilled 
workers get on that path to economic advancements. Very much 
so.
    Senator Hassan. Well, thank you for that.
    I now have a question to all four of our witnesses, and I 
am just going to read it and then go in order here.
    I often hear from employers that they struggle to find the 
workers that they need to hire for openings, and certainly Mr. 
Mendoza has spoken to that this morning. Some of these 
employers have successfully engaged with community colleges and 
our state workforce system in New Hampshire to build workforce 
pipelines to actively recruit and train workers, including 
through career pathway programs like the ones we just 
discussed.
    To each of you, how important is it for employers to be 
involved with the development of workforce and education 
programs to ensure that individuals who complete a program have 
local job opportunities? And, can you speak to how best to do 
this? And I will start with Ms. Flynn and then go to Dr. Ralls, 
and then we will go to our two witnesses who are with us 
remotely.
    Ms. Flynn. I would say it is absolutely critical to have 
employers deeply involved in the system and to help really co-
design the solutions that are being put in place. A lot of that 
activity obviously needs to happen kind of at the regional 
labor market level.
    But, I feel that, as we look at future policy change and 
legislation, finding ways to make that engagement easier for 
employers, I think, is really key, particularly large-scale 
employers who are trying to engage, community after community. 
How can we help to streamline that process for them. How can we 
also be looking at feedback loops where employers can more 
easily provide their feedback to community colleges and other 
training providers on, kind of the quality of the skills that 
they are seeing in the graduates.
    Senator Hassan. Well, thank you.
    Dr. Ralls.
    Dr. Ralls. It is absolutely vital because they, the 
employers, have to set our targets and we have to hit those 
targets. And if we do not, then it means that our students do 
not have the opportunity for the economic prosperity, which 
they come to us for. So, it is absolutely vital.
    Senator Hassan. Thank you. Mr. Mendoza, would you like to 
address this?
    Mr. Mendoza. Yes. Thank you very much, Senator.
    Employers have to be flexible, also, and willing to think 
outside of the box, and that means being willing to accommodate 
different pathways and different interests that people have. 
And that is something that has been really important to Optimax 
as far as taking the non-traditional pathway. There is not a 
one-size-fits-all approach. So, as an organization, we have to 
be willing to incorporate multiple different types of people 
and disciplines within this type of infrastructure.
    Senator Hassan. Thank you very much.
    Ms. Thomas.
    Ms. Thomas. Thank you, Senator. Yes, I absolutely agree 
that employer input is vital. After all, with any of the 
training, whether it is career pathways or other structured 
programs, employers are really the validators of the rigor of 
those programs because this will be their workforce. And, so, 
it is critical for us to position ourselves to be flexible so 
when employers provide that input, we can co-design and co-
architect programs that are meaningful to employers for a full 
workforce, not just for today, but for the future, as well.
    Senator Hassan. Well, thank you very much, and thank you, 
Madam Chair.
    The Chair. Thank you.
    Senator Smith.
    Senator Smith. Thank you, Madam Chair, and I am glad to be 
with you. We have a bunch of Committee hearings going on today, 
so I appreciate this chance to join you. I have a question that 
I would like to ask Ms. Thomas.
    The COVID-19 pandemic has highlighted so clearly the 
crucial role of the public health workforce. Julie Whitcomb, 
who is a community health services manager from Watonwan County 
Public Health Department, said this to me, and I think it makes 
so much sense. She said, I often say public health is doing 
good jobs when we are not in the news. But, when you hear about 
outbreaks, such as lice in schools, and tuberculosis--when you 
don't hear about outbreaks in schools of tuberculosis, for 
example.
    The reality is that a strong public health system depends 
on a strong, talented workforce to make it all work. Nearly 
half, I understand, of the public health workforce is 
considering leaving in the next 5 years. Twenty-two percent 
will retire. Twenty-five percent are leaving for other reasons, 
including lower wages and competition of the private sector, or 
even, geographic challenges.
    I have also heard from a lot of public health departments 
in Minnesota that the loan forgiveness programs are really 
critical for making public health a more viable career choice.
    Ms. Thomas, could you talk a little bit about the 
challenges that you have seen when it comes to retaining a 
public health workforce and how the loan forgiveness programs 
can help recruit and retain this workforce?
    Ms. Thomas. Thank you, Senator. And yes, certainly our 
public healthcare workers are essential to our Nation for so 
many reasons, and yes, we have seen challenges. And, 
oftentimes, the time it takes for someone to be an R.N., for 
example, and the pathway progression toward that occupation, 
loan forgiveness would be huge. Because often, when we see 
individuals who have an interest, even starting in the 
secondary level, if they have an interest, you think about the 
runway that it takes to become skilled, trained, degreed in 
this profession.
    For those particularly who are facing barriers as it is 
now, it is more than sometimes they can often imagine. And, so, 
really breaking it out in these career pathways and in these 
start/stops, it allows individuals to experience, take part in 
public education and healthcare without being committed to a 
longer progression.
    In other words, it may start as just sort of a frontline, 
personal care attendant or something of those sorts, and they 
learn and gain experience, and then the hope for a more robust 
experience in public health begins to emerge. And, so, loan 
forgiveness takes away that barrier.
    Someone who has always wanted to be a nurse, for example, 
or a doctor, but did not think that it was possible because of 
where they are, it now provides an opportunity and an open 
pathway for individuals to begin to embark and seek on a career 
in public health. And, so, it is a challenge. We obviously need 
more workers.
    I spoke earlier about apprenticeship. These programs, 
again, work-based education in public health is critical, and 
we need more apprenticeship programs that allow for a faster 
progression to be able to create workers that we know hospitals 
and other organization so vitally need.
    Senator Smith. Yes. So, this is a strategy not only for 
recruiting and retaining workforce, but also for recruiting and 
retaining a diverse workforce, which is such a great need as 
we--because we know so clearly that a public health workforce 
that is connected to community is going to be more trusted, 
more--just able to do a better job in so many ways. I really--I 
appreciate that very much.
    I want to just mention that I have a bill with Senator 
Booker that would provide education loan repayment assistance 
to people who work at the state, local, or tribal public health 
departments, and this bill would provide the tools that we need 
to build this kind of sustainable workforce, a diverse 
workforce, that is really ready to address any public health 
crisis. And I think this past year, 14 months, has really 
demonstrated what a crucial need this is right now. Thank you.
    Madam Chair, I will take back the rest of my time. Thank 
you so much.
    The Chair. Thank you.
    Can I just say to any of our Senators who would like to be 
at the Committee hearing, can you let us know if you are going 
to be here? I know there is a number of hearings this morning, 
and everybody is trying to turn schedules around. We just want 
to make sure we do not exclude anybody. So, if you are there, 
please get onboard.
    Senator Burr.
    Senator Burr. Madam Chair, if we do not have anybody cued 
up--I know some are on their way--could I ask one additional 
question----
    The Chair. Absolutely.
    Senator Burr [continuing]. If nobody is cued?
    The Chair. Great.
    Senator Burr. Dr. Ralls, our Committee is working on 
expanding apprenticeships, and I am sort of proud of the work 
that North Carolina's community colleges have done on this 
space, including the industry-recognized apprenticeship 
programs.
    Can you share more about apprenticeship programs in North 
Carolina?
    Dr. Ralls. Apprenticeship in North Carolina is growing and 
growing rapidly. About 3 years ago, the system moved into the 
community college system that allowed the connection between 
the workforce training and apprenticeship for the related 
training in North Carolina. And you can see it both in the 
numbers of students--or the numbers of apprentices, which have 
grown significantly, and the broadening to beyond the 
traditional apprenticeship areas of construction and 
manufacturing to many other sectors.
    In our county, we are proud--our county commissioners saw 
this as a vital opportunity to connect more students to 
prosperity through apprenticeship. They have provided special 
funding to our college so that we can go and help facilitate 
companies to become registered apprenticeship companies, as 
well as provide the related training free of charge, tuition-
free, at Wake Tech.
    We are seeing very large number growth. We just had a 
signing ceremony just a couple weeks ago with 50 new 
apprentices. And what is so important about it, I think, is the 
opportunities it provides for students who may not have those 
opportunities otherwise to get experience, to get into a hiring 
scenario they would not be in.
    We have an amazing story of a student who grew up as a 
foster youth, and through work-based learning--it was not a 
formal apprenticeship, but through work-based learning with 
Lenovo, and in our computer training, computer programming 
degree. She was a widow with five kids, and now she is a team 
lead at Lenovo. And those are the kinds of programs, work-based 
learning and apprenticeship, that give students, like this 
student, Tiffany Harrell, that opportunity that they would not 
have otherwise.
    Senator Burr. Great. Thank you, Madam Chair.
    The Chair. Thank you. I will go to Senator Rosen and then 
to Senator Tuberville.
    Senator Rosen.
    Senator Rosen. Thank you, Chair Murray and Ranking Member 
Burr, for holding this hearing today, for your commitment to a 
bipartisan collaboration on a workforce package. We certainly 
need it because, as Nevada and the Nation begin to recover from 
the worst unemployment crisis in living memory, I am glad this 
Committee is focused on creating jobs and training workers to 
fill all the positions so we can get all Americans back to 
work. But, I would like to speak a little bit about advanced 
manufacturing and cyber jobs.
    Mr. Mendoza, before the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, 
Nevada was among the leading states in advanced manufacturing 
with 16 percent annual growth. Despite this growth, many 
training gaps remained. That is why I introduced the American--
I mean the Advanced Manufacturing Jobs in America Act, 
bipartisan legislation that would create a pilot program, 
connecting colleges, workforce boards, and manufacturers to 
facilitate advanced manufacturing training programs.
    In light of the pandemic, I am pleased that Western Nevada 
College has helped fill some of these gaps by offering the 
Manufacturing Technician Certificate, which includes skills 
training in advanced manufacturing. It is free to any Nevadan 
who has been laid off due to COVID-19, and I am glad that the 
Biden Administration has called for additional investment in 
this field. So, Mr. Mendoza, as someone appointed to advise 
President Biden on manufacturing policies, I look forward to 
working with you on these issues.
    Could you speak to the importance of training both 
unemployed and existing workers so that they have the skills 
necessary to compete for those good-paying advanced 
manufacturing jobs?
    Mr. Mendoza. Thank you, Senator Rosen. It sounds like an 
awesome program. And our responsibility to grow and develop our 
existing workforces, those that find these types of 
environments exciting, is what fuels our growth.
    Technology is changing so fast that we have to be extremely 
proactive on this. And employees and potential employees also 
want the opportunity to continue to grow and evolve in their 
roles. So, having well-structured career pathways, but also 
opportunities to learn from no experience whatsoever is super 
important and part of our commitment. And, especially, industry 
has to be willing to step up and support this and encourage 
this.
    We have talked about a lot of things in here, and that is 
including understanding the diversity of learning within your 
existing workforce, to being able to onboard and incorporate 
the entire learning spectrum of potential employees moving 
forward.
    That has been extremely vital to us, and we are looking 
forward to continuing to partner on specific programs.
    Senator Rosen. Well, I am glad you mention that because I 
want to talk a little bit about the role of minority-serving 
institutions because we know all too well, again, COVID-19 has 
exposed disparities in our society across the board in 
healthcare, education, job opportunities, and access to 
services.
    Ms. Flynn, I was pleased to see that the Jobs for the 
Future is thinking about the American workforce recovery with 
emphasis on closing these gaps. So, in Nevada, five of our 
colleges and universities are designated as minority-serving 
institutions, so we are very proud of that.
    But, how can Congress and the Administration better support 
MSIs as a provider of workforce training, and how do we 
connect? To Mr. Mendoza's point, how do we connect them with 
the job creators to be sure that we are filling the needs? We 
need to create that partnership between training and jobs.
    Ms. Flynn. Absolutely, Senator, and I agree that minority-
serving institutions are a key piece of the recovery puzzle. 
And I think providing them with the resources and the kind of 
capacity building that they need to help really build those 
strong employer partnerships in their communities is critical.
    Helping them engage more broadly with the public workforce 
system to most effectively kind of utilize those resources that 
the system can provide.
    Really building in strong career navigation for their 
students and for the leaders of those institutions to really 
help enable students to make great, informed decisions about 
their career paths.
    But, I think really being intentional about the resources 
and building those strong connection points is critically 
important.
    Senator Rosen. Thank you. And I do agree with your word 
intentional. We must be intentional about this. We have an 
opportunity to see who we want to be, who we need to be coming 
out of this pandemic, and I look forward to creating as many 
partnerships between the private sector, our universities, and 
our workforce training as possible.
    Thank you, Madam Chair. I yield back.
    The Chair. Thank you.
    Senator Tuberville.
    Senator Tuberville. Thank you very much, Madam Chair.
    Thank you for being here today and testifying.
    Workforce development has been huge on my agenda for years. 
I have been in education for 40 years, traveled the world, 
traveled the Country, trying to help kids get jobs.
    I will say this. I have noticed, our four-year universities 
have become businesses instead of education institutions where 
we get them prepared for a job. It is a shame that has 
happened, but it--again, a business, people have to make a 
living, but we need to recognize that.
    I think our--to be honest and blunt with you, I think our 
education system is outdated. I think we need to make some 
major changes. But, that being said, the big feel is we need to 
train kids for future workforce, and we need to get them to the 
point where they know how to use their hands, know how to use 
their brains, and understand work and work ethic.
    The one thing that I have noticed in two-year schools is we 
have got to get them involved in some kind of situation where 
they learn how to use their hands, not in a two-year school, 
but in high school.
    I have gone through thousands of transcripts the last years 
and our twelve-year system, to me, is outdated. We do not push 
kids. We get to the last eleventh and twelfth grade of the 
years and they are taking activity courses, study halls, and we 
are not preparing them. And I truly believe that we need to 
teach them something in the last two years of their high 
school. Get them involved in something where they can get 
interested in--whether it is wood shop, welding, nursing, 
cooking, and teach that and teach them how to do things like 
that.
    Am I on the right track there? Just get your, both of your 
opinions.
    Ms. Flynn. I think you are on absolutely the right track. I 
think that really we need to be thinking about pathways that 
really span from, ninth grade up through sort of grade 14. So, 
four years of high school and two years of post-secondary 
training. Really embedding that high-quality, work-based 
learning in high school is key. How you kind of think 
intentionally about those kind of career pathways and career 
progression across those grades. At JFF, we lead an initiative 
called the Pathways to Prosperity Network, where we are working 
with states and regions to build those types of systems.
    I also think we need to be looking at how to continue to 
address the, I think, outdated and somewhat unfair stigma 
around career and technical education. So, how can we help 
educate students and parents and school leaders about these 
great opportunities that are in the skilled trades and other 
opportunities. And just that, CTE is not what it was when my 
mother worked in that system back in the 1970's. It is a very 
different system now, and we need to keep pushing for 
modernization and improvement and agility.
    Senator Tuberville. Well, this is my concern. We are coming 
out of a pandemic, hopefully, and we hear we have six, 7 
percent unemployment. That is wrong. We have got millions of 
jobs out there right now.
    No. 1, people are not looking for jobs. People are sitting 
at home.
    But, that being said, I am not worried about those people 
out there now that are out of school. I am worried about the 
kids coming up and being motivated to say, listen, I want to go 
make a great living. I want to start a business. I want to do 
something. I want to use my hands. And we have to start 
encouraging them.
    But, we are coming out of this pandemic where a lot of 
people have been virtual, and you cannot learn to use your 
hands virtual, just watch it on TV and all that.
    But, how are we going to get kids back motivated after this 
pandemic, actively? I think we are overlooking that. We are 
saying, oh, we are just going to open back up and we are going 
to go back out and put this to a test. Education is the most 
important thing in this Country. That is our future, and we 
better start getting a handle on that.
    How do you think we do that?
    Dr. Ralls. I think you are on the right track. I think we 
have to look for those places where students can apply, not 
just, learn the theoretical. And I think that is something of 
what you are talking about.
    I think, also, you noted the notion between making the 
connections between high schools and college and community 
colleges. You know, when we talk about career pathways, or we 
talk about ladders at my institution, it is not just our career 
pathways. It is their career pathways, and that really starts 
in high school.
    Programs like dual enrollment, youth apprenticeship, early 
college high schools. We have career and college academies, and 
that also sparks the opportunities for apprenticeship.
    In North Carolina now, if you start in a youth 
apprenticeship program, like our manufacturing programs, and 
you are employed as an apprentice within 6 months of 
graduating, then you get free tuition. It incentivizes that.
    I think those kind of connections are important, and 
thinking about our pathways and our ladders are not just about 
within our institutions. They have to cross our institutions, 
and that is the way I think we have to think about it.
    Senator Tuberville. The only thing I worry about, free 
tuition for junior colleges, and really for four-year schools, 
is the part of learning how to go out on your own. How to learn 
how to, be responsible for yourself. If something is free, you 
do not work as hard. We have all found that out. And I think if 
you have got skin in the game, then it is pretty hard to quit. 
It is pretty hard to kick the can down the road. And I think 
you will both agree, we need kids to learn how to work. That is 
the No. 1 thing, I think, that we need to do.
    Thank you very much, Madam Chair.
    The Chair. Thank you.
    Senator Hickenlooper.
    Senator Hickenlooper. Yes. Thank you very much, Chair 
Murray, and thank you for pulling this really astounding 
meeting together. I cannot remember the last time I have heard 
so many things that, just make me want to accelerate in terms 
of how we address the gaps that we see all around us, in terms 
of the skills that not just kids, but kids of all ages need.
    I wanted to ask a question first of Ms. Flynn. Thank you 
all for your testimony today. Really, a wonderful hearing.
    Ms. Flynn, many small-or medium-size businesses do not 
really have the resources or the relevant experience on being 
able to create their own apprenticeship-type training programs. 
And that is why several of us on HELP are working to try and 
create the PARTNERS Act, which will provide grants to 
businesses to allow them to get together and build industry-
specific apprenticeship programs.
    How can we do a better job of helping those small 
businesses be able to access apprenticeships? And I think you 
are aware, we have a wonderful program in Colorado called 
CareerWise. We have a waiting list of businesses, but not as 
many small businesses as I think we should have.
    Ms. Flynn. Yes, Senator Hickenlooper. I think it is a 
wonderful question. I think there is a lot more that we can and 
should be doing for small and medium employers, both in terms 
of registered apprenticeship and, more broadly, around engaging 
in workforce programs.
    I think the CareerWise program that Noel Ginsburg runs in 
Colorado is a terrific example of that intermediary work. And I 
know they are also expanding their efforts into New York City. 
So, I think seeing how we can continue to provide and provide 
additional support for those intermediary organizations, 
whether that be at a state or a regional level, I think can 
really help to alleviate some of the administrative burden from 
small and medium employers.
    But, as you said, I think there is also, if you are not 
seeing a number of those kind of engaging now, really helping 
to continue to dispel some of the myths around registered 
apprenticeship I think is key. I think that there is still a--
kind of a thought in this Country that it is kind of only 
around the skilled trades, only involved, with organized labor, 
et cetera.
    I think continuing to dispel those myths and really talking 
to employers about how we are building on those long-term 
traditions, but expanding into new sectors, new occupations, 
and how the role the intermediary can really help make that 
engagement more streamlined and efficient for employers.
    Senator Hickenlooper. Let me just plead back on that. As we 
get better integration and coordination between various 
intermediaries in these types of skills training, and maybe 
even take apprenticeships and expand them so it is not just for 
kids who would otherwise just be in high school, we also get to 
that notion of learning all--lifetime learning and people being 
able to get individual credentials, what they call stackable 
credentials, as you know well.
    How do we take this moment, where we really are focusing on 
workforce in I think a new and fresh way, and make sure that we 
can partner with, corporate America and large and small 
businesses to make sure we get best of practices and create a 
national system of stackable credentials? Does that seem 
something that used to be so far-fetched and now seems somewhat 
more accessible? How do you feel on that?
    Ms. Flynn. I agree. I think that this past year has made 
that seem more accessible, for sure. I think that trends that, 
15 months ago, we would have been saying were 5, 10, 20 years 
off are now currently, in front of us in the near term.
    I do think that really thinking, again, intentionally about 
creating that type of system to ensure that the stackability is 
real, that these stacks are actually providing, paths to 
degrees for students and workers who are seeking those 
opportunities can actually happen.
    As we saw in a recent report from a credential engine, 
there are over a million credentials now in the U.S., and so it 
is quite a maze of opportunities. And I think the more we could 
invest in a career navigation system that can help workers and 
learners navigate that and really determine which paths are 
high quality will really be important.
    Senator Hickenlooper. Absolutely. I could not agree more.
    Again, I thank all of the people providing testimony today. 
Thank you so much, and I look forward--I am going to read all 
of your written testimony to make sure that I do not miss 
anything. Thank you all.
    I yield back my time. Thank you, Madam Chair.
    The Chair. Thank you very much, Senator.
    I have one additional question, and then I will turn to 
Senator Burr. Do you have any other questions?
    Okay. I believe Senator Braun is going to be here. I will 
notify him he has about one minute.
    Ms. Thomas, while we are waiting, the healthcare system has 
experienced a shortage of homecare workers and trained 
caregivers for some time, and this shortage is expected to get 
worse as the population ages and more people require these 
services. Can you share some examples of your agency's work to 
address the supports that we need to recruit and retain service 
providers, like homecare workers for older adults and people 
with disabilities?
    Ms. Thomas. Yes. Thank you, Senator. And certainly this is, 
one entry-level occupation that we tend to see a great need 
starting to arise and has arisen over the last several years. 
And I will go back to an earlier comment that I made regarding 
those who have interest in the healthcare industry but maybe 
are not ready to take the full leap into some of the nursing 
degrees.
    Through career navigation, we are able to help individuals 
really take the first step, the first rung on the ladder, to 
really explore opportunities as home health aides and personal 
care aides. What we find is particularly a barrier for this 
group is because of the salary structure, childcare and other 
supports are often needed to do that. But, we do find an 
interest for those who are wanting to really start this as a 
first phase in the healthcare industry.
    We work a lot, particularly with those who are looking for 
part-time work, who maybe are in school during the day or have 
small children and need options for someone to watch their 
children and maybe work at night or overnight.
    This is an ideal population that we can work with, 
instruct, at least get them familiar and gain work experience, 
and then look for opportunities to build out that pathway. But, 
that is something that we find there is absolutely a rising 
need, and we certainly see this as an opportunity to leverage, 
to really expand opportunities in public health workers across 
our state.
    The Chair. Thank you very much.
    Senator Burr, you had one additional question?
    Senator Burr. Just one quick question, Madam Chair. I will 
direct it to our two witnesses that are here, and if those that 
are virtually with us have anything to add that is not covered, 
please do.
    I am curious. You have mentioned Pell as policies that 
Congress should consider to better support access to quality, 
short-term training programs. What other things would you like 
to highlight other than Pell for these short-term programs that 
would help?
    Ms. Flynn.
    Ms. Flynn. In addition to expanding Pell, I think we would 
look at skill accounts, or kind of an expansion of the current 
individual training accounts, under WIOA since we know that a 
lot of dislocated workers or working poor would not be eligible 
for the Pell dollars. So, I think looking to how to build upon 
that current authority within WIOA, but build that out with 
additional funding.
    Also, continuing to really enhance the quality of the 
eligible training provider list. I think that provider quality 
is not just, a key question in the short-term Pell debate, but 
more broadly around how do we ensure that workers and learners 
are pursuing high-quality programs.
    We would also look at how to really open up some access to 
Federal dollars for some of the kind of newer, non-traditional 
providers that are out there. Some of the for-profit models who 
have a very strong evidence base behind them. So, I think being 
careful not to kind of put all of, for-profit providers in a 
box that they are bad actors. Really looking at the issue of 
quality and how to direct Federal funds accordingly.
    Senator Burr. Dr. Ralls.
    Dr. Ralls. Other than Pell, the other primary way in which 
individuals receive training is through WIOA. I think what we 
have seen in some of the testimony, the written testimonies 
identified that, there has been pretty significant decreases in 
funding. And oftentimes, the training available through WIOA, 
it becomes rather sparse.
    It is a challenge. I think you have to push more 
connections as much as possible, particularly between the 
workforce system and the education system.
    When we look at short-term credentials, I think third-party 
industry credential certifications are important.
    I think it is very important for those degree--or 
credentials also to stack into our degrees, because too often, 
job training alone can be siloed and not lead to the 
opportunities for career advancement.
    Again, as I said in my testimony, our traditional higher ed 
degrees are too often inaccessible for students. And we need 
both. We do not need the either/or. We need the `and.'
    I think, also, community colleges are key in that. Too 
often, we are treated just as another provider, and I think we 
are also a very unique backbone to the workforce and the 
training system in the United States.
    I think some of the funding supports, like the TAC Grants 
we had before, and others, are going to be vital to standing up 
what I believe is the training backbone and the educational 
backbone for many of these individuals throughout the United 
States, through America's community colleges.
    Senator Burr. Have they missed anything that our virtual 
witnesses would like to add? Hearing no----
    Ms. Thomas. Sir, I would just like to add just one thing. 
We talked about sort of the nature of the individual training 
accounts and the funding being somewhat limited. But, also, not 
just the availability of the skilled training itself, but the 
worker supports that come along with that. We look at things 
like transportation, for example, particularly in rural 
communities where it may not be immediately accessible to get 
to a training site.
    Worker support expansion would be critical in the context 
of when we are looking at skill training to make sure that it 
is actually a package that we can offer to individuals looking 
to undertake those options.
    Senator Burr. Thank you, Madam Chair.
    The Chair. I think Mr. Mendoza wanted to add something.
    Senator Burr. Okay.
    Mr. Mendoza. Thank you very much, Senator.
    It is critical for us that we continue to have the 
opportunity to upskill our workforce. And using our industry 
partnership models to continue to partner, to continue to 
provide opportunities for potential employees and our existing 
employees is really important to our continued growth, and not 
having that is going to be an issue.
    As I indicated, we provide a thousand hours of training a 
month because we have to, and we need continued support so that 
we can continue making sure that we can meet the expectations, 
both of our existing workforce, but also our customers.
    Thank you very much for your time.
    The Chair. Thank you very much.
    Senator Braun, you have arrived in the nick of time. You 
get the last word. Go.
    Senator Braun. Thank you, Madam Chair.
    Something I really am going to enjoy having the last word 
on. I cannot tell you how much I wrestled with this subject 
prior to becoming a U.S. Senator. I started a little business 
that was so small I never had to worry about it because I 
didn't have enough employees. But, when it became a national 
company over many, many years, after serving on a school board 
for 10 years, trying to wrestle with how we better the feeder 
system of proper training to get into the pipeline.
    I come from a city and county, the lowest unemployment 
county in town, generally, month after month in normal times. 
Go home, travel the state, I cannot get away from workforce 
development, CTE, education in general.
    I want to give you a little example of how I wrestled with 
it as a state legislator. For one of the 3 years I was on the 
Education Committee, and my brother was head of our workforce 
development within the state, biggest manufacturing state per 
capita. Always a low unemployment level.
    I simply said that I do not need more four-year degrees. We 
export twice as many as we use in Indiana. The whole system was 
being stigmatized, was being guided toward more of what we do 
not need. And I made such a point of it--my brother was even 
there that day--I was off the Education Committee the next 
year. I think this might have been the reason.
    We need, in my opinion, better guidance, with parents 
involved, when kids are eighth graders so that they do not get 
into the system being pushed into a misguided future without 
knowing the options. Nothing against four-year degrees, but we 
just do not need them in many businesses. We need better skills 
coming out of high school.
    Is there enough of that happening currently in your mind? 
And is higher ed, just like in my state, actually saying one 
thing, actually guiding otherwise at the secondary level, and 
still getting results, to me, that are not as good as they 
should be with as much money as we are spending on it?
    Any of the witnesses could weigh in on that mouthful.
    Ms. Flynn. I am happy to start, Senator, and I could not 
agree more.
    To me, one of the top priorities in looking at workforce 
reform in our Country is investing in designing a true, high-
quality national career navigation system. I think that whether 
it is students in eighth grade, their families, whether it is 
high school students who are looking at their post-secondary 
options, whether it is a long-term unemployed individual who is 
looking to get back in the labor market.
    As it stands right now in our Country, we do a terrible job 
of providing those individuals with the information that they 
need on what is the best bets for them. You know, what--how do 
they think about their future.
    I am here with my daughter today, who is an eleventh 
grader. But, I remember when she came home in about eighth 
grade, knowing what I do for a living, and she said, Mom, no 
one talks to us about jobs.
    I think that is too true, right? I think that too often the 
issue of careers is left behind. It is secondary, and it is not 
where I think it should be at the center of these education 
conversations throughout a student's pathway.
    Dr. Ralls. Senator, I think something you are talking about 
that resonates with me is something we always struggle with, 
and we call it the interest gap. You know, knowing the job 
opportunities that are there and sometimes the lack of student 
interest or parent interest in the pathways to those jobs.
    I think we have to take different approaches. I think we 
have to--we have to step back and realize that we still think 
about college and higher ed being traditional when most 
students are non-traditional. I think we have to be non-
traditional in our thinking about what we mean by career and 
technical education.
    Too often, the rhetoric is greater than the resources in 
that regard. We have to step up in that regard. Our college is 
trying to do that. You can see that in our facilities, not 
making our career technical facilities at the back part of the 
college. They are putting them right up front and using them as 
attraction for students.
    Being able to, I think, ladder students, again, not just 
thinking about our career pathways that are just at our college 
or just in this program because you can receive tremendous 
opportunities by non-traditional pathways. We talked earlier 
about the manufacturing pathways, where you can start in high 
school as a youth apprentice. Come to us, get a two-year 
degree, but you can transfer that degree to ECU and have 
tremendous opportunities at East Carolina, coming out in 
management in those regards.
    Same thing with automotive. We just worked out an 
articulation for our automotive students in technical programs, 
but to go to Northwood University and actually go into 
management.
    We have got to step back and think differently about what 
we have too often thought about too traditionally.
    Senator Burr. Madam Chair, could I just offer an example of 
what I think Senator Braun just talked about?
    In one county in North Carolina, the school system offers 
for tenth, eleventh, and twelfth graders an automotive option, 
as well as some other career options. Over 200 students 
constantly are enrolled in that automotive piece. And upon 
graduation from high school, every student is offered a job 
somewhere close to that home county with a starting salary in 
excess of $35,000 for an automobile dealership. To the student 
who wants to go further than that, with an additional year 
somewhere, they will be hired by the Mercedes, BMW dealerships 
somewhere in the southeast, making over $100,000 a year 
starting salary.
    This--since the expertise are only out of our head versus 
out of our hands, they prove to be wrong. It is just a very 
difficult thing to export from where it is to every community 
across the state, Scott, and across the Country.
    But, I think community colleges, as they recognize that, 
become a little more traditional in the offerings that they 
have and they begin to offer those programs that provide a job 
on the other end, like we saw out of high school. But, I think 
it is right at the heart of your thought.
    The Chair. Thank you very much.
    That will end our hearing today. And I do want to thank all 
of our colleagues and witnesses--Ms. Flynn, Ms. Thomas, Dr. 
Ralls, Mr. Mendoza. Very productive hearing. We appreciate it.
    We do have an urgent challenge ahead of us when it comes to 
tackling the jobs crisis that is caused by this pandemic, in 
rebuilding our economy stronger and fairer. As this discussion 
today showed, strengthening our workforce programs to better 
support workers can play a key role in that effort.
    I know my colleagues on both sides of the aisle are 
interested in getting this done. I am hopeful that working 
together, we can turn this bipartisan support into bipartisan 
solutions.
    For any Senators who wish to ask additional questions, 
questions for the record will be due in 10 business days, 
Tuesday, May 4, at 5 p.m. The hearing record will remain open 
until then for Members who wish to submit additional material 
for the record.
    This Committee will next meet tomorrow, Wednesday, April 
21, to mark up the nominations of Julie Su to be Deputy 
Secretary of Labor, Cindy Marten to be Deputy Secretary of 
Education, and James Kvaal to be Undersecretary of Education.
    This Committee will meet on Thursday, April 22 at 10 a.m. 
in Dirksen 430 for a hearing on Protecting U.S. Biomedical 
Research.
    With that, the Committee stands adjourned.

                          ADDITIONAL MATERIAL

                             National Urban League,
                                                    April 20, 2021.
Hon. Patty Murray, Chair,
U.S. Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions,
Russell Senate Office Building Room 154,
Washington, DC.

    Dear Chair Murray:

    On behalf of the National Urban League and our 90 affiliates across 
36 states and the District of Columbia, I write to thank you for 
holding this important hearing on ``COVID-19 Recovery: Supporting 
Workers and Modernizing the Workforce Through Quality Education, 
Training, and Employment Opportunities.'' We welcome this opportunity 
to provide our perspective on the importance of ensuring equity in our 
national workforce system and COVID-19 recovery.

    As you know,the COVID-19 pandemic has wreaked havoc on the lives of 
millions of Americans, with our communities of color faring the worst. 
Due in large part to the socio-economic and health disparities that 
pre-dated this pandemic, Black, Latino, and Native American families 
have been hit particularly hard by illness, unemployment, and economic 
instability.

    As our Nation begins to recover from the multitude of challenges 
brought on by this unprecedented public health and economic crisis, our 
Nation's leaders must use all Federal levers available to help 
eliminate the many inequities in our society, including in our 
workforce system, that continue to contribute to our Nation's widening 
racial wealth gap.

    Black Americans were among the hardest hit by coronavirus layoffs, 
and are now recovering at the slowest rate. Many of the industries in 
which Black workers are heavily represented are not recovering as 
quickly as others as the economy reopens--or are even continuing to 
backslide. This threatens to worsen stark wealth and income disparities 
long after the pandemic is over. Currently, the unemployment rate for 
Black Americans is 9.6 percent, while this number is 5.4 percent for 
White Americans. This difference isn't surprising--since the U.S. 
Bureau of Labor Statistics started collecting data on the African 
American unemployment rate in January 1972, this rate has consistently 
been twice as high as the White unemployment rate. In urban areas, this 
disparity can be even greater (up to 6 times as high in Washington DC, 
for example).

    As we look to improve our workforce system and leverage it for 
economic recovery by ensuring people can gain necessary skills to 
secure a good job, we must make sure this access extends to people of 
color and other underserved people, who have faced historical and 
systemic barriers to employment and have been hardest hit by COVID-19-
related economic downturns.

    The National Urban League and our affiliates have launched several 
successful programs, increasing opportunities for populations with 
barriers to employment, including those who are long-term unemployed, 
seniors, and people transitioning out of the criminal justice system.

    Our Urban Tech Jobs Program began in 2016 as an intervention 
addressing long term unemployment, and has since expanded to help 
address the digital divide. The program operates in seven cities, and 
has served over 600 long term unemployed individuals to prepare them 
for jobs that were in the tech sector or technology interfacing jobs. 
Our Urban Seniors Program provides job training to mature workers who, 
due to the economic downturn, are finding the need to return to work. 
Since 2007, this program has served over 1,300 adults. Our Urban 
Pathway Home program is designed to break the cycle of recidivism with 
pre-release and post-release support and job training for returning 
citizens.

    With our experience serving these populations, we recognize the 
need for updates to our Nation's workforce system and look forward to 
working with you to ensure we make the changes needed to ensure equity 
and provide for economic recovery.

    Thank you for your consideration. Should you have any questions, 
please contact Susie Feliz or Morgan Polk at the National Urban League.

            Sincerely,
                                            Marc H. Morial,
                                           President & CEO,
                                     National Urban League.
                                 ______
                                 
      the society for human resource management statement for the 
                          congressional record
    As Congress considers legislative proposals to spur the Nation's 
post-pandemic economic recovery, it is critical any final solution 
encourage bold investments in the American workforce. Investments, 
including employer-provided education assistance, will support efforts 
to build a talent pipeline that meets the needs of a post-pandemic 
landscape and contribute to future U.S. economic growth.

    Providing education assistance is an important tool American 
employers have long used to build, attract and retain a skilled 
workforce, and one that will be a critical component of recovery moving 
forward. The Society for Human Resource Management (SHRM) has been a 
longtime advocate in support of efforts to strengthen and expand 
employer-provided education assistance as a workplace benefit.

    First enacted in 1978, this employer-provided education assistance 
benefit has had a widespread, positive impact on employers and 
employees alike. However, the $5,250 exclusion has not been increased 
in over 40 years and must be updated to respond to current workplace 
and workforce needs. Section 127 of the Internal Revenue Code allows 
employees to exclude up to $5,250 from income per year for courses at 
the associate, undergraduate and graduate levels with education 
assistance provided by their employer.

    According to a SHRM Employee Benefits survey conducted in 2019, 56 
percent of employers provided education assistance to their employees. 
As learning continues to evolve, so must education benefits. It is 
critical that employers have the flexibility to offer support 
throughout a variety of stages in the education lifecycle to give 
employees choices when making education-related decisions.

    In the 116th Congress, Senators Maggie Hassan (D-NH), and Todd 
Young (R-IN) introduced S. 4408, the Upskilling and Retraining 
Assistance Act, a proposal to provide the updates necessary to 
modernize employer-provided education assistance. S. 4408 proposed to 
temporarily increase the dollar amount of education assistance 
employees can receive from employers to $12,000 and to permit expenses 
for the tools and technology required to complete their educational 
programs to be covered. Solutions like these are imperative in 
America's economic recovery as they promote training and upskilling, a 
key element of supporting U.S. workers and modernizing the American 
workforce.

    Employer-provided education assistance benefits are not only 
necessary to meet current needs; used to invest in training and 
development of the workforce they will have a lasting impact on work, 
workers and the workplace and the U.S. economy for years to come. These 
benefits are used to reskill and upskill existing employees to fill 
open positions and address the U.S. skills shortage. By investing in 
their existing talent pool, employers have seen a return on investment 
of more than 100 percent. Employees who take advantage of employer-
provided education assistance improve their opportunities for upward 
mobility and wage growth. Entry-level and mid-management education 
assistance recipients received, on average, a 43 percent incremental 
wage increase over a three-year period as compared to non-recipients.

    Furthermore, investment in workforce development through education, 
training and employment opportunities will encourage financial 
stability and savings. The pandemic has created financial hardships, 
forcing some to remain in the workforce longer than anticipated, 
delaying life milestones like starting a family, purchasing a home, 
saving for retirement and the ability to pay for critical services like 
health care. Investments like employer-provided education assistance is 
not the answer to all of the above, but can be a valuable resource for 
employees to pursue professional goals and better livelihoods for 
themselves, their families and for future generations.

    SHRM and the National Association of Independent Colleges and 
Universities co-chair the Section 127 Coalition, which brings together 
a broad cross-section of nearly 100 organizations representing 
employers, labor and higher education, all of which are committed to 
preserving and strengthening employer-provided education assistance.

    As the voice of all things work, workers, and the workplace, SHRM 
and our 300,000+ members impact the lives of more than 115 million 
workers and their families. As congressional lawmakers address the 
needs of a dynamic workforce and changing economic landscape, SHRM 
stands ready to serve as a resource and partner in those efforts.
                                 ______
                                 
    [Whereupon, the hearing was adjourned at 11:49 a.m.]

                                   [all]