[Senate Hearing 118-466]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
S. Hrg. 118-466
THE WORKFORCE INNOVATION AND
OPPORTUNITY ACT: SUPPORTING
EFFORTS TO MEET THE NEEDS OF
YOUTH, WORKERS, AND EMPLOYERS
=======================================================================
HEARING
OF THE
COMMITTEE ON HEALTH, EDUCATION,
LABOR, AND PENSIONS
UNITED STATES SENATE
ONE HUNDRED EIGHTEENTH CONGRESS
SECOND SESSION
ON
EXAMINING THE WORKFORCE INNOVATION AND OPPORTUNITY ACT, FOCUSING ON
SUPPORTING EFFORTS TO MEET THE NEEDS OF YOUTH, WORKERS, AND EMPLOYERS
__________
JUNE 12, 2024
__________
Printed for the use of the Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and
Pensions
[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
Available via the World Wide Web: http://www.govinfo.gov
_______
U.S. GOVERNMENT PUBLISHING OFFICE
57-242 PDF WASHINGTON : 2025
BERNIE SANDERS (I), Vermont, Chairman
PATTY MURRAY, Washington BILL CASSIDY, M.D., Louisiana,
ROBERT P. CASEY, JR., Pennsylvania Ranking Member
TAMMY BALDWIN, Wisconsin RAND PAUL, Kentucky
CHRISTOPHER S. MURPHY, Connecticut SUSAN M. COLLINS, Maine
TIM KAINE, Virginia LISA MURKOWSKI, Alaska
MAGGIE HASSAN, New Hampshire MIKE BRAUN, Indiana
TINA SMITH, Minnesota ROGER MARSHALL, M.D., Kansas
BEN RAY LUJAN, New Mexico MITT ROMNEY, Utah
JOHN HICKENLOOPER, Colorado TOMMY TUBERVILLE, Alabama
ED MARKEY, Massachusetts MARKWAYNE MULLIN, Oklahoma
TED BUDD, North Carolina
Warren Gunnels, Majority Staff Director
Bill Dauster, Majority Deputy Staff Director
Amanda Lincoln, Minority Staff Director
Danielle Janowski, Minority Deputy Staff Director
C O N T E N T S
----------
STATEMENTS
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 12, 2024
Page
Committee Members
Sanders, Hon. Bernie, Chairman, Committee on Health, Education,
Labor, and Pensions, Opening statement......................... 1
Cassidy, Hon. Bill, Ranking Member, U.S. Senator from the State
of Louisiana, Opening statement................................ 3
Witnesses
White, Taylor, M.Ed., Director, Partnership to Advance Youth
Apprenticeship, Washington, DC................................. 4
Prepared statement........................................... 7
Summary statement............................................ 14
Bradley, David, Ph.D, Senior Director, Jobs for the Future,
Washington, DC................................................. 14
Prepared statement........................................... 16
Summary statement............................................ 21
Sullivan, Monty, Ph.D, System President, Louisiana Community and
Technical College System, Baton Rouge, LA...................... 22
Prepared statement........................................... 24
Summary statement............................................ 27
Bly-Jones, Lisa, Ph.D, Chief Executive Officer, Chicago Jobs
Council (CJC), Chicago, IL..................................... 28
Prepared statement........................................... 30
Summary statement............................................ 35
Dickerson, Matthew, Business Development and Strategy Officer,
Mid South Extrusion, Monroe, LA................................ 37
Prepared statement........................................... 38
Summary statement............................................ 46
ADDITIONAL MATERIAL
Statements, articles, publications, letters, etc.
Sanders, Hon. Bernie:
United Steelworkers, Statement for the Record................ 74
American Library Association, Statement for the Record....... 81
Coalition on Adult Basic Education, Statement for the Record. 83
American Federation of State, County, and Municipal
Employees, Statement for the Record........................ 86
Cassidy, Hon. Bill:
Governor Jeff Landry a Letter in Support of the One-Door
option..................................................... 89
Marshall, Hon. Roger:
Support for Senate Bill S. 3825.............................. 90
Letter from the North Carolina Chamber regarding Pell Grant
eligibility................................................ 96
QUESTIONS FOR THE RECORD
Response by David Bradley to questions of:
Sen. Ray Lujan............................................... 97
Sen. Maggie Hassan........................................... 97
Response by Lisa Bly-Jones to questions of:
Sen. Ray Lujan............................................... 98
Sen. Maggie Hassan........................................... 99
Sen. Tina Smith.............................................. 99
Response by Matthew Dickerson to questions of:
Sen. Maggie Hassan........................................... 101
Response by Monty Sullivan to questions of:
Sen. Maggie Hassan........................................... 105
Sen. Tina Smith.............................................. 105
Sen. Ted Budd................................................ 105
Response by Taylor White to questions of:
Sen. Maggie Hassan........................................... 107
Sen. Tina Smith.............................................. 110
THE WORKFORCE INNOVATION AND
OPPORTUNITY ACT: SUPPORTING
EFFORTS TO MEET THE NEEDS OF
YOUTH, WORKERS, AND EMPLOYERS
----------
Wednesday, June 12, 2024
U.S. Senate,
Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions,
Washington, DC.
The Committee met, pursuant to notice, at 10:04 a.m., in
room 562, Dirksen Senate Office Building, Hon. Bernie Sanders,
Chairman of the Committee, presiding.
Present: Senators Sanders [presiding], Murray, Casey,
Murphy, Kaine, Hassan, Smith, Lujan, Hickenlooper, Markey,
Cassidy, Murkowski, Braun, Marshall, Romney, and Tuberville.
OPENING STATEMENT OF SENATOR SANDERS
The Chair. The Senate Committee on Health, Education,
Labor, and Pensions will come to order. And let me begin by
thanking our witnesses who are experts on workforce
development, and practitioners who are working hard to put
American workers and communities across this country on a path
to higher wages and more fruitful careers. And we thank you
very much for what you're doing.
We are here today to talk about a very serious issue, and
that is the need to reauthorize and expand the Workforce
Innovation and Opportunity Act, also known here in DC as WIOA.
In 2022, WIOA provided career and training services to nearly
300,000 adults, 212,000 dislocated workers, 37,000 youth, and
2.3 million individuals through employment services and
employment service programs to connect people with good jobs.
It also supported literacy training and basic education for
1.1 million adults. It supports a network of 2,400 American Job
Centers so that Americans in any community across this country
can walk into a center to get help looking for a job, enroll in
a training program at a local community college, or get
referrals to food assistance or other supportive services.
WIOA also funds national programs that serve incarcerated
individuals--not something I want to be talking about today
because our rate of recidivism is off the charts--workers in
tribal and migrant communities and youth such as through
YouthBuild, which provides valuable training to 5,000
opportunity youth through building affordable housing.
It has been 10 years since Congress passed the Workforce
Innovation and Opportunity Act. In those 10 years, this country
has experienced, as we all know, some monumental changes.
COVID-19 pandemic altered the landscape of what jobs are
available and forced many workers to rapidly shift careers,
sometimes for lower wages.
Advancements in technology have displaced workers with one
estimate showing the current shifts toward automation could put
up to 39 million Americans out of work by 2030. Employers
continue to ask more from workers, and in many cases,
contribute less to their well-being. Of the 30 fastest growing
occupations in this country, 24 require more than a high school
diploma.
Let me just say this as some down to earth realities that
I've experienced. I went to a high school in South Central
Vermont a few months ago, and I walked into the school and
there was a level of excitement that I had not anticipated.
Unlike many other schools, kids were really happy to be in
school.
Why was that? Well, there was a program in the school that
allowed seniors to go out and get jobs in the community half-
day while they were in school. The other half-day they were
making 20 bucks an hour doing important work. Employers wanted
their labor and they came back to school. They were motivated,
much more motivated than they had previously been. They felt
better about their academics, and did better academically,
earning a living for their working-class families.
Second thing that I would like to bring up and hope to
discuss later is, through an earmark, I got some money for
Vermont Prisons. It shocked me to know--I don't know Senator
Cassidy, if others know this. I kind of had assumed this was a
no brainer, but it wasn't--there are prisons all over America,
including in Vermont where you're in jail, you don't even have
any educational opportunity. You're sitting there watching TV,
doing whatever you're doing, getting angrier, more frustrated.
The rate of recidivism that we have in this country is
extraordinarily high. So, we're spending, I don't know what it
is in Vermont, $60,000, $70,000 a year to lock people up. And
then a good portion of them come back because we haven't given
them the job training, we haven't given them the education.
We brought some money into the state. We are working with
the community colleges who are now doing educational programs
where the prisoners are very motivated, is my understanding.
It's working quite well. And by the way, we also got the same
program for the prison guards and their families to get credits
for community colleges as well.
The bottom line is, you have millions of kids in school
today, they're good with their hands. They want to go out, they
want to make a living and they don't have the training to do
that. And I think we've got to figure out how to do that. We
are spending huge amounts of money locking people up in this
country, and they leave prison without the skills they need to
succeed in the civilian world.
Those are some of the issues that concern me. Look forward
to discussing them with you, and thanks for being here.
Senator Cassidy.
OPENING STATEMENT OF SENATOR CASSIDY
Senator Cassidy. Thank you, Chairman Sanders. There's about
8 million job openings in the United States and the
unemployment rate is low, but so is the workforce
participation. That's a bad sign. To put it in context, about
37 percent of working-age adults nationwide are unemployed and
not looking for work. Again, that's not good. Idle hands are a
devil's workshop is the old proverb, but people do better if
they're gainfully employed.
Many Americans are not receiving job training because of a
workforce development program which is just not working well.
Current Federal workforce funding prioritizes bloating
government bureaucracy less than in investing in worker skill.
That is why reauthorizing and improving the Workforce
Innovation and Opportunity Grant, WIOA--always reminds me of
one of those songs from Lion King.
Anyway, WIOA is so important. WIOA funds programs assisting
Americans in obtaining crucial job skills as well as to connect
job seekers with employment activities. But Congress has failed
to reauthorize WIOA since it expired in 2020. I thank the Chair
for collaborating in this. This is an important step, this
hearing, in improving WIOA and reauthorizing. It is long
overdue. I hope that what we learn today will culminate in a
bipartisan Committee markup before the August recess.
I also want to highlight Republican colleagues for their
work to improve WIOA, including Senators Tuberville, Mullin,
Marshall, and Braun, all on this Committee; Budd, Romney,
Collins, all on this Committee, who have developed legislation
worthy of this Committee's consideration. I appreciate their
work and look forward to hearing more about their bills today.
When Congress fails to reauthorize programs, we miss out on
the ability to improve them to help meet the needs of a modern
workforce and of employers. We have the opportunity now to
increase options for training and skills development so workers
can properly enter, reenter, and remain in an ever-changing
workforce.
To achieve this goal, we must, one, direct more funding to
training and allow states to innovate to best serve workers and
employers. Two, improve the eligible training provider list,
making it easier for workers to connect to a more quality
workforce and training providers.
Three, allow states the flexibility to implement innovative
workforce development models that meet workers where they are
and get them better connected with employers. This flexible
model, by the way, has been very successful in Senator Romney's
home State of Utah, and it's something that my State of
Louisiana is seeking to implement.
Lastly, we need to increase transparency and accountability
of WIOA programs for improving employment outcomes, including
earnings, to ensure that they're best serving workers. These
are just a few of the policies the Committee should consider.
Again, I appreciate the Chair for calling this hearing. I
look forward to this discussion on how to improve WIOA to
benefit working Americans, to benefit us all. With that, I
yield.
The Chair. Thank you, Senator Cassidy. I would mention to
Members that in this new room, apparently the timer is broken
and they're trying to fix it right now. So, I will gently bang
at 5 after your 5 minutes. It's a Senator's dream, the timer's
broken, then go on for hours.
[Laughter.]
Senator Cassidy. I suggest we put on our iPhone and start
counting down.
[Laughter.]
The Chair. We thank our witnesses for being here to discuss
this very important issue. Our first witness is Ms. Taylor
White, the director of the Program to Advance Youth
Apprenticeship and Postsecondary Pathways for Youth in New
America.
In this role, she directs a network that supports over 70
apprenticeship programs across the country through grants and
technical assistance to expand access to apprenticeships as a
high quality post-secondary option for youth.
Ms. White, thanks a lot for being here.
STATEMENT OF TAYLOR WHITE, M.ED., DIRECTOR, PARTNERSHIP TO
ADVANCE YOUTH APPRENTICESHIP, WASHINGTON, DC
Ms. White. Good morning, Chairman Sanders, Ranking Member
Cassidy, and Members of the Committee. Thank you for inviting
me to testify today. I am, as you shared, Taylor White, the
director of Post-Secondary Pathways for Youth at New America
and the Partnership to Advance Youth Apprenticeship, or PAYA.
Since 2018, PAYA has led a national network of dynamic
public-private partnerships working to build, earn, and learn
pathways that connect young people with training and work
experiences they need to land jobs and work toward careers. Now
70 members strong, the network has provided powerful examples
of how WIOA makes a difference in the lives of young people.
It's an honor to be here today to share recommendations and how
we can enhance and expand these efforts.
It's a difficult time to be a young American. Persistent
inequities in our systems of education and work limit access
and opportunity based on gender, income, disability,
citizenship status, and most darkly, race. Economic mobility
long considered a hallmark of American society has been
declining for decades.
With or without a college degree, a young adult today is
less likely to earn as much as their parents. Basic necessities
like healthcare, housing, and education that were affordable to
previous generations are far more expensive today, making the
transition to adulthood much harder for young people to
navigate.
Currently, over 12 percent of Americans between the ages of
16 and 24 are disconnected from both education and the labor
market. That's roughly 4.5 million young people. Rates of
disconnection are highest among Native American, Black, and
Latino youth. Young men are more likely to be disconnected than
young women. And these, so-called Opportunity Youth are twice
as likely as their connected peers to have grown up in poverty,
and three times as likely to have a disability.
A robust body of research demonstrates that youth
disconnection is associated with lower levels of educational
attainment and increased rates of substance abuse, physical and
mental illness, and criminal activity.
The individual and social costs of youth disconnection are
enormous. Our public workforce system plays a critical role in
identifying these young people and helping them access
education, training, work experiences, and the supports they
need to stay connected or reengage.
Each year, WIOA-funded programs such as Job Corps,
YouthBuild, and the myriad local programs supported by Title I
Youth dollars provide training and services to roughly 200,000
youth a majority of whom are neither working nor in school. But
the number of youth served through WIOA is a shockingly small
fraction of those who need support to access jobs, and the
education, and training they need to succeed in them.
By failing to serve this population of youth in much
greater numbers, we squander an opportunity to harness the
potential of more than 4 million Americans who are at the very
beginning of their working lives. This is unacceptable.
The most important recommendation I can offer today to this
Committee is a simple one. We must substantially increase the
Federal investment in youth programming through WIOA to a level
that is commensurate with the scale of the barriers young
people are facing.
Beyond that, however, there are other changes that I
believe would improve the workforce system's ability to deliver
positive outcomes for young people. For example, I believe
Congress should take steps to reduce barriers to cooperation
between the public workforce system and other youth-serving
systems to reduce disconnection from school and ensure that
when students do drop out, information can be shared to
identify and reengage them quickly in the workforce system.
Anything we can do to reduce the time that young people
remain disconnected will help. Simplifying co-enrollment and
continuing self-attestation are two other ways we can do this
through WIOA. Cross system cooperation would also be greatly
aided by improved data system and enhanced data sharing
flexibilities. More granular data on program dimensions,
training provider performance, and longer-term program outcomes
would also help state and local leaders make informed decisions
about how to use their resources for the best possible results.
To make this possible, Congress should invest in state and
local data infrastructure and promote cross-system data
alignment. Research has shown that early career experiences
such as internships, apprenticeships, and jobs that pay good
wages can have positive effects on future earnings outcomes.
Under WIOA, the workforce system has placed more young
people in these experiences with positive results. To expand
these opportunities, Congress should establish a dedicated work
experience fund that provides additional resources to programs
that meet a set of quality criteria.
For example, eligible programs should include a training
component, lead to credentials, and provide a clear next step,
either to further training or directly to a job, and whether or
not they qualify for the fund. Congress should require youth
work experience provided through WIOA to be paid if it lasts
longer than 2 weeks.
Finally, Congress should preserve and expand the supportive
services available through WIOA. To address the needs of
today's youth, including mental health issues, WIOA supportive
services can provide a measure of stability and dignity to
young people so they can focus on improving their futures
rather than worrying about how to buy a uniform for work, if
they can afford treatment for a painful tooth, or paying the
rent.
For too many young adults in America today, the future is
bright, but the path to get there is long, expensive, and hard
to navigate. The public workforce system helps some of
America's most vulnerable young workers get on their feet and
onto a path toward economic security, but we can do better for
them and for all young people. And we need to, not just for
their sake, but for the sake of our communities and our future
economy as well. An ambitious approach to WIOA reauthorization
is a good start.
Thank you.
[The prepared statement of Ms. White follows.]
prepared statement of taylor white
[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
______
[summary statement of taylor white]
Ms. White's testimony makes the case for a bold approach to
reauthorizing the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) to
better serve youth. Ms. White's testimony will provide insight into how
youth are served through the public workforce system, why WIOA needs to
be modified to better serve them, and how Congress can change the law
to make this happen.
Key points will include:
In today's economy, young adults need access to high
quality career education, training, work experiences, mentoring
and support that help them gain a foothold in the labor market
and put them on a pathway to good jobs and careers.
Of the 39 million Americans between the ages of 16
and 24 years of age, 12.1 percent are neither employed, nor
enrolled in education or training programs. Called
``Opportunity Youth'' these youth face significant barriers to
employment. The cost of their disconnection is estimated to be
more than $3 billion annually.
The Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act supports
programs and resources that provide opportunities for our
Nation's most vulnerable youth to develop skills, earn
credentials, and obtain employment. Each year, WIOA-funded
youth programs support roughly 225,000 young people, the
majority of whom are disconnected from education and work. But
that's just 5 percent of the youth who would likely be eligible
to participate.
To dramatically increase the number of youth served
through the public workforce system and increase the quality of
support they receive, Congress should substantially increase
funding for youth through WIOA.
Congress should reduce barriers to cooperation with
other youth-serving systems and improve the coordination of
service delivery to reduce the risk of youth disconnection in
the first place.
To understand employment outcomes beyond 1 year (and
thus the longer-term benefits of work experiences and
training), Congress should invest in state and local data
infrastructure and promote cross-system data alignment.
To ensure young people are prepared for entry-level
jobs, over a third of which require some prior experience,
Congress should establish a fund to expand youth work
experiences, including pre-and registered apprenticeships,
while adopting quality criteria to increase the value of these
work experiences for youth and employers.
Finally, Congress should expand supportive services
to address the needs of today's youth, including mental health
issues, to ensure they have the resources they need to complete
training and work experiences and to transition successfully
into the labor market.
______
The Chair. Ms. White, thank you very much.
Our next witness is Dr. David Bradley, senior director of
policy and advocacy at Jobs for the Future. Prior to this role,
David worked at the Congressional Research Service as a
specialist in labor economics, focusing on labor issues and
Federal workforce development policies.
Dr. Bradley.
STATEMENT OF DAVID BRADLEY, PH.D., SENIOR DIRECTOR, JOBS FOR
THE FUTURE, WASHINGTON, DC
Dr. Bradley. Good morning, Chairman Sanders, Ranking Member
Cassidy, and Members of the Senate HELP Committee. My name is
David Bradley, I'm a senior director for workforce policy at
Jobs for the Future, which is a national nonpartisan, nonprofit
organization that has worked for more than 40 years to drive
change in America's workforce and education systems. Thank you
for the opportunity to testify, and thank you for your
leadership on this important issue.
My remarks today are going to focus on three areas. One,
why reauthorization now and what are the major characteristics
of WIOA, the current system, and finally, a few recommendations
for improving the system.
Why does WIOA need to be reauthorized? Now, I'm sure my
fellow panelists are going to give some additional reasons, but
I would highlight, as the Ranking Member pointed out, there are
more than 8 million job openings, and the number of unemployed
is lower than that. Employers do face difficulty finding
skilled workers.
In addition, there's persistent difficulty for individuals
with barriers to employment in attaining quality jobs. There's
going to be an expected increased demand for skilled workers,
in part, through the investments from the Infrastructure, CHIPS
and Science, and Inflation Reduction Acts. Since WIOA was
enacted in 2014, there's been a movement toward a skills-based
employment ecosystem, which has not been fully incorporated
into WIOA.
Finally, there's new and constantly involving technologies
that allow for new methods of training, delivery, and the use
of technology such as AI and job matching. Without focused
investments, we could miss an opportunity to increase
competitiveness and economic advancement for all.
Let me talk a little bit about history and characteristics
of WIOA. WIOA was enacted in 2014, and I want to go through
some of the defining elements of the system that we have now.
WIOA is designed to be demand-driven. That is, it's supposed to
be responsive to local conditions and employers' demands
through more than 500 local workforce areas.
WIOA emphasizes coordination and alignment through such
mechanisms as required unified state planning so that programs
are supposed to demonstrate that they're working together. WIOA
provides local control. Local workforce boards, for the most
part, are authorized to determine the specific mix of services
and types of training.
WIOA provides central points of service through the one-
stop delivery system, with more than 2,000 American Job Centers
throughout the country. WIOA also provides universal access to
career services, and has a priority of service for training
services to individuals with low incomes and others in need of
significant skills training.
WIOA emphasizes certain workforce development strategies
such as sector partnerships and career pathways that have
evidence-based outcomes behind them. WIOA also emphasizes
consumer choice, primarily through its system of individual
training accounts. WIOA has a performance accountability system
with six main indicators of outcomes, and these are common
across all titles of WIOA.
Finally, WIOA provides business services, including places
where employers can go to match with skilled workers, and where
the workforce system can provide needed services to business,
such as on-the-job and customized training plans.
Even with these elements, WIOA has not fully realized its
goals. One problem is funding. In Fiscal Year 2023, programs
and activities in the three major formula programs were funded
at just over $3 billion. This is about the same amount that
it's been funded since 2000, which is an inflation-adjusted
drop of about 50 percent.
What can be done to improve the system? One area would be
to modernize the way people navigate the labor market and
skills training; more robust career navigation, more strategies
like competency-based education, and prior learning assessments
to help people bring their experiences and translate that into
better labor market outcomes.
Another suggestion is to invest in evidence-based programs
that focus on the skill needs of employers. And there are
several evidence-based programs. We have sector strategies,
career pathways, apprenticeship, reentry programs.
Improving WIOA participant outcomes could also be a result
of reforming the performance system to encourage longer-term
engagement rather than shorter in and out and onto a job.
There's also room for improvement in the quality control
mechanisms for training providers. This is the eligible
training provider list. And finally, encouraging a focus on job
quality so that people that go through the system end up in a
good job.
JFF urges leaders in Congress to act and create a workforce
system that works for all where there are no dead ends to
economic opportunity. Thank you. I look forward to your
questions.
[The prepared statement of Dr. Bradley follows.]
prepared statement of david bradley
Good morning Chairman Sanders, Ranking Member Cassidy, and Members
of the Senate HELP Committee. My name is David Bradley. I am a Senior
Director for Workforce Policy at Jobs for the Future (JFF), a national,
nonpartisan nonprofit organization that has worked for over 40 years to
drive change in U.S. workforce and education systems to ensure that
every person can advance economically. At JFF, we've embraced an
ambitious goal as our North Star: In 10 years, 75 million people facing
systemic barriers to advancement will work in quality jobs. I want to
thank you for the opportunity to address the Committee on the
reauthorization of the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA).
Why Does WIOA Need to Be Reauthorized Now?
The backbone of America's economy is its workforce. 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 adequately
funded, modern, agile, equitable, resilient, and innovative enough to
keep up with the skill needs of individuals and employers.
We know that calls for reform are not new. Before joining JFF, I
worked as a specialist in labor economics at the Congressional Research
Service, where I worked closely with the Senate HELP and House
Education and Workforce Committees on the design of WIOA during
reauthorization in 2014. Today, economic changes resulting from the
pandemic and continuing technological advances require new action to
update WIOA to meet the needs of the current and future workforce.
It is now time for Congress to update and improve its primary
workforce development programs.
The labor market is constantly changing. The primary Federal
workforce development system should be updated more frequently to
address that reality.
There are currently 8.1 million job openings but only about 6.6
unemployed workers. \1\ While this gap has narrowed in the past couple
of years, there are still not enough skilled workers to meet employer
demand. In addition, worker shortage rates vary widely by state, which
means it is important to have state and local responses to different
labor market realities across the country. Many U.S. employers continue
to experience difficulty hiring workers with the skills they need to
fill open jobs.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\1\ Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), Job Openings and Labor
Turnover--April 2024 and The Employment Situation--May 2024.
In May 2024, employment increased by 272,000 jobs. Yet 6.6 million
people in the United States remain unemployed. Of those, 1.4 million
unemployed individuals are experiencing long-term unemployment, meaning
they have been out of work for 27 weeks or more. \2\ Beyond the
official unemployment count, an estimated 5.7 million people are not
included in official unemployment totals because they have stopped
looking for work, even though they want a job; another 4.4 million
people are not counted because they're working part-time but would
prefer a full-time job; \3\ and millions of workers are stalled in low-
paying jobs with limited opportunities for advancement. Many of these
workers are Black, Latino, or members of other populations facing
systemic barriers to economic advancement.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\2\ Ibid.
\3\ Ibid.
Labor shortages are likely to persist because the skills required
for quality jobs will also continue to change as a result of ongoing
technological advances and because recent policies--including those in
the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, the CHIPS and Science Act,
and the Inflation Reduction Act--are creating millions of new jobs that
need to be filled. The creation of new jobs combined with a tight labor
market should expand the number of career opportunities available to
members of populations that have long been excluded from such
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
opportunities.
The movement toward ``skills-based'' employment practices means
that WIOA must be updated to assist this important trend in the
employment ecosystem. Rather than using only degrees and credentials as
signals of qualification in the labor market, skills-based approaches
capture learning and mastery regardless of where the knowledge was
attained. The WIOA system can and should play a vital role in capturing
skill attainment, regardless of the format, to help individuals attain
quality jobs.
The pandemic necessitated a range of efforts to deliver employment
and training services in new and untested ways. While the labor market
has largely recovered from the devastating effects of the pandemic, it
is time for Congress to consider which of the developments in system
coordination and delivery should be codified in WIOA. For example,
changes in WIOA's requirement to have a physical One-Stop center in
every local workforce area might lead to better service delivery
through some mix of virtual and satellite services. Congress must also
consider the impact of technological advancements that will impact the
workforce. As artificial intelligence adoption becomes more widespread,
the task makeup of jobs will shift, often requiring workers to possess
new or different skills. The use of artificial intelligence also has
the potential to improve the efficiency of job matching and employment
practices generally.
Without focused investments and updates in workforce development,
the country could miss another opportunity to promote economic
advancement for all. In today's economy, most quality jobs require at
least some education and training beyond high school. However,
opportunities to acquire the skills and credentials that lead to
quality jobs and economic advancement haven't been equally accessible
to all workers. It's time to close the longstanding gaps that have
limited opportunities for people based on race, ethnicity, and
socioeconomic status.
History and Characteristics of WIOA Title I Programs--What Are the
Goals of WIOA?
The Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA; P.L. 113-28),
which succeeded the Workforce Investment Act of 1998 (P.L. 105-220), is
the primary Federal legislation that supports workforce development.
WIOA was enacted in 2014 to increase coordination and alignment among
Federal workforce development and related programs and to build on
system innovations already underway.
Title I of WIOA authorizes several state and national programs to
provide employment and training services and continues the One-Stop
system as a means of delivering and coordinating workforce development
activities.
At the outset, it is worth highlighting elements of WIOA that,
collectively, are intended to comprise a ``workforce development
system.'' WIOA's goal was to update the workforce development system
and refine some of the innovations of the Workforce Investment Act
(WIA) of 1998. Characteristics of the workforce system under WIOA
include:
WIOA is designed to be a demand-driven workforce
development system. This system is supposed to provide
employment and training services responsive to local area
employers' demands. The demand-driven nature of WIOA is
manifested in elements such as Workforce Development Boards
(WDBs), a majority of whose members must be representatives of
business, and in the requirement for local plans to identify
existing and emerging in-demand industry sectors and
occupations. There are approximately 550 local WDBs.
WIOA emphasizes coordination and alignment of
workforce development services through provisions such as a
required Unified State Plan for core programs and a common set
of performance indicators across most programs authorized by
WIOA. In addition, WIOA requires regional planning across local
areas.
WIOA provides local control to officials
administering programs under it. Under the state formula grant
portion of WIOA, which accounts for nearly 60 percent of total
WIOA Title I funding, most funds are allocated to local WDBs
(after initial allotment from the Employment and Training
Administration to the States) that are authorized to determine
the mix of service provision, eligible providers, and types of
training programs, among other decisions.
The WIOA system provides central points of service
through its One-Stop centers (identified as American Job
Centers). The concept of a One-Stop center is to provide a
single location for individuals seeking employment and training
services, thus making the process of locating and accessing
employment services more efficient and seamless. WIOA requires
certain programs to be ``partners'' in the One-Stop center,
either by physical colocation or other accessible arrangements.
Notably, WIOA requires the colocation of Employment Service
offices with One-Stop centers. There are approximately 2,300
American Job Centers.
WIOA provides universal access to its career services
to any individual regardless of age or employment status, but
it also provides priority of service for career and training
services to individuals with low incomes and people in need of
significant skills training.
WIOA emphasizes sector partnerships and career
pathways workforce development strategies by requiring local
WDBs to lead efforts to develop career pathways strategies and
to implement industry/sector partnerships with employers.
WIOA provides consumer choice to participants.
Participants determined to be eligible for training services
are provided with Individual Training Accounts (ITAs), with
which they may choose a type of training and the provider from
which to receive training.
WIOA implements a performance accountability system
based on primary indicators with state-adjusted levels of
performance resulting from negotiations between each state and
the Secretary of Labor and revised based on a statistical
adjustment model. The performance accountability system applies
across all titles of WIOA.
WIOA programs provide business services, including
places where employers can go to match with 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.
Even with these elements, the WIOA system has not fully realized
all its goals. There are still far too many individuals who are not
benefiting from WIOA's promise. In fiscal year 2023, programs and
activities for adults, dislocated workers, and youth under WIOA's
formula grants to states and local workforce areas were funded at just
$3.2 billion--a funding level that has been stagnant in nominal terms
since fiscal year 2000, and a decline of nearly 50 percent in
inflation-adjusted terms.
This level of funding is not adequate to meet all the promises in
the WIOA system, nor is the system currently designed to meet today's
extensive career navigation, skills development, and worker transition
needs as a stand-alone program.
In addition to the statutory requirements of WIOA, 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.
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.
Workforce Recommendations--What Needs to Change in WIOA?
The United States needs a workforce system that is adequately
funded, agile, and innovative enough to keep up with the skill needs of
America's workers and in-demand employers. To make that a reality,
Congress should take a holistic look at how workforce programs can be
modernized, aligned and funded to meet the needs of the U.S. economy
today and in the future. To accomplish this, we recommend the following
essential changes to the system's funding and design.
A Flexible, High-Quality Lifelong Learning System. Congress should
invest in training options that allow learners to progress at an
accelerated pace, award credit for prior learning, offer stackable
credentials that learners can accumulate as they move along career
pathways, and capture skills and credentials in skills ``passports'' or
``learning and employment records (LERs)'' that are recognized by
employers and across education and workforce systems. In addition to
changes in the delivery of services, JFF recommends that funding for
skills-based training in WIOA through ITAs (skill grants), high-quality
work-based learning (including apprenticeships), digital literacy,
sector-based training, and career pathways training strategies be
increased; and that Pell Grants be expanded to include high-quality
short-term credentialing programs.
Robust Career Navigation and Support Services. In addition to
skills development, career navigation and support services provided
under WIOA are critical for enabling participants to successfully
transition to new careers and advance on career pathways. Congress
should seek to maintain these critical services while encouraging
system modernization through the effective use of technology and other
strategies that result in a career navigation system that helps
students, parents, jobseekers, and workers make well-informed decisions
about the education, career, and employment pathways they choose. JFF
recommends that Congress encourage the provision of real-time labor
market information, skills assessments, skill matching, and access to
skills training, supports, and reemployment services through a blend of
virtual and in-person access points via American Job Centers and
affiliated sites such as community-based organizations, libraries,
community colleges, and K-12 guidance departments. This includes
working with employers committed to using skills-based hiring for
quality jobs.
Quality Education and Training. As demand for short-term learning
options increases among workers who need to continually build new
skills to keep pace with the demands of the labor market, Congress
should encourage the development of improved ways to measure the
quality of education and training programs. This includes making
improvements in WIOA's Eligible Training Provider List (ETPL) and
improvements in WIOA's performance measurement system to encourage
career pathways approaches to training. Regarding the ETPL, a
reauthorized WIOA should clarify that States are responsible for back-
end matching of system participants with wage records, should require
states to update the ETPL at least twice a year, and should specify
that local workforce boards have authority to deny funding to training
providers that do not provide quality services to participants.
Technology and Data. We need a workforce system that makes full use
of the latest technologies to expand and improve service delivery for
participants. We learned through the pandemic that technology-enabled
career navigation and training services can meet the needs of
jobseekers and in-demand employers. We recommend dedicated investments
for states and local workforce systems for the development and use of
these new technologies, including investments in professional
development for staff on their use. Congress should establish a Data
and Technology Transformation Fund to: fund direct work with employers
and national employer associations on multi-state training and
credentialing efforts; provide incentives to engage in cross-state and
multi-state initiatives such as the Workforce Data Quality Initiative
and the Statewide Longitudinal Data Systems Grant Program; and provide
funding to states and regional workforce systems to modernize state and
regional workforce data and technology efforts. This includes the
integration of technology such as artificial intelligence and machine
learning into job matching, career navigation, and training services at
American Job Centers and related providers.
Dedicate Funding for the Scaling of Evidence-Based Models and
Strategies. JFF recommends that dedicated funding be provided for
sector-focused career pathways and apprenticeship programs (including
pre-apprenticeships and youth apprenticeships). JFF also supports
codification of the Reentry Employment Opportunities (REO), the
Workforce Data Quality Initiative (WDQI), and the Strengthening
Community Colleges Grant (SCCG) programs.
Increase the Engagement of Employers. Congress can encourage the
involvement of employers in workforce development efforts through
support for strategies like sector partnerships and through business
services provided by local workforce boards to help employers identify
ways to improve job quality for their workers and to adopt skills-based
hiring practices for making employment decisions.
Meet the Needs of Individuals Experiencing Barriers. While WIOA
includes a priority for serving individuals facing barriers to
employment, more can be done to improve the outcomes of individuals who
experience the greatest barriers to employment. As noted above, JFF
recommends that Congress encourage the development and implementation
of career pathways, sector strategies, reentry initiatives serving
people who have been incarcerated, and other evidence-based strategies
that provide individuals experiencing barriers to employment with on-
ramps to skills training and credentials that lead to family supporting
careers. We also recommend that WIOA's performance measures be changed
to encourage career pathways approaches to training and that robust
career navigation and support services, including needs-based payments,
be available for individuals participating in pathways. We recommend
targeted investments in professional development for staff and members
of state and local boards on strategies that improve access and
outcomes for individuals who face barriers to employment. We also
recommend that states be required to identify a standardized self-
sufficiency calculation to be used for determining self-sufficiency
standards and wages for their state and their workforce regions so
local boards can strive to place jobseekers and workers in jobs that
either meet or have the potential to build toward self-sufficiency
wages.
Job Quality. Policymakers can encourage a focus on quality jobs
under WIOA by requiring that state and local boards consider job
quality in planning, employer services, and data reporting activities.
We recommend that Congress create a pilot program to test the
feasibility of capturing additional data about characteristics of jobs
in which people who exit WIOA are employed. We also recommend that
states and local boards be required to identify regional self-
sufficiency standards, as noted above, so local and regional boards can
better assess their progress toward meeting the goal of self-
sufficiency for participants. And we recommend that customized
training, incumbent worker training, and business services activities,
prioritize efforts that move workers into jobs that provide self-
sufficiency wages and other characteristics of quality jobs.
Value and Invest in Opportunity Youth. In April of this year, the
U.S. youth unemployment rate was 9.2 percent, with nearly 4.7 million
young people ages 16 to 24 who are both out of school and unemployed--
the population that many organizations and policymakers refer to as
``opportunity youth.'' \4\ More than one-third of these young people
are living in poverty.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\4\ ``Youth Disconnection in America,'' Measure of America,
https://www.measureofamerica.org/DYinteractive/ and Bureau of Labor
Statistics (BLS), The Employment Situation--May 2024.
Congress can help to address this need by significantly increasing
funding for youth programs under WIOA, and enhancing efforts to build
bridges that link disconnected youth and young adults to postsecondary
education, training, and employment. The workforce system should
embrace evidence-based strategies that work for this population and
expand opportunities for work-based learning, youth and pre-
apprenticeship, and employment opportunities that lead to in-demand
careers. JFF urges Congress to continue to prioritize out-of-school
youth in WIOA youth programs. However, we recognize the need to serve
young people who are still technically enrolled in school, but who are
at extreme risk of disconnection, so we support changes in the
definition of ``out-of-school'' to allow for the provision of
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
reengagement strategies for these young people.
Adequate Funding. While the above recommendations would result in
improvements to the U.S. workforce development system--to ensure a
future where all people can build the skills they need to find quality
jobs and advance economically and where all employers can hire the
talent they need to help their businesses thrive, Congress must invest
in skills development for workers and in needed transformations in the
Nation's workforce development system. The U.S. spends far less on
workforce development than other OECD countries. If funding for adult,
dislocated worker, and youth programs kept up with inflation over the
years, these programs would be funded at a minimum of $35 billion
today--more in line with funding for degree-bound students under Pell.
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. JFF's complete analysis, Recommendations for a Fully Funded and
Transformed Workforce Development System, can be found at https://
www.jff.org/idea/recommendations-for-a-fully-funded-and-transformed-
workforce-development-system/.
Conclusion
Now is the time to transform this country's workforce development
system. To do this, Congress must invest and make bold changes in the
country's education, workforce development, and economic development
systems that are necessary to ensure that the U.S. economy remains
strong and that workers of all backgrounds have the skills they need to
succeed.
By increasing resources for skills development, modernizing career
navigation and training services, providing necessary transition
assistance for learners and workers, involving employers in the design
and implementation of workforce development programs, and ensuring that
individuals facing barriers to employment have access to high-quality
services, we will make sure that all individuals, including members of
populations that have long been underserved by existing systems, can
achieve their full potential and drive our economy forward.
JFF urges leaders in Congress to act and create a workforce system
that works for all, where there are no dead ends to economic
opportunity.
______
[summary statement of david bradley]
Good morning Chairman Sanders, Ranking Member Cassidy, and Members
of the Senate HELP Committee. My name is David Bradley. I am a Senior
Director for Workforce Policy at Jobs for the Future (JFF), a national,
nonprofit organization that has worked for over 40 years to drive
change in America's workforce and education systems.
The backbone of America's economy is its workforce. 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.
However, without focused investments and updates in workforce
development, the country will miss the opportunity to promote U.S.
competitiveness and economic advancement for all. In today's economy,
most quality jobs require at least some postsecondary education and
training. However, opportunities to acquire the skills and credentials
that lead to quality jobs and economic advancement haven't been equally
accessible to all workers. It's time to close the longstanding gaps
that have limited opportunities for people based on race, ethnicity,
and socioeconomic status--and to address a long-standing problem
challenging U.S. employers--America's skills gap.
WIOA was designed to be demand-driven. It emphasizes the alignment
of workforce and partner programs. It is centered on the principles of
local control and in meeting the needs of dual customers--workers and
employers. It provides services through a One-stop delivery system;
provides training through individual training grants; emphasizes
customer choice in the selection of training services; and provides
career navigation and support services for individuals in need. WIOA
programs are held accountable through a performance measurement system
that looks at job placement, wages attained, job retention, credential
attainment, and educational progress as appropriate. The WIOA system
also provides services to local employers including skill matching,
employee recruitment, assistance with layoff aversion, and other
business services. Local workforce development boards play pivotal
strategic roles in the design of comprehensive workforce development
systems; engage with regional employers; lead initiatives including
career pathways and sector strategies; and leverage additional
resources.
Even with these elements, the WIOA system has not fully realized
all its goals. A major problem is that the system is underfunded. In
fiscal year 2023, programs and activities for adults, dislocated
workers, and youth under WIOA's formula grants to states and local
workforce areas were funded at just $3.2 billion--a level that has been
stagnant since fiscal year 2000, and a decline of nearly 50 percent in
inflation-adjusted terms.
JFF recommends the following changes to make the workforce system
more agile and responsive to the needs of America's workers and
employers: increase investments in the workforce; modernize the
delivery of skills training; develop a robust career navigation system;
create a lifelong learning system; protect workers during times of
transition; strengthen verification measures for program quality;
improve employer engagement; focus investments on placement in quality
jobs; improve outcomes for people with barriers; and increase
investments in and programming for ``opportunity youth.''
______
The Chair. Thank you. Senator Cassidy, do you want to
introduce your witness?
Senator Cassidy. Yes. I will introduce a good friend and
someone I've learned a lot with, Dr. Monty Sullivan, who has
served as the president of Louisiana Community and Technical
College Systems since 2014. Before then, Chancellor of Delgado
Community College in New Orleans, and a fierce leader for
Louisiana's 12 community colleges and the 150,000 students who
flow through their doors. Their mantra is, ``Start here, go
anywhere.'' A fitting theme for today's hearing.
Dr. Sullivan.
STATEMENT OF MONTY SULLIVAN, PH.D., SYSTEM PRESIDENT, LOUISIANA
COMMUNITY AND TECHNICAL COLLEGE SYSTEM BATON ROUGE, LA
Dr. Sullivan. Thank you, Senator. Good morning, Chairman
Sanders, Ranking Member Cassidy, Members of the HELP Committee.
I'm Monty Sullivan, president of the Louisiana Community and
Technical College System. I also serve as president of the
Rebuilding America's Middle Class, which is a coalition of
community colleges from across the Nation. I appreciate the
opportunity to address the Committee this morning.
Our Country's facing significant challenge in educating and
training our workforce. Our talent development system, largely
funded by WIOA and Pell Programs, is simply not keeping pace
with the modern economy and the needs of our employers.
Today, we have over 80 million, 1 in 3 working-age
Americans with a high school diploma or less. Imagine, a high
school diploma or less. Today's jobs and the jobs of the future
require more than a high school diploma. Very simply, without a
significant overhaul of the Nation's workforce system, these 80
million working-age adults are doomed to be frozen out of the
American middle class.
Two data points. 1 in 3 working age Americans are not
participating in the labor force. As you heard previously, in
Louisiana, 40 percent of our working-age adults are not engaged
in the workforce. Point two, a decreasing share of the American
population is part of the middle class. That's part of what we
believe is the American dream.
61 percent of Americans were considered part of the middle
class in 1971. In 2023, that number dropped to 51 percent. This
sobering data demonstrates that millions of Americans lack the
education, training they need to punch their ticket to the
middle class. Now's the time for the Committee to lead the way
in strengthening and reforming WIOA, and other Federal
education and training programs.
The current WIOA system is simply not meeting the needs of
employers seeking to find workers with industry-based specific
skills. This is evidenced by the fact that there are 8.1
million jobs that are vacant today.
Building an effective workforce system requires our
business partners to be at the table. I'm especially proud to
be with you today alongside Mr. Matthew Dickerson, an
incredible industry partner, committed to the long-term success
of our people. WIOA is largely failing to meet the needs of
many of our workers who have families, or single parents', or
others' responsibilities, including going to school.
Even with wraparound support services, however, these
students need flexible classes and programs that allow them to
complete. Very few have the time to complete an associate
degree. Most instead, need to get into the college, complete a
short-term certification and industry-based certification, get
out and go to work. That's when the role of the employer
becomes really important to help bring them into the future of
the economy.
While the data is stark, we're ready for change in
Louisiana. Governor Jeff Landry recently established the
Workforce and Social Services Reform Task Force. We're already
seeing momentum build behind the notion of eliminating silos
and fostering collaboration.
But for these efforts to really work, we're going to need
your help. The integration of our colleges into the wheel
structure has already taken place with institutions like South
Louisiana Community College that house the one-stops on their
campuses across eight parishes in South Central Louisiana.
In addition to that, you also have relationships with our
Louisiana Workforce Commission and institutions that extend
workforce services into communities that would not have those
services under different circumstances. The Committee has an
awesome opportunity before you to reauthorize and change the
path of America.
First recommendation, WIOA must fund more training. You've
heard that before. In 2022, less than 200,000 individuals
received direct training as a result of WIOA. Imagine the
numbers. 8 million vacancies, 200,000 people trained. The
appropriations for WIOA programs must be increased, no doubt,
but a much greater portion of those funds must be used for
training services. Herein is an opportunity to leverage the
Nation's more than 1,000 community colleges and the local
workforce boards to create more accessible and effective
workforce training systems.
Second, adult education serves more people than all of the
other titles of WIOA combined. Adult Education; we must fund
Adult Education. This is a forgotten population for many of us.
But the solution is not simply more money. Adult education
should be integrated with training and allows individuals to
gain a sustained career. Yes, young people are important, but
if we don't train their parents, what happens to the young
person when they go home?
Third, we need to empower workers with information about
which post-secondary education training options that are best
for them. In Louisiana, we developed a star rating system that
looks at demand for the occupation as well as income that helps
individuals to make decisions about their future and their
career. I also urge the Committee to require the use of
earnings and employment data in determining providers programs
that are available to the people of our area.
Last, thanks to the Committee for your keen focus on both
of the Nation's talent development funds, WIOA, and the Federal
Pell Program. I would be remiss if I did not urge the Committee
to give consideration to the passage of workforce Pell, expand
Pell to allow America the opportunity to be trained and
educated to go to work and be productive as a part of this
economy. Even with all of the WIOA improvements that we've
discussed that I've outlined here today, WIOA alone simply will
not get it done.
In closing, I'd like to ask that to imagine the countless
Americans trapped on the outside of this economy seeing the
successes of others. The erosion of the middle class has far-
reaching implications for the people, our communities, and our
democracy. The Committee has a chance to change lives this
Congress by re-imagining market-responsive, customer-focused
workforce training system. I cannot wait to see what we will
build together.
Thank you for the opportunity to be with you today.
[The prepared statement of Dr. Sullivan follows.]
prepared statement of monty sullivan
Good morning. I am Monty Sullivan, President of the Louisiana
Community and Technical College System, a market-aligned system of 12
public 2-year colleges graduating over 30,000 students annually. I also
serve as President of Rebuilding America's Middle Class, a Coalition of
Community Colleges that aims to rebuild America's middle class by
enhancing student success and by promoting the vital role of community
colleges. I appreciate the opportunity to address the Committee today
on ways to strengthen the broader workforce system by improving the
Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act.
Our Country is facing a significant challenge in educating and
training our Nation's workforce, both to meet the demands of employers,
but also to meet the dual challenges facing today's workers of time and
economics. Today, we have over 80 million working age adults in our
Nation that have only a high school diploma, or less. This means that
80 million or one in three of our working age adults do not have the
postsecondary education and training they need to acquire career
sustaining employment. Today's jobs and the jobs of the near and
distant future all require more than a high school diploma. Without
postsecondary education and training, these 80 million working age
adults are doomed to career tracks that lead to low-paying jobs that
often lead to a lifetime of struggle to provide for themselves and
their families.
We also just learned from a recent National Student Clearinghouse
report that 32 million Americans have attended some college and have
not earned a degree. Millions of Americans have sought a postsecondary
education but failed to complete the certificate or degree that
provides them a path to a better paying job and fulfilling career.
Moving to the employment data picture, our Nation has experienced
some of its lowest unemployment rates in history. However, that metric
fails to capture the real story behind the data. The Bureau of Labor
Statistics calculates the Labor Force Participation Rate, or the number
of people in the labor force as a percentage of the civilian
noninstitutional population 16 years old and over. In other words, it
is the percentage of the population that is either working or actively
seeking work. In May 2024, the Labor Force Participation Rate was cited
at 62.5 percent--meaning more than one in three American working age
adults are not participating in the labor force. In Louisiana, the
Labor Force Participation Rate lags the Nation at 58.6 percent.
Meanwhile, there are thousands of available jobs that require skills
and education beyond a high school diploma.
This is sobering data that demonstrates that millions of Americans
are being left behind economically by lacking the post high school
education and training they need to punch their ticket to the middle
class. For these millions of Americans and our Nation's economic
vitality, now is the time to improve how the Federal Government
supports education and training. This Committee can lead the way in
that effort by passing legislation that strengthens and reforms WIOA
and other Federal education and training programs.
At the outset of my remarks, I mentioned challenges facing
employers and workers. Employers consistently are challenged to find
employees with the education and training they need for specific
occupations. Even with what is historically low unemployment nationally
and some progress on reducing unfilled job openings in the past year,
the Bureau of Labor Statistics tells us that there are 8.1 million
unfilled jobs in this country right now. Employers have openings for
high-paying jobs that they cannot fill.
When I mention the challenges facing workers, I cited both economic
and time challenges. The economic challenge I am referring to is the
need for a worker to secure employment that provides them with the
earnings needed to support themselves and their family. Unfortunately,
we have had a drop in the percentage of Americans that are considered
``middle-class'' since 1971. According to an analysis by the Pew
Research Center, 61 percent of Americans were considered part of the
middle class in 1971. In 2023, just 51 percent of Americans are
considered middle class. We need to rebuild our middle class in this
country, and the single best way to do that is to ensure our Nation's
workers have the education and training they need to obtain and
maintain career sustaining employment.
The time challenge facing American workers is directly related to
the fact that 80 million working age Americans have a high school
diploma or less. Many of these individuals have families, are single
parents, and/or must work while trying to acquire a postsecondary
credential or degree. These complexities in their lives mean these
individuals need wraparound services that allow them to have any chance
of completing education and training programs. These essential services
include child care, nutrition assistance, reliable and affordable
transportation and even housing aid.
Even with these wraparound supports, however, education and
training providers need to meet these students where they are in their
lives. They need classes that take place online or around their work
schedules. They need certificate or degree programs options that can be
completed over months and not years, especially as many working age
adults need to attend a postsecondary institution part time due to work
and family obligations. An education and training program structure
that meets these needs can help bring the 80 million working age adults
with a high school degree back into the system and back on the path to
the middle class. The same applies to the 32 million adults without a
postsecondary credential or degree--these supports can help them
succeed at what they started. This is simply an imperative--for the
economic betterment of our Nation, and most importantly, to reestablish
a dominant middle class in America.
In Louisiana, we are ready for change. Right now, we are embarking
on an ambitious program to improve the functioning of our workforce and
social services systems, aimed directly at lessening the generational
poverty that so profoundly hinders our people from achieving the
American Dream. Governor Jeff Landry established the Workforce and
Social Services Reform Task Force a few weeks ago through executive
order. We are already seeing momentum build behind its mission of
eliminating siloes and fostering collaboration, with the consolidation
of WIOA and Wagner-Peyser services into two rural campuses of our
community colleges. We have a long history of delivering SNAP
Employment and Training programs through our community colleges, and we
are expanding those collaborations to the programs administered by the
Louisiana Workforce Commission. We are embarking on new partnerships
between industry associations and state entities to address critical
needs in healthcare and industrial construction. We are working across
all levels of the education system, and with the administrators of all
social safety net programs, to get our people what they need to truly
prosper. And with the signing of the Louisiana Legislature's Act 330
just last week, we ensured that the Secretary of the Louisiana
Workforce Commission not only has the accountability, but the clear
authority, to direct the state's collective workforce strategy to drive
economic growth and move our people from dependence to independence. We
are ready to go, but for these efforts to really work, we are going to
need your help.
The Committee has an awesome opportunity before the end of this
Congress to begin to address these challenges by reauthorizing and
improving the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act. WIOA was last
reauthorized in 2014, a decade ago. Our economy and the needs of
workers and employers have not stood still over that time. From our
perspective in Louisiana, several critical improvements to WIOA are
needed to meet the needs of a 2024 employer and worker.
First, WIOA must fund more training services than it presently
does. Only 175,831 individuals received training services under WIOA in
program year 2022. This is a drop in the bucket for what is supposed to
be the Federal Government's premier training program. As a point of
contrast, six million Pell grants were provided to students under the
Higher Education Act for the 2022-2023 academic year; these grants have
led to far more training opportunities for qualified individuals, are
far easier to access and provide much more significant support. The
appropriations for WIOA formula programs should be increased, but a
much greater share of those funds should be used for training services
in conjunction with the critical wraparound services that make it
possible to utilize such training services. One specific example of
provisions that should be reconsidered to allow for greater flexibility
for training more Americans is to use a broadened definition and
approach to the dislocated worker programs. The economic and social
implications of the COVID-19 pandemic should serve as a reminder that
the current guidelines fall short of serving the needs of our
communities, our people and our employers.
Second, WIOA requires Governors to identify eligible training
providers to provide training services under WIOA. For too long,
becoming an eligible training provider has not focused enough on what
we know is critical--that education and training programs provide
pathways to high wage jobs that economically sustain individuals and
families and that meet the needs of employers and local economies. The
Committee has an opportunity to require the use of earnings and other
outcomes data to be more selective about which providers and programs
are eligible to provide WIOA training services. The American community
college is the entity best suited to solve the workforce challenges of
our Nation. Yet, historically public community colleges are an under-
utilized resource by the WIOA training enterprise. Fundamentally, we
should encourage strong integrated partnerships between workforce
boards and their local community colleges. At the same time, as we are
increasing our reliance on data, the selection of eligible training
providers should not be an exercise in red tape and bureaucracy.
Third, we must put Adult Education programs front and center in how
we support and fund WIOA programs. The 80 million working age adults
that I mentioned earlier often need adult education services to put
themselves into a position to benefit from career and training services
under WIOA. Adult education programs in our Nation service more people
than all other WIOA titles combined. Very simply, funding for Adult
Education programs under WIOA should reflect this fact.
Fourth, we need to empower workers with information about which
postsecondary education and training options work best for them. In
Louisiana, we use a star system that lets individuals know whether a
training program leads to an in-demand and high-paying job. Five stars
means that the program is both high demand and high wage as compared to
other jobs in the economy. Louisiana is home to a vast number of
manufacturing facilities along the Mississippi River. A key job in
nearly all of these facilities is the Process Operator--an individual
responsible for keeping production going. That occupation is highest
demand and highest wage. Two stars might mean that it is in-demand but
does not provide high wages. An example of a high demand occupation
with marginal earnings is Early Childhood Education Teacher and both
positions are jobs that an individual can be prepared for at a public
community college. Establishing a simple way for individuals to gain
actionable information and understand whether a program leads to
multiple high-paying job opportunities empowers them to meet their
economic and employment needs. This concept of the star rating system
would be useful for the Committee to incorporate into changes in
determining eligible training providers. It is important, however, that
tools like this and their assessment of what is in demand and high
paying be locally controlled and designed to reflect local and regional
economies in states and communities.
Fifth, individuals seeking services through the WIOA system should
expect that this system will provide options that work for them. There
should not be a ``wrong door to enter'' within the WIOA system; rather,
the options provided should lead individuals to the careers, training
and/or wraparound services needed for success. I would urge the
Committee to ensure that the eligibility for career, training and/or
wraparound services under WIOA are harmonized across one-stop partner
programs with an eye toward bringing in other Federal means tested
programs in the future.
The Committee truly has a chance to change lives this Congress by
improving WIOA. In closing, I ask each of you to pause for a moment and
imagine the young child born this year in some of the poorest parts of
America-in the Mississippi River Delta or in Appalachia or those on
tribal lands. How will we, as a Nation, ensure those children can grow
up with the opportunity to live the American Dream each of us has been
part of throughout our lives. Without an effective education and
training enterprise, the future for those children is even more bleak
as adults than the struggles they will feel as children. The erosion of
the American Middle Class has far-reaching implications for our people,
our communities and our Nation. Time is of the essence. Thank you for
the opportunity to testify and I am happy to respond to any questions
that you might have.
______
[summary statement of monty sullivan]
Our Country is facing a significant challenge in educating and
training our Nation's workforce to meet the demands of employers, but
also to meet the dual challenges facing today's workers of time and
economics. Over 80 million working age adults in our Nation have only a
high school diploma, or less. Today's jobs and the jobs of the near and
distant future all require more than a high school diploma.
This lack of postsecondary education is coupled with low labor
participation rates. The current Labor Force Participation Rate tells
us that more than one in three American working age adults are not
participating in the labor force. In Louisiana, this is 58.6 percent.
There are currently 8.1 million unfilled jobs in this country, but many
require more than a high school diploma.
The percentage of Americans that are considered ``middle-class''
has dropped since 1971. 61 percent of Americans were considered part of
the middle class in 1971 and in 2023 it was just 51 percent. Millions
of Americans lack the post high school education and training they need
to punch their ticket to the middle class. Education and training
leading to career sustaining employment is the solution to rebuild our
middle class.
American workers are facing a time challenge in that they have
families, are single parents, and/or must work while trying to acquire
a postsecondary credential or degree. These complexities require
wraparound services and education, and training providers need to meet
these students where they are with certificate and degree programs
options that can be completed over months rather than years.
In Louisiana, we are embarking on an ambitious program to improve
the functioning of our workforce and social services systems, aimed
directly at lessening generational poverty. Governor Jeff Landry
established the Workforce and Social Services Reform Task Force, and we
are embarking on new health care and industrial construction
partnerships between industry associations and state entities. We are
working across all levels of the education system, and all social
safety net programs, to get people what they need to truly prosper. We
are ready to go, but for these efforts to really work, we are going to
need your help.
The Committee can begin to address these challenges by
reauthorizing and improving WIOA.
First, WIOA must fund more training services. Only 175,831
individuals received training services under WIOA in 2022 compared to 6
million Pell grants provided to students under the Higher Education Act
for the 2022-2023 year. The appropriations for WIOA formula programs
should be increased, with a greater share used for training services in
conjunction with wraparound services.
Second, the Committee has an opportunity to require the use of
earnings and other outcomes data in order to be more selective about
which providers and programs are eligible to provide WIOA training
services. This should be done while minimizing red tape, an all-too-
common problem with the current system.
Third, adult education programs in our Nation service more people
than all other WIOA titles combined. Funding for Adult Education
programs under WIOA should reflect this fact.
Fourth, we need to empower workers with information about which
postsecondary education and training options work best for them. In
Louisiana, we use a star system that lets individuals know whether a
program leads to an in-demand and high-paying job. Individuals need a
simple way to gain actionable information about whether a program leads
to multiple high-paying job opportunities and any such system should be
locally controlled and designed to reflect local and regional
economies.
Fifth, individuals seeking services through the WIOA system should
expect that this system will provide options that work for them. There
should not be a ``wrong door to enter'' within the WIOA system; rather,
the options provided should lead individuals to the careers, training
and/or wraparound services needed for success.
______
The Chair. Thank you, Dr. Sullivan.
Our next witness is Dr. Lisa Bly-Jones, the CEO of the
Chicago Jobs Council, where she leads the organization's
capacity building, member engagement and policy advocacy work.
She has previously led workforce development projects for
public and private entities by developing occupational and
sectoral training programs that convene partners from across
the workforce system.
Dr. Jones, thanks for being with us.
STATEMENT OF LISA BLY-JONES, PH.D., CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER,
CHICAGO JOBS COUNCIL (CJC), CHICAGO, IL
Dr. Bly-Jones. Chairman Sanders, Ranking Member Cassidy,
and Members of the Committee, thank you for the opportunity to
testify today on the importance of upgrading our public
workforce system.
My name is Dr. Lisa Bly-Jones, and I am CEO of the Chicago
Jobs Council, a workforce development intermediary in Chicago,
Illinois, that develops tools, resources, and offers training
to build capacity for workforce organizations, and set
priorities for policy advocacy and member engagement.
I am honored to be here today to contribute to the
conversation. Our work at CJC prioritizes policies that build
transformative relationships between people and systems,
focusing on equitable access, providing quality jobs, and
removing funding obstacles that inhibit progress. WIOA
reauthorization offers a critical opportunity to scale what is
working in Illinois and supplement the work we are doing to
ensure that workers can access the skills they need for the
jobs which businesses are hiring for.
First, Congress should fund WIOA commiserate with need when
factoring inflation. Congress has steadily cut investments in
workforce programs over the past 20 years. While I recognize
this Committee does not appropriate funding, it plays a key
role in advocating for the funding levels that should be set.
In recent polling commissioned by National Skills Coalition, 82
percent of voters indicated support for increasing government
funding for skills training.
Given the public support for increasing funding and growing
demand, WIOA should include authorized funding levels that
match current and future needs. This Committee can also support
expanding Pell Grant eligibility to students enrolled in short-
term, high-quality training programs. Many students enrolled in
these programs would qualify for Federal higher education grant
aid based on income, if not for program eligibility
limitations.
Second, Congress should support industry or sector
partnerships that help businesses engage in the public
workforce system and career pathways that ensure worker and
student success. WIOA requires a stronger connection to
employers. Each local community has a local economy, and
employers in those communities are best able to identify
industry trends, and skills, and training needs.
It's critical to involve employers on the front end and
establish industry or sector partnerships that bring together
local businesses and other stakeholders to develop workforce
strategies and provide training and services that supports area
demand. This is especially valuable for small and medium-sized
businesses.
Industry partnerships can also support access to career
pathways that connect progressive levels of education,
training, supportive services, and credentials throughout an
individual's career.
Although WIOA require states and local workforce boards to
support partnerships, it does not contain targeted funding.
WIOA reauthorization should establish grants to develop and
maintain industry and sector partnerships and separately
support career pathways development.
Additionally, Congress should support participant needs to
ensure they can enter, succeed in, and become employed after
quality training programs. The House-passed ASWA requires that
50 percent of funding be allocated to training, presenting two
challenges for Illinois. First, it prioritizes cost over
participants. If there is a minimum measure to ensure more
workers are getting training, then the proposal should include
the flexibility. States need to define what that measurement
is.
Second, it neglects support services and career navigation
for workers with the greatest economic need. The distinction
between entering training and completing is usually unexpected
costs associated with childcare, transportation, or challenge
with career navigation.
Career coaching and navigation services are increasingly
important for advancing equity and addressing barriers. 2021
CJC report identified that 6 months or a year is not enough
time for people who have experienced trauma such as mental
illness, homelessness, or incarceration to seamlessly
transition back into the workforce.
Congress should focus on ensuring that there are sufficient
resources to support training expenditures, including all
related cost, support services, and staff assistance. CJC also
partners with reentry organizations working on behalf of
justice-involved individuals to ensure that they do not face
permanent punishments because of criminal records. WIOA must
similarly connect justice-impacted individuals to work because
we know there's dignity in work.
Finally, Congress should capture data on participant
outcomes and success in the future. WIOA should disaggregate
training performance outcomes by race, ethnicity, gender, and
other demographic or socioeconomic factors, and expand
performance indicators to include quality credential
attainment, longer employment and wage outcomes, occupation-
specific job placement, and measures on job quality.
I am grateful for the opportunity to provide testimony
today, and I look forward to answering any questions you may
have.
[The prepared statement of Dr. Jones follows.]
prepared statement of lisa bly-jones
Introduction
Chairman Sanders, Ranking Member Cassidy and Members of the
Committee, thank you for the opportunity to testify today on the
importance of upgrading our public workforce system. My name is Dr.
Lisa Bly-Jones, and I am CEO of the Chicago Jobs Council (CJC), a
workforce development intermediary in Chicago, Illinois. I lead an
organization that develops tools, resources and offers training to
build capacity for workforce organizations and set priorities for an
annual policy advocacy and member engagement. Prior to this role, I was
the executive director of The Workforce Connection, a local workforce
board in Rockford, Illinois, where I was responsible for leadership and
implementation of strategic workforce development initiatives in
partnership with the mayor and other elected officials. Over the more
than 20 years I have worked in workforce development and held a variety
of roles across the spectrum of organizations and community colleges
that help workers access skills necessary to enter good jobs.
I am also a beneficiary of our workforce development system myself.
When I graduated high school, my family wasn't able to afford college.
I got my first job through the Mayor's office of workforce development.
I interviewed and landed a quality job that offered tuition
reimbursement as a benefit. I took general educational courses at Loop
College and completed my course work and graduated from Moraine Valley
Community College. I will always remember the care and concern from
faculty who understood the complexities of students who work full-time
while pursuing their education. Their commitment to student success set
me on a career path that fit my strengths and established a good
foundation for me to pursue all of my educational and professional
goals. These include a terminal degree and being the CEO of an
organization that allows me to advocate for others who I understand,
because I've had some similar experiences along the way to arriving
here. I'm humbled and honored to be here and contribute to today's
conversation to help this Committee better understand what workers,
businesses, communities and our Country's needs.
My organization, Chicago Jobs Council keeps jobseekers at the
center of all we do. CJC is keenly focused on honoring the full
humanity of workers who are seeking economic security and we facilitate
transformative relationships to address the larger economic system. To
do this, we bring together workforce leaders from public agencies,
businesses, community and technical colleges, workforce boards and
community based organizations.
We convene a state-wide coalition every year, the Illinois Skills
for Good Jobs Coalition that advocates for legislation that embodies 4
Workforce Policy Pillars:
(1) Dedicate state funding for workforce training using a
racial and gender equity lens,
(2) Promote policies that eliminate structural employment
barriers disproportionately faced by people of color, foreign-
born workers, and women in Illinois,
(3) Ensure that no Illinoisan--regardless of race, gender, age,
or nationality--lives in poverty by promoting good jobs and a
strong safety net and
(4) Increase research, data sharing, and transparency across
state agencies that touch education and workforce training to
identify and address equity gaps in our public investments.
Illinois Workforce Overview
Illinois has one of the highest unemployment rates in the country
overall and the unemployment rate for Black men and women is nearly
double that of the state's overall unemployment rate standing at around
9.5 percent. \1\ And yet, Illinois has 385,000 job openings in March
and one of the highest job openings rates in the country. \2\ These
measures usually run in opposing directions. The fact that both the
unemployment rate and the job openings rate run high relative to the
rest of the Nation suggests a sizable skills mismatch between the
skills that workers currently have and those that employers require for
the jobs that they are working to fill.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\1\ https://www.bls.gov/web/laus/laumstrk.htm; https://
www.bls.gov/lau/ptable14full23.pdf.
\2\ https://www.bls.gov/news.release/jltst.t01.htm; https://
www.bls.gov/charts/state-job-openings-and-labor-turnover/state-job-
openings-rates.htm#.
On top of that, generation defining investments in clean energy,
semiconductors and building and infrastructure has put an even more
intense demand on workers and businesses. These investments are
expected to create 3 million jobs each year and nearly 70 percent of
these jobs will be available to workers without a bachelor's degree.
However, additional training beyond a high school diploma will be
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
essential for workers to access these opportunities. \3\
\3\ National Skills Coalition, Unprecedented Opportunity: Meeting
the Workforce Demands of New Clean Energy, Manufacturing, and
Infrastructure Investments-National Skills Coalition.
In the State of Illinois, as a member of the Illinois Clean Jobs
Coalition, CJC was a key partner in helping to pass the Climate and
Equitable Jobs Act (CEJA) which aims to invest in Illinois to mitigate
the impacts of climate change, move to clean power sources, reduce
energy costs, and support communities and workers. The law importantly
provides over $80 million annually for workforce development and
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
contractor programs in disadvantaged communities.
Investments in infrastructure and energy present an immense
opportunity for workers in Illinois and nationwide. Paired with the
employment picture there is a growing need to support workforce
training and supportive services through our workforce system in order
to effectively seize these opportunities. States and localities are
working to address growing training demands but a much larger Federal
commitment is required.
What CJC/IL Have Done to Address These Challenges
Chicago Jobs Council collaborates with partners across the state to
ensure that, as our economy adapts to a changing climate and both state
and Federal investments are implemented, groups who have traditionally
been economically disadvantaged are now able to benefit from these
efforts and gain access to the newly created jobs.
In 2020, we released a report entitled Building Pathways to Clean
Energy Jobs in Illinois, which highlights the importance of investing
in the future clean energy workforce as part of public investments in
clean energy infrastructure. The report is informed by interviews with
clean energy employers, workforce development practitioners, policy
experts, and uses publicly available labor market and job posting
information to illustrate how the state can effectively invest in
workforce development so that people marginalized by racism, sexism,
and environmental injustice can directly access [clean energy] jobs,
advance within green industries, and benefit from public investments in
clean energy. \4\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\4\ https://static1.squarespace.com/static/
63a0838721aff66b22dd2598/t/63a0986c2f41ed099d83a59c/1671469164785/
Building-Pathways-to-Clean-Energy-Jobs-in-Illinois-March-2021.pdf.
Clean energy continues to be an area of focus for CJC due to the
immense opportunity it poses, At the same time, we are working closely
with partners to improve the workforce system, increase funding into
the system, expand pathways for job seekers and eliminate barriers to
accessing good jobs.
What Still Needs to be Done on WIOA
While Illinois has worked to address the needs of our workers and
businesses as best we can, we rely on Federal policy and investments.
WIOA reauthorization offers a critical opportunity to scale what is
working in Illinois to other states and to supplement the work we are
doing to ensure that Illinois workers--and workers across the country--
can access the skills they need and for which businesses need to hire.
The workforce system should prioritize every worker's future
financial stability, career pathway, and economic security. It must
honor the humanity of all people, be inclusive and address the larger
economic system. Our work prioritizes policies that build
transformative relationships between people and systems, focusing on
equitable access, providing quality jobs, and removing funding
obstacles that inhibit progress.
Congress should fund WIOA commensurate with need.
Structuring funding at the Federal and state level that is
consistent, adaptable and relevant to the changing needs of the economy
safeguards everyone's professional progress, no matter what situational
changes they encounter during their careers. Yet, one of the most
consistent calls we hear from partners is the need for more funding for
the programs under WIOA to better meet demand.
Indeed, underlying many of the opportunities to improve WIOA so
that it better serves all stakeholders is the need for Congress to
consistently invest more in programs that support skills and supportive
services so that more people can access training programs that lead to
family sustaining wages, and more businesses can hire skilled workers
for in-demand jobs. When factoring inflation, Congress has steadily cut
investments in workforce programs, Career and Technical Education, and
adult education programs over the past 20 years. \5\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\5\ https://nationalskillscoalition.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/
05/NSC-LegislativeAgenda-118Congress.pdf.
While I recognize this Committee does not appropriate funding, as
the authorizing committee, the Health Education Labor, and Pensions
Committee plays a key role in advocating for the funding levels that
should be set each year. Levels proposed in the House passed A Stronger
Workforce for America Act continue this troubling trend of under-
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
investment.
This Committee can also support investments in training by
expanding Pell Grant eligibility to students enrolled in short-term
high-quality training programs that help businesses fill open jobs and
help workers access career pathways. Many students enrolled in these
programs would qualify for Federal higher education grant aid based on
income if not for program eligibility limitations. The Jobs Act has the
capacity to allow for rapid upskilling of workers by lowering the time
threshold for Pell Grant eligibility to programs that are at least 150
clock hours and 8 weeks in length. The JOBS Act would also institute a
number of accountability standards that tie programmatic eligibility
for these shorter-term programs to quality metrics.
Investing in skills training is popular with the public. In recent
polling, 82 percent of voters indicated support increasing government
funding for skills training in America. \6\ Given the public's strong
support for increasing government funding and the growing need lifted
up by our partners, this Committee should demonstrate a stronger
commitment to WIOA programs as you work to craft legislation to ensure
that authorized funding levels match current and future demand.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\6\ https://nationalskillscoalition.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/
05/NSC-PublicPerspectives-TopFindings-Brief.pdf.
Congress should support industry or sector partnerships that help
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
businesses engage in the public workforce system.
With WIOA there is a lot of emphasis on individuals, but we are
responsible to local employers and there needs to be an increase in
funding to better support business-related activities, like sector
strategies and sector partnerships. Each local community has a local
economy and employers in those communities are best able to identify
what skills and training are needed and what trends are emerging in a
given industry. We never want to train people for jobs that no longer
exist or have declined while we're working on developing training
programs. It's critical to involve employers on the front end to ensure
that does not happen. Industry or sector partnerships bring together
local businesses, unions and worker organizations, community colleges,
training providers, and community organizations to develop industry-
specific workforce strategies and provide training that supports local
and regional demand.
These sector partnerships also allow us to become educated about
the industry, the numerous occupations that may exist within a sector
and better positions the community to create progressive pathways that
lead to sustainable careers. Established sector partnerships provide
real-time conversations and innovation to pivot where needed based on
emerging needs and keeping pace with technological advances. Localized
collaboration supports employers in their recruitment and retention
efforts to build a diverse workforce within their industry. Such
partnerships are especially valuable for small and medium-sized
businesses, which often lack the resources to develop independent
programs. Instead, they can collaborate with other local employers to
leverage collective strengths. These partnerships also provide an entry
point for employers to engage with the workforce system in a role that
goes beyond placing workers into jobs.
Although the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act requires
states and local workforce boards to support sector partnerships as a
method of workforce improvement at both the state and local levels,
this policy does not contain targeted funding critical to realizing the
impact these partnerships can have on businesses, workers and
communities. Legislative provisions that provide dedicated grant
funding to establish industry and sector partnerships and support
ongoing convening as well as activities including training and
supportive services for works should be included in a WIOA
reauthorization. Legislative texts such as the Promoting
Apprenticeships through Regional Training Networks for Employers
Required Skills (PARTNERS) Act and Building U.S. Infrastructure by
Leveraging Support for Skills (BUILDS) Act could serve as models for a
reauthorization package. Both bills establish grant programs that
support partnership convening and maintenance activities and support
training and workers access to training, education, and supportive
services.
Congress should support robust career pathways that ensure student
and worker success.
One of the key benefits of industry partnerships discussed above is
providing workers with access to career pathways. Thoughtful design
around career pathways can help ensure that all workers, no matter
where they start, have the opportunity to advance to good jobs. Career
pathways connect progressive levels of education, training, supportive
services and credentials throughout an individual's career. Career
pathways should include high quality industry recognized credentials
that are stackable--they articulate toward a higher level of
certificate or degree-and portable so that they are recognized beyond a
single employer if individuals change jobs.
Career pathways strategies developed in tandem with industry and
sector partnerships can provide a systemic approach to expanding
training opportunities that can increase economic mobility for large
numbers of workers in a sector.
The Gateways to Careers Act includes language that helps develop
the systemic connection between education providers and industry sector
partnerships through grant funding that can be used to develop or
expand programs that support career pathways, support services, and the
acquisition of equipment. Similar language could be included in a WIOA
reauthorization to provide dedicated support to career pathways.
Congress should support needs of participants to ensure they can
enter, succeed in and become employed after quality training programs.
CJC works to improve the policies in workforce development that
increase job access, provide wraparound workforce and employment
benefit services, improve skill-building programs, and foster quality
job creation that benefits those who need it the most.
Demand for training continues to increase and will be impacted
further by increasing the need for workers in the clean energy and
infrastructure sectors. Despite growing demand, funding for training
programs is not increasing. Private and philanthropic which is often
the most flexible funding for workforce programs is inconsistent which
makes reliable, robust funding for WIOA critical. \7\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\7\ https://static1.squarespace.com/static/
63a0838721aff66b22dd2598/t/63a0987639ba57582d347355/1671469174913/
Supportive-Services-Summary-Report-Sept-2021-FINAL.pdf.
One way the House passed ASWA addressed this challenge is to
require 50 percent of funding to be spent on training. This proposal
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
creates two challenges in a state like Illinois.
First, it prioritizes costs over participants. If there is a
minimum measure to ensure more workers are getting quality training
that leads to good jobs, then the proposal should include the
flexibility states need to define what that measurement is. Second, the
proposal excludes things like support services or career navigation
from the calculation. For workers with the greatest economic need, the
difference between entering training and actually being able to
complete it is usually unexpected costs associated with childcare,
transportation or challenge with career navigation. Restricting funds
used on those strategies will not lead to more people getting to
training, it will lead to more people being unable to complete
training.
Instead, the Congress should focus on ensuring that training
expenditures include all training related costs in the calculation,
including wrap-around supportive services and staff assistance costs to
meet the needs of jobseekers and businesses.
Technology is increasingly prevalent at all career levels and
across industries. Indeed, recent research shows that 92 percent of
jobs require digital skills and that number is expected to increase. At
the same time, only two-thirds of workers have the foundational digital
skills necessary to enter and thrive in today's jobs. \8\ Workers and
businesses require digital skills support especially related to
upskilling opportunities for workers who are on the job and reskilling
opportunities for those who have lost jobs. A reauthorization of WIOA
should include language similar to the Digital Skills for Today's
Workforce Act which would establish a formula grant program for states
to develop digital skills training programs as well as provide funding
to support digital equity among individuals who face barriers to
employment and who have been historically underrepresented.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\8\ https://nationalskillscoalition.org/news/press-releases/new-
report-92-of-jobs-require-digital-skills-one-third-of-workers-have-low-
or-no-digital-skills-due-to-historic-underinvestment-structural-
inequities/.
While training is crucial for workers to secure good jobs, it's
often equally or more important to address and remove the barriers that
hinder individuals from completing their training or retaining
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
employment.
In 2021, the Chicago Jobs Council released Supportive Services:
Lessons Learned from the Field which outlines the importance of
expanding and enhancing supportive services within workforce
development programs to address systemic barriers to employment,
particularly for groups that have been marginalized. This includes
childcare, housing, and transportation, which are essential for
securing and maintaining employment as well as mental health services
which have become increasingly important following the pandemic.
In that report, contributors identified that ``six months or a year
is not enough time for people who have experienced trauma, such as
mental illness, homelessness, or incarceration, to seamlessly
transition back into the workforce'' and that ``losing supportive
services during the gap of time between when a client becomes employed
and gets their first paycheck can make it hard for participants to meet
their own needs.'' \9\ Congress can ensure that there are sufficient
resources to allow supportive services to extend past probationary
employment periods in order to help give participants more time to
adjust and settle into jobs. Language in the BUILDS Act could serve as
a model for these efforts as the legislative text includes provisions
to provide support to workers in the pre-employment stage and for as
much as a year into a job.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\9\ https://static1.squarespace.com/static/
63a0838721aff66b22dd2598/t/63a0987639ba57582d347355/1671469174913/
Supportive-Services-Summary-Report-Sept-2021-FINAL.pdf.
Reliable transportation is a frequent barrier for individuals that
is important to highlight. While this includes financial support for
bus passes, it can also include support for those who have had their
licenses suspended due to parking ticket debt, based on excessive fines
and fees. Chicago Jobs Council was a critical voice in a campaign in
Illinois ensure that individuals are able to drive to work regardless
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
of their ability to pay tickets and traffic fines.
America needs a dynamic and inclusive workforce system equipped to
address long-standing structural inequities in our labor market.
Chicago Jobs Council works with partners to appeal to the workforce
communities mostly accessing services, which are largely Black and
Brown workers. We want to ensure that service providers are aware of
the barriers these communities face and are creating a path forward for
individuals with these barriers in mind.
Career coaching and navigation services are increasingly important
services for equity-advancing career navigation. Congress should
increase support for frontline workforce development professionals to
provide career navigation and services including asset-based
approaches, assessments to determine strengths and needs, awareness of
the impact of trauma and structural barriers on behavior and
performance, culturally sensitive programming and targeted services for
workers of color to support better outcomes. \10\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\10\ https://nationalskillscoalition.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/
05/FinalWIOARecs.pdf.
CJC also partners with re-entry organizations working on behalf of
justice involved individuals to ensure that they do not face permanent
punishments because of criminal records. An example of this is our role
in influencing the policy in CEJA that addressed returning residents
and our work to connect Equity Eligible Contractors who employ these
returning residents. We brought together organizations to connect and
understand how best utilize and leverage funding opportunities they
were eligible to receive and we will continue to work with these
organizations throughout implementation of CEJA. Congress should codify
the Reentry Employment Opportunities (REO) program to ensure that
justice involved workers have access to industry connected skills
training programs. If we're truly interested in reducing recidivism, we
must connect justice impacted individuals to work, because we know
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
there's dignity in work.
Congress should capture data on participants outcomes and success
into the future.
Access to workforce data enhances our ability to advocate for
workforce equity. By receiving comprehensive data on the state's
workforce, we can better identify areas of improvement, advocate for
policies that benefit all residents and measure our progress.
Under WIOA, local areas are required, currently, to measure short-
term employment and earnings outcomes for workers at six and 12 months
after exit. These short-term outcomes do not sufficiently capture how
people progress from entry-level jobs, experience wage and skill
advancement with an employer, and continue their education to progress
along a quality career pathway.
To measure if workforce programs are leading to long-term economic
gains for workers and businesses, WIOA performance indicators should be
expanded to include measures on quality credential attainment,
employment and wage outcomes for at least 2-years after program
completion, occupation specific job placement and measures on job
quality, such as hourly wages and hours worked.
WIOA should also disaggregate all training performance outcomes by
race, ethnicity, gender, and other important demographic or
socioeconomic factors like English language proficiency, income, and
geography, in order effectively evaluate progress toward equitable
outcomes and the efficacy of the public workforce system for all
workers, including workers of color who are the majority of those
accessing these services.
This Committee has a tremendous opportunity to innovate and enhance
the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act to meet the demands and
specialized needs of all stakeholders. I am grateful for the
opportunity to provide testimony today, and I look forward to answering
any questions that you may have.
______
[summary statement of lisa bly-jones]
My name is Dr. Lisa Bly-Jones, and I am CEO of the Chicago Jobs
Council (CJC), a workforce development intermediary in Chicago,
Illinois. I lead an organization that develops tools, resources and
offers training to build capacity for workforce organizations and set
priorities for an annual policy advocacy and member engagement. Prior
to this role, I was the executive director of The Workforce Connection,
a local workforce board in Rockford, Illinois.
Illinois has one of the highest unemployment rates in the country
overall and the unemployment rate for Black men and women is nearly
double that of the state's overall unemployment rate standing at around
9.5 percent. \1\ And yet, Illinois has 385,000 job openings in March
and one of the highest job openings rates in the country. \2\ These
measures usually run in opposing directions.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\1\ https://www.bls.gov/web/laus/laumstrk.htm; https://
www.bls.gov/lau/ptable14full23.pdf.
\2\ https://www.bls.gov/news.release/jltst.t01.htm; https://
www.bls.gov/charts/state-job-openings-and-labor-turnover/state-job-
openings-rates.htm#.
While Illinois has worked to address the needs of our workers and
businesses as best we can, we rely on Federal policy and investments.
WIOA reauthorization offers a critical opportunity to scale what is
working in Illinois to other states and to supplement the work we are
doing to ensure that Illinois workers--and workers across the country--
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
can access the skills they need and for which businesses need to hire.
1. Congress should fund WIOA commensurate with need. Indeed,
underlying many of the opportunities to improve WIOA so that it
better serves all stakeholders is the need for Congress to
consistently invest more in programs that support skills and
supportive services so that more people can access training
programs that lead to family sustaining wages, and more
businesses can hire skilled workers for in-demand jobs. When
factoring inflation, Congress has steadily cut investments in
workforce programs, Career and Technical Education, and adult
education programs over the past 20 years.
2. Congress should support industry or sector partnerships that
help businesses engage in the public workforce system.
Established sector partnerships provide real-time conversations
and innovation to pivot where needed based on emerging needs
and keeping pace with technological advances. Localized
collaboration supports employers in their recruitment and
retention efforts to build a diverse workforce within their
industry. Such partnerships are especially valuable for small
and medium-sized businesses, which often lack the resources to
develop independent programs. Instead, they can collaborate
with other local employers to leverage collective strengths.
These partnerships also provide an entry point for employers to
engage with the workforce system in a role that goes beyond
placing workers into jobs.
3. Congress should support robust career pathways that ensure
student and worker success. A 2023 CJC report finds, ``six
months or a year is not enough time for people who have
experienced trauma, such as mental illness, homelessness, or
incarceration, to seamlessly transition back into the
workforce'' and that ``losing supportive services during the
gap of time between when a client becomes employed and gets
their first paycheck can make it hard for participants to meet
their own needs.'' \3\ Congress can ensure that there are
sufficient resources to allow supportive services to extend
past probationary employment periods in order to help give
participants more time to adjust and settle into jobs.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\3\ https://static1.squarespace.com/static/
63a0838721aff66b22dd2598/t/63a0987639ba57582d347355/1671469174913/
Supportive-Services-Summary-Report-Sept-2021-FINAL.pdf.
4.Congress should capture data on participants outcomes and
success into the future. Access to workforce data enhances our
ability to advocate for workforce equity. By receiving
comprehensive data on the state's workforce, we can better
identify areas of improvement, advocate for policies that
benefit all residents and measure our progress.
______
The Chair. Thank you very much. Senator Cassidy, do you
want to introduce your next panelist?
Senator Cassidy. Yes. I'm really privileged to represent to
introduce Mr. Matthew Dickerson, who represents all aspects of
what we're discussing. He's the business development and
strategy officer for Mid South Extrusion, a growing employer in
northeast Louisiana, so the employee side.
He's with associations, for example, specifically the
Monroe Louisiana Chamber of Commerce in the Northeast and the
Northeast Louisiana Manufacturing Alliance and Consortium. And
last, he's been a teacher bringing classroom experience from
career teaching, and developing career, and technical education
in the Monroe City schools.
Mr. Dickerson, thanks for being here.
STATEMENT OF MATTHEW DICKERSON, BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT AND
STRATEGY OFFICER, MID SOUTH EXTRUSION, MONROE, LA
Mr. Dickerson. Chair Sanders, Ranking Member Cassidy,
Members of the Committee, and my fellow panelists, I'm grateful
for the opportunity to speak with you today about the pressing
need to build a strong and adaptable workforce in our Nation.
I'm Matthew Dickerson, business development and strategy
officer for Mid South Extrusion in Monroe, Louisiana.
I've been deeply involved in workforce development and have
over a decade of experience in various roles such as educator,
career and technical education supervisor, small business
owner, and now executive of a rapidly expanding and innovative
plastics manufacturing company in Monroe.
I'm also honored to serve on the Louisiana Workforce and
Social Services Reform Task Force appointed by the Governor. We
aim to create a plan enabling individuals to transition from
poverty to prosperity by coordinating our workforce and social
service systems more effectively.
Like many industries, one of our challenges is recruiting
and employing individuals with the necessary and essential
skills in reading, writing, math, and then the specialized
skills to run our production facility. Our goal is to deliver
high quality products to our customers, which requires a
skilled workforce.
Our projected growth and the expansion of our production
capabilities hinge on our ability to not only develop our
current workforce, but also recruit individuals who can produce
that high quality product. I'm pleased to report significant
progress in this effort in northeast Louisiana, despite being
one of the most impoverished regions in our Country through two
sector partnerships in healthcare and manufacturing.
As chair of the Northeast Louisiana Manufacturers Alliance
and Consortium, I'm proud to say that business and industry
leaders are taking real action to break the cycle of
generational poverty through the development of education and
workforce programs that align with our region's available
careers.
I believe it's time for industry to take the lead in
discussions on workforce development. We must stop being
passive consumers of the workforce system and complaining about
the quality of the product. This is our opportunity to lead the
discussion and produce ideal candidates for our available
positions.
We have dedicated extensive time to collaborating with our
K-12 partners, the community and technical college system, our
local universities, our local workforce boards, and various
community organizations to address the constantly evolving
needs of industry.
Collaboration with industry leaders is crucial to
developing a partnership-driven process for enhancing workforce
development and addressing public and private sector needs.
There's been a shift where businesses increasingly shoulder the
burden of training, a role traditionally filled by community
partners who now struggle with adapting to industry changes due
to policy and resource limitations.
I believe the sector partnership model is a practical
accountability framework with industry partners at its core
expressing their challenges and the needs of the community
partners collaborating on how to leverage dollars to address
those needs successfully. However, significant challenge has
been the disorganization of resources leading to inefficiencies
in funding allocation and service provision, and failing to
effectively meet employers' needs.
By increasing investment in training and optimizing the
utilization of existing supportive services, we can enhance the
ability of individuals to move from poverty to prosperity more
efficiently. Local and state control over funding for workforce
development programs is crucial to enhancing strategic
effectiveness and ensuring successful outcomes.
These agencies possess a deep understanding of their
region's distinct challenges and opportunities, granting them
the ability to customize workforce development programs that
precisely cater to the unique needs of both employers and
employees. This level of control offers the adaptability and
agility needed to keep up with new industry trends and changes
in the job market where a universal Federal approach is just
not practical.
Through this targeted and localized investment approach, we
can cultivate a more robust, resilient workforce that can
uphold our Nation's economic growth and competitiveness with
confidence and optimism.
In conclusion, as we stand at the crossroads of essential
economic and social reform, our collective action or inaction
will determine the future of workforce development in our
Nation. Our advancements in the Northeast and Northeast
Louisiana showcase the tangible benefits of industry led
initiatives, and the power of collaboration with educational
and community partners.
We must recognize that the prosperity of our industries and
the well-being of our communities are inseparably linked. I
urge Congress to consider directing significant investments to
industry-led partnership, driven workforce development
strategies that realistically address the skills gap, and
effectively utilize resources to empower individuals toward
economic prosperity.
Thank you for your attention, and for considering this
important step toward building a strong and sustainable
workforce.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Dickerson follows.]
prepared statement of matthew dickerson
Chair Sanders, Ranking Member Cassidy, Members of the Committee,
and my fellow panelists, I'm grateful for the opportunity to speak with
you today about the pressing need to build a strong and adaptable
workforce in our Nation. I am Matthew Dickerson, Business Development
and Strategy Officer at Mid South Extrusion. I have been deeply
involved in workforce development and have over a decade of experience
in various roles, such as educator, career and technical education
supervisor, small business owner, and executive at a rapidly expanding
and innovative plastics manufacturing company in Monroe, LA. I'm also
honored to serve on the Louisiana Workforce and Social Services Reform
Task Force, appointed by the Governor. We aim to create a plan enabling
individuals to transition from poverty to prosperity by coordinating
our workforce and social services systems more effectively.
Like many industries, one of our challenges is recruiting and
employing individuals with essential reading, writing, and math skills
and the specialized skills required to operate our production lines.
Our goal is to deliver high-quality products to our customers, which
requires a skilled workforce. Our projected growth and the expansion of
our production capabilities hinge on our ability to not only develop
our current workforce but also recruit individuals who can produce that
high-quality product.
I'm pleased to report significant progress in this effort in
northeast Louisiana--despite being one of the most impoverished regions
in the country--through two sector partnerships in healthcare and
manufacturing. As Chair of the Northeast Louisiana Manufacturers
Alliance and Consortium, I am proud to say that business and industry
leaders are taking real action to break the cycle of generational
poverty through the development of education and workforce programs
that align with our region's available careers. These leaders work with
our local workforce boards, chambers of commerce, K-12 systems, and
higher education institutions to create a pipeline that leads to real
careers, not just a certificate. I believe it's time for the industry
to take the lead in discussions on workforce development. We must stop
being passive consumers of the workforce system and complaining about
the quality of the product. This is our opportunity to lead the
discussion and produce the ideal candidates for our available
positions. We have dedicated extensive time to collaborating with our
K12 partners, the Community and Technical College System, local
universities, and various community organizations to address the
constantly evolving needs of our regional industry.
Collaboration with industry leaders is crucial to developing a
partnership-driven process for enhancing workforce development and
addressing public and private sector needs. There's been a shift where
businesses increasingly shoulder the burden of training, a role
traditionally filled by community partners, who now struggle with
adapting to industry changes due to policy and resource limitations. I
believe the sector partnership model is a practical accountability
framework, with industry partners at its core expressing their
challenges and needs while community partners collaborate on how to
address those needs effectively. However, a significant obstacle has
been the fragmentation of resources, which leads to inefficiencies in
funding distribution and service support and fails to meet employers'
needs effectively. By increasing investment in training and optimizing
the utilization of existing supportive services, we can enhance the
ability of individuals to move from poverty to prosperity more
effectively.
Emphasizing the importance of local and state control over funding
for workforce development programs is crucial to enhancing strategic
effectiveness and ensuring successful outcomes. Local and state
agencies possess a deep understanding of their regions' distinct
challenges and opportunities, granting them the ability to customize
workforce development programs that precisely cater to the unique needs
of both employers and employees. This level of control offers the
adaptability and agility needed to keep up with new industry trends and
changes in the job market, where a universal Federal approach is not
practical. By increasing the flexibility of the distribution of funds
while collaborating with industry partners and seeking their input on
spending decisions, we can guarantee that investments are explicitly
directed toward programs catering to the distinct needs of local
industries and workers. Through this targeted and localized investment
approach, we can cultivate a more robust, resilient workforce that can
uphold our Nation's economic growth and competitiveness with confidence
and optimism.
In conclusion, as we stand at the crossroads of essential economic
and social reform, our collective action or inaction will determine the
future of workforce development in our Nation. Our advancements in
northeast Louisiana showcase the tangible benefits of industry-led
initiatives and the power of collaboration with educational and
community partners. We must recognize that the prosperity of our
industries and the well-being of our communities are inseparably
linked. I urge Congress to consider directing significant investments
to industry-led, partnership-driven workforce development strategies
that realistically address the skill gaps and efficiently utilize
resources to empower individuals toward economic prosperity. Together,
let us commit to fostering an environment where every citizen can
contribute meaningfully to our economy, ensuring the United States
remains a beacon of innovation and prosperity. Thank you for your
attention and for considering this pivotal step toward securing our
Nation's future.
[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
______
[summary statement of matthew dickerson]
I am grateful for the chance to discuss the need for
a strong, adaptable workforce system in our Nation.
My experience spans both industry and the workforce
development apparatus, and I currently serve on Governor
Landry's Louisiana Workforce and Social Services Reform Task
Force.
We face challenges in recruiting skilled individuals
necessary for producing high-quality products in our plastics
manufacturing sector.
I am proud of the significant strides we've made in
northeast Louisiana, especially through sector strategies in
healthcare and manufacturing.
As industry leaders, we must lead workforce
development discussions and be proactive in shaping our
workforce pipeline.
I emphasize collaboration with local educational
institutions and community organizations to meet the evolving
needs of our industry.
I advocate for increased local and state control over
workforce development funds to better address specific regional
needs.
In conclusion, I urge Congress to support industry-
led workforce development strategies to effectively and
efficiently utilize resources and fill skill gaps, ensuring our
economic prosperity.
______
The Chair. Thank you, Mr. Dickerson.
This is an area I am not all that knowledgeable about, so
I'm going to ask you some dumb bunny questions. All right? What
I do know is that the recidivism rate for people in prison is
absurdly high. People go to jail without the skills. They need
to earn a good living in the workforce, and too often, they
come out without those skills, without the education.
What are you doing with regard to that so that people come
out ready to be integrated into the economy so they don't go
back to jail? What should we be doing? Who wants to take a shot
at that one?
Dr. Sullivan. I'll certainly jump in. Thank you for the
question. I think it's an incredibly important one. One of the
keys here is recidivism. In Louisiana, at least, we see about
two-thirds of the people that have been incarcerated come back
in some form or fashion.
What we learned over the last six or 8 years in programs
that specifically aimed at recidivism was we could reduce that
recidivism rate to about one-third by ensuring that an
individual that walks out of that facility has the skills when
they leave to make a good living. It is a game changer for this
population.
The Chair. All right. Let me ask you this.
Dr. Sullivan. Yes, sir.
The Chair. What you're saying is obvious. It is common
sense. Nobody in the world would disagree.
Dr. Sullivan. Sure.
The Chair. I don't think the rates are much different in
Vermont than they are in Louisiana.
Dr. Sullivan. Sure.
The Chair. What are we doing about it? I mean, do we have
in this country--I mean, you help me, I don't know the answer
to this. Are prisons providing the education and the job
training that inmates need in order to live productive lives
after prison? I mean, help me out on that one. Who wants to
jump in? Dr. Dickinson, did you want to----
Dr. Bly-Jones. I'll jump in. I'll say a couple of things.
One, I'll say that I think across the country there are
relationships with community colleges that actually deliver
programming in prisons across the country. So, that's one
aspect of getting the training.
The Chair. Are they working well, do you think?
Dr. Bly-Jones. I think there's always a need for more
resources. Are they getting the skills that they deliver at
that time? I would say yes. Are those the skills that employers
actually need when the individual is released? Depending on
where that individual is released to the community, that
individual returns to the additional supportive services that
are needed to keep the individual working, secure housing, the
supportive services to get back and forth to their place of
employment. It's the entire wraparound service. We're talking
about systemic issues, so.
The Chair. Right. I would trust that we are all in
agreement that it is insane to spend whatever it is, $60,000,
$80,000 a year locking somebody up when for less money, we can
try to educate them, give them the training they need to become
productive citizens. All right? Let's work on that together.
Our second issue, in a broad sense, young person graduates
high school, gets training, becomes an electrician, becomes a
plumber. Probably makes a higher income than somebody with a BA
in today's economy. All right? You've got millions of kids
sitting in school right now who are not academic for whatever
reason, not academically inclined, bored.
What are we doing, and give me good examples of what we are
doing, to say to those kids you can go out and earn a living,
get the training you need to do enormously important work. We
desperately need plumbers, electricians, carpenters, you name
it. We need them.
Give me some success stories about what we're doing to
address the workforce needs of America and provide decent
income for our workers. Who wants to jump in on that one? Ms.
White?
Ms. White. I'm happy to respond to that, Senator Sanders,
thank you. So, your question started by asserting that the
young person in the example has graduated from high school. And
one of the things I'll note really quickly about WIOA is that
the requirement that 75 percent of youth funds go to out-of-
school youth. So, there's a smaller portion in WIOA funding
that would go to your enrolled high school student for these
programs.
Nonetheless, some of the recommendations that have been
given about aligning systems, I think, matters here. Many of
the youth apprenticeship programs that we support around the
country are combining paid work experience, CTE coursework at
community colleges, and other training providers, as well with
mentorship so that young people are getting a head start on
their training while they're in high school, much like the
program that you mentioned at the beginning of your remarks.
These are programs that currently can receive funding
through the Department of Labor if they are registered and
compete for grants. There are also a number of states that have
adopted definitions and funding streams that leverage WIOA and
public education funding to support the growth and expansion of
these programs.
It's early days for a lot of them. We don't have a system
around it. There are a few states that do have well-developed
systems of exactly what you're talking about. I would point to
Wisconsin as one that has had a really robust youth
apprenticeship system for about 30 years. There's a lot of
demand for these programs, I would say, from young people.
One thing I would love to see is more folks like Mr.
Dickerson who are willing and interested in collaborating with
these systems and taking a chance on young people.
The Chair. Good. Thank you.
Senator Cassidy.
Senator Cassidy. I'll start with Dr. Sullivan. Dr.
Sullivan, keep your answers tight because I got a bunch of
questions.
Dr. Sullivan. Sure.
Senator Cassidy. Okay. No wrong door. Can you elaborate--I
know it started in Utah, but we can't do it unless we get
additional authorities. And by the way, for the record, I'd
like to enter a letter from my Governor, Jeff Landry. I'm
asking unanimous consent to enter this letter expressing
support for the one-door option in the reauthorizations.
[The following information can be found on page 89 in
Additional Material:]
The Chair. Without objection.
Senator Cassidy. Describe that for the audience and why
it's important?
Dr. Sullivan. Sure. The one-door approach really brings
together all of the resources to ensure that the employer, the
individual that needs to be trained, whoever the participant
might be enters one door has one opportunity, resources are
pulled together. You heard Mr. Dickerson talk about the array
of resources that are there, but they are not aligned in a way
that really pinpoint and solve the problem.
The one-door approach attempts to take all of those
services. Yes, the part that's from WIOA, but also portions
from our Department of Family and Child Services or from our
Department of Health to ensure an individual has a broad array
of services for themselves while they're being trained. That
one door approach----
Senator Cassidy. I understand that Utah did this. They've
had the best program.
Dr. Sullivan. Yes.
Senator Cassidy. It was grandfathered in, but everybody
else needs authorization specific to allow us to do what Utah
does.
Dr. Sullivan. Absolutely. Utah's is a classic example. I
think every state in the Nation should be looking at Utah for
this reason.
Senator Cassidy. Yes. Mitt Romney thinks so too, but,
that's Romney. Mr. Dickerson, we're attempting to modernize
this program. I understand that even in Northeast Louisiana,
relatively small in terms of population, there's multiple
boards you have to work with.
Mr. Dickerson. Yes.
Senator Cassidy. Can you kind of speak--because this seems
to be an area where some of the dollars go instead of the
training.
Mr. Dickerson. Yes.
Senator Cassidy. You as an employer, can you describe the
difficulties in working with these multiple boards?
Mr. Dickerson. Yes. Well, first of all, thank you for the
question. Second, there is a real challenge when it comes to
utilizing the funds that are available to employers. And it's
to the approach of there's a lot of different agencies, there
are a lot of different organizations, and they all have a
little bit of money. But when it comes to employer needs, and
specifically trying to train a large amount of employees at one
time, there's not enough funding with one individual
organization to be able to support that.
We have two local workforce boards in our region, one for
our rural representation and one in Washington Parish, and they
have to work together, which they do. But it does create
challenges when you start trying to move money and work with
within funding streams for those----
Senator Cassidy. Are you proposing that if they were
combined, there'd be more money to provide the training?
Mr. Dickerson. I think a coordination of funding is a
strong recommendation from business and industry.
Senator Cassidy. Is it difficult for the small business to
navigate interacting with more than one board, or is it no,
once you've figured out one board, you've figured out all
boards?
Mr. Dickerson. Not necessarily. They're all unique in some
of their ways. Obviously, the structure's the same, but there's
a lot of business leaders that I've met with that had no idea
the resources that were available to them through public
funding until they started coming to our sector partnership
meetings and other events.
Senator Cassidy. In a sense, just like there should be no
wrong door for the prospective employee, there should be no
wrong door for the employer----
Mr. Dickerson. Yes, sir.
Senator Cassidy [continuing]. But that's not worked out as
well.
Mr. Dickerson. That's right. But that is the work of the
task force at the state level that we're looking at, is to
coordinate those resources.
Senator Cassidy. Dr. Sullivan, currently the eligible
training provider list, it's difficult to navigate for workers
and providers who want to provide training. And I get a sense
that red tape is keeping good providers out and workers not
getting the tools they need.
In a sense, how much is this going to cost? What's the
financial aid, and most importantly, their expected earnings.
Please discuss the current challenges of the eligible training
provider list.
Dr. Sullivan. Yes. Thank you for the question. Eligible
training provider list really should be developed based upon
the question of what then can the provider bring to people and
to business partners. If we start with that in mind, I think we
can certainly make use of the data that we have from years
looking back at that provider, the training programs, and make
sure that we're maximizing value for people.
Senator Cassidy. Got you. With that, I yield.
The Chair. Senator Hassan.
Senator Hassan. Well, thank you, Mr. Chair, and Ranking
Member Cassidy. And thank you to the witnesses for joining us
today.
Investing in workers' skills and training is an investment
in our Country's economy and our global competitiveness. So,
I'm pleased that this Committee is engaging in a bipartisan
reauthorization of the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity
Act, and I look forward to continuing to collaborate with my
colleagues on this important effort.
To Dr. Bradley, Senators Young, Collins, Kaine, and I co-
lead the bipartisan Gateway to Careers Act, which would invest
in career pathway partnerships. These partnerships bring
together businesses, workforce development organizations, and
higher education programs to ensure that training services are
meeting the real-time needs of their employers.
Dr. Bradley, can you speak to the strength of the career
pathway partnership model and why it should be a focus of WIOA
reauthorization?
Dr. Bradley. Yes. Thank you very much, Senator. You've hit
on an incredibly important component of workforce development
that we feel is necessary to both maintain its role in WIOA and
increase its role in WIOA.
Career pathways, as you know, clearly articulate the
education and training required for each occupation. Each
occupational level in a given industry delivers training in
combination with academic and non-academic supportive services,
and career pathways intentionally allow earners to exit and
reenter the program as needed.
Now, to your point about why is it important. There's
strong evidence that shows that programs that employ these
tenets of career pathways result in a strong, positive impacts
on credential completion rates, employment, long-term earnings,
when you're talking about a system that is not exactly flush
with resources. Any programs that deliver evidence-based
results are a vital component in WIOA.
Senator Hassan. Thank you so much. Dr. Sullivan. Community
colleges are also critical partners in the workforce
development system. For example, the Community College System
of New Hampshire does important work to help Granite Staters
earn high quality credentials through its Early College at Your
High School Program, which has dual enrollment programming at
more than a hundred high schools across our state.
We should support community colleges in WIOA
reauthorization by one codifying the Strengthening Community
Colleges grants program, and also by encouraging the co-
location of American Job centers on community college campuses.
Dr. Sullivan, how else can we support community colleges
through this reauthorization effort?
Dr. Sullivan. Look, I think you've named two that are
incredibly important. I want to build upon the career pathways
notion because I think there's an opportunity here to redefine
what many of us think about community colleges.
Much of what we have developed in Louisiana has been this
model and notion that students need to complete the initial
industry-based certification, the initial certificate, in order
to be able to go to work. The rest of their education is
largely driven by an employer who is willing to provide tuition
reimbursement.
Instead of an employer hiring someone at the completion of
an associate degree, now they're hiring someone with skills,
and allowing that individual to be trained across time. That's
what creates the long-term pull of more Americans into the
economy. I think that's the role of the future of the American
community college.
Senator Hassan. Well, and obviously, as technology moves at
such a rapid pace, people are going to also need to know how,
along with their employers, to keep learning new skills over
the course of their career. Right? So, this is kind of
foundational to that as well.
Dr. Sullivan. Without a doubt. I think some of you are
aware of the workforce Pell proposal. I would encourage you to
think about workforce Pell as not only being just for adults
without an education, but imagine the person with a
baccalaureate degree who was displaced as a result of AI. At
some point, they will need to come back and be re-skilled and
reeducated to be able to continue in the economy.
Senator Hassan. Well, thank you. And to both you, Dr.
Bradley, and Dr. Sullivan, I've heard from some stakeholders
who say WIOA reporting requirements are overly burdensome.
State and local leaders devote significant resources to writing
lengthy plans, which in some cases end up acting as more of a
compliance exercise than a strategic project management tool.
I've also heard that community partners are sometimes
dissuaded from becoming eligible training providers because of
WIOA's performance reporting requirements. So, that can
unintentionally, obviously, stifle innovation and the
diversification of providers.
How do we strike the right balance between performance
accountability and non-burdensome reporting requirements? And
are the current performance indicators the right ones? And if
not, what should we do? And we have about 20 seconds left, so
we'll start with Dr. Bradley and Dr. Sullivan, and then we can
follow-up in writing.
Dr. Bradley. Yes. I'd be glad to work with your staff on
this. I'll just point out one thing on the performance
accountability, for example, because of your question about
career pathways. One, the performance accountability measures
in WIOA are based on exiting the system. Changing one of those
or more indicators to keep track of the person as they go to
give credit to the providers that are following people, not
just a one and done. So, that would be one example, but glad to
discuss further.
Senator Hassan. Okay, thank you.
Dr. Sullivan. I think the only thing I would add is people
attend our colleges, not for the credential, but for the
paycheck.
Senator Hassan. Right.
Dr. Sullivan. I think it's really important that we use
those metrics that look at earnings and employment.
Senator Hassan. Thank you very much. Thanks, Mr. Chair.
The Chair. Senator Smith.
Senator Smith. Thank you, Chair Sanders. And thanks to all
of you for being here. It's a very interesting and important
and timely conversation.
Chair Sanders, I was thinking about your comments about
going into this school in Vermont and having that palpable
sense of energy, and kind of connectedness, and engagement. And
it made me think about so many examples that I've seen in
Minnesota of how those kinds of youth programs are really
working.
I'm thinking, for example, of the Career Academy in
Moorhead, Minnesota. They literally, the school district, took
an old big box store and they retrofitted it to be a career
training facility, and focused on kids at the high school level
and connected with community colleges, and also with employers
in the region. And it had such a completely different feel,
energy, excitement, lots of hands-on learning, lots of
connections to local employers.
I think this is so important for us to keep in mind. And as
I said, I've seen some really strong programs. And one of the
things that I've noted also is that there is just this hunger
for young people to understand what their options are. They
don't even really know--like, you don't know what you don't
know about what you might be able to do.
That's really the value behind a piece of legislation that
I've been working on. It's bipartisan. It's called the Youth
Workforce Readiness Act. And what it would do is actively
support partnerships between community-based after-school
programs, out-of-school programs.
Think like what the boys' and girls' clubs do, for example,
connecting those programs with schools and with employers to
provide some opportunities for young people to get some real-
world experience. This could be career exploration or it could
be mentoring or even opportunities for young folks to earn some
credentials for their first job.
Ms. White, my question is for you, can you talk about these
kinds of after-school or out-of-school programs, and what role
they can play in connecting youth at the high school level, or
even younger, potentially to what their opportunities are?
Ms. White. Absolutely. Thank you for the question. I think
what you've pointed out here is the importance of early
exposure into the career pathways that many of us have
mentioned. I think that out-of-school time providers, after-
school time providers can play a critical role in providing
these exposure experiences. Not just to high school students,
but to students as early as middle school.
Part of the reason that's important is because young people
make a series of decisions very early on in high school that
shape the trajectory that they take through high school whether
or not they complete high school. And even if they do complete
high school, what options are available to them within the
secondary school curriculum.
One thing I would say that I think is really important--and
I've had a chance to look at the Act, and I think it's a
wonderful idea. But one of the things we've talked--I think
many folks here have mentioned today, we often think about the
public workforce system as distinct from our education system.
Senator Smith. Right.
Ms. White. We think about our high schools as distinct from
our colleges. That does young people a disservice. They mature
and they learn at very different rates. They have interests
that develop at very different times. And so, the more we can
create bridges across these systems, whether that's out-of-
school directly into K-12 education, K-12 education, the CTE
system, into work experiences, the better we'll be able to
serve young people and allow them to earn credentials, gain
exposure----
Senator Smith. I think that's correct.
Ms. White [continuing]. Over the course of their lives and
post-secondary experiences. Dual enrollment has been mentioned.
That's critically important, right?
Senator Smith. This is what's happening in this facility,
this great program in Moorhead where you have dual enrollment.
I know this is happening all over the place.
I think, Chair Sanders, what we need to figure out is how
to do--is to make sure that our WIOA programs are reinforcing
this kind of innovation that's happening at the local level,
rather than creating sort of a bureaucratic maze for
organizations, or students, or educators, or employers that
want to participate to kind of their way through.
Ms. White. Right. Absolutely. The one thing I would add to
it too, is that so much of this momentum that you're
referencing is happening in schools, led by schools, or out-of-
school providers that work with public education.
The WIOA system primarily serves students who are
disconnected from that system. And one challenge that I think
this population will have as programs--these in-school programs
explode really, and I do think they will, is that those are not
necessarily the young people that employers look to first.
We need to ensure that WIOA remains strong, and continues
to support programs for the students who face the greatest
barriers to employment and may not have access to or maybe
overlooked as some of these really excellent school-based
programs evolve, keeping them connected to those programs,
using them as strategies for re-engagement, and ensuring that
there are incentives in place for employers to work with these
hard-to-serve kids, is going to be a really important step to
ensure that we can create these opportunities and really expand
their benefit for all.
Senator Smith. Thank you so much, Chair Sanders. And I'll
just say this to Ranking Member Cassidy as well. This is a bill
I have with Senator Collins, and Senator Graham, and Senator
Wyden, and I'm going to be hoping that we can get this included
in our bill.
I have another question, which I will provide in writing,
focused on supportive services. And just what a big deal it is
if you don't have access to transportation, or childcare, or a
little bit of extra training. What a big barrier that is to
being able to keep or get a job. So, I'll follow-up with that
in writing. Thank you.
The Chair. Thank you.
Senator Marshall.
Senator Marshall. Well, thank you, Chairman Sanders. I want
to start by offering a letter on behalf of Senator Budd. It's
from the North Carolina Chamber regarding Pell Grant
eligibility. So, on behalf of Senator Budd, I'd like to ask
unanimous consent to enter to the record a letter of support
for his bill, the Promoting Employment and Lifelong Learning
Act from the North Carolina Chamber of Commerce.
[The following information can be found on page 96 in
Additional Material:]
The Chair. Without objection.
Senator Marshall. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. And again,
welcome to all of our panel and making the efforts to give us
some advice here.
I'm going to start with Ms. White. When it comes to youth
apprenticeships we grew up in an era where we all had summer
jobs and part-time jobs. And when I go back home, employers
tell me they have a hard time getting through the barriers of
apprenticeships coming on board.
Instead of adding more regulations, are there some
regulations we could tweak to maybe give those youth and other
people more of an opportunity for apprenticeships?
Ms. White. Sure. I'm happy to take that. Thank you for the
question, Senator. So, I think to some extent, the complaints
from employers around registration for apprenticeships they're
legitimate. I'm actually trying to register my very own
apprenticeship right now. We are hiring one at my place of
employment, and it can be challenging.
I think many states have invested in state-level
intermediaries that have provided really significant guidance
to employers to expedite that process. They take on a lot of
the administrative burden to sort of expedite kind of the
creation of the program and the registration from start to
finish.
I think there are a number of ways that registration could
be simplified and expedited. One thing, I think, could go a
long way toward the expansion of these programs at the local
and state level are program standards that develop through
things like sector partnerships.
Often, the hardest part of building these programs is
employers saying; I don't know how to put the pieces together.
I don't know what a work process schedule is. I don't know how
to specify the skills and competencies that these folks need. I
can tell you what they should do, but I don't know how to write
it.
To the extent that we can create shared resources to help
expedite that process for youth and for adults, I think we'll
see greater uptake.
Senator Marshall. Okay. I'll go to Dr. Bradley next. One of
my sayings, ``If you can't measure it, you can't manage it.''
And if you don't have the data timely, it doesn't do me any
good.
As we work through this WIOA authorization, we have a bill
that would require the Department of Labor to implement
performance indicators within 6 months of enactment and provide
monthly technical assistance to local workforce boards. Can you
just give me your perspective on the importance of those timely
reports and implementations?
Dr. Bradley. Thank you, Senator. That's an excellent
question. And that's been one of the issues in the system; it's
data lag. The reason that up-to-date, more real-time data is so
important is because things change quickly. And you want
training providers and workforce boards to be able to respond
to what's happening now, not describing a situation 6 months
ago.
Also, in terms of understanding training providers that
have positive outcomes. If there's a year or 2 years lag of
that, and they're not a good training provider, they're not
getting good results. You want to know that sooner rather than
later because of the good stewardship of public dollars in the
WIOA system. So, it's really important both from an agility
standpoint, but also to know what's working.
Senator Marshall. Thank you. Mr. Dickerson, my wife and I
are community college graduates. So, proud of my community
colleges and technical colleges and their ability to flex from
moment to moment. In a rural community where there's
agriculture, one community college as the Diesel Mechanic
School. Maybe where the wind energy is popping up, a community
college quickly offers a 2-year degree in wind energy, and
where there's manufacturing, maybe it's a focus on welding and
other skills like that.
How do you see the opportunity for short-term Pell Grants
in those types of programs? Is that something that would be a
good idea, short-term Pell Grants?
Mr. Dickerson. Yes, sir. I absolutely believe that'd be a
great opportunity for our adult population to get into the
workforce faster through certified programs. Now, the other
part of that is, yes, the funding's available, but do you have
industry leading those discussions and developing those
programs on the other side of it? And I think that's a critical
aspect that can't be overlooked.
I'm proud to say Louisiana Delta Community College, which
is our community college in Monroe and the northeast side of
the state, work with industry often and become flexible in the
short-term programs that we need. So, I know that'd be a
positive step for this relationship.
Senator Marshall. Thank you. Appreciate that.
The Chair. Thank you.
Senator Kaine.
Senator Kaine. Thank you, Chair Sanders, and thanks to all
the witnesses.
I'll just begin with you, Dr. Bradley. I'm only now
starting to find a spirit of forgiveness in my heart for you,
for hiring Karishma Merchant away from my Senate staff. She's
sitting there in the front row, but I am finding a sense of
forgiveness after----
Dr. Bradley. Please forgive me.
Senator Kaine.--8 months.
[Laughter.]
Senator Kaine. I want to talk to Dr. Sullivan and really
builds on Senator Marshall's questions about the importance of
training services. Not everybody can access a 4-year degree or
even a 2-year degree. But we also know that by 2031, more than
70 percent of jobs will require some form of post-secondary
education or training beyond high school. And that's why I have
long been a champion of expanding Pell Grant to include high
quality short-term education and training programs.
One of the real virtues of the Pell program is how we've
made it flexible over the years, full-time students, part-time
students. I'm really happy that we recently, within the last 2
years, went back to an original part of Pell, which was folks
who were incarcerated, who are trying to gain college and
skills so that they can be successful. Once they're released,
they can now qualify for Pell, and that's leading to some
significant pickup and offering courses to those individuals.
But I do believe the next expansion and flexibility of Pell
should be for high quality, short-term education, and training
programs. Senator Braun on the Committee, he and I have
introduced the JOBS Act. We have over 45 bipartisan co-
sponsors, including 10 on this Committee. I want to thank Chair
Sanders for agreeing that this will be marked up later this
summer.
Different community colleges have kind of embraced this
notion in tandem with their own state legislatures and
Governors. Virginia Community College has a FastForward program
to focus on state funding for these short-term, high-quality
programs, and the results have been pretty strong given your
experience both in Virginia and Louisiana.
Can you speak to the value of these programs, sort of
picking up on what Mr. Dickerson just said?
Dr. Sullivan. Certainly. Thank you for the question, and
thank you for your leadership around this issue. I know,
personally, you have understood career and technical education
for many years. Personally, you invested your own time in that
space.
Workforce Pell, I think, is a huge part of the solution of
educating and skilling American people. The American worker
today, the biggest issue they face is time. And so, when we say
to them, go get an associate degree, and they say, I don't have
the time.
What we should be offering them is an opportunity that gets
them the skills to get to work, but that's not the end. That's
the beginning, and ensuring that workforce Pell allows those
programs high quality, high value for that individual that gets
them into the work.
But then we have our employer partners who we need help to
pull people through that economy to make sure that as the jobs
change, they're able to be educated and skilled and stay on top
of that economy.
Senator Kaine. I do acknowledge what Senator Marshall said.
Our community colleges are often really flexible. So, Central
Virginia Community College in Lynchburg, they offer different
programs than J. Sargeant Reynolds Community College in
Richmond, because they're pretty attuned to the dynamics of the
local economy and local workforce needs.
The last thing I'll just say on this is I really celebrate
work that we've done in the last couple years to do an
Infrastructure bill. And I really celebrate work that we've
done to do a Manufacturing bill, but who's going to build it?
Who's going to make it? This is a challenge that I'm hearing
from all my employers, so I look forward to working more on
this.
Ms. Taylor White, a question about youth unemployment. Just
one more question. Young people who are disconnected from both
school and work represent a critical pool of untapped talent
and opportunity for economic mobility in this country.
Some call this group of people disconnected youth, but I
think the term that I've heard my colleague Bobby Scott use is
Opportunity Youth, which I like, and I have what would be
similar to legislation he's promoted on the House, the Opening
Doors for Youth Act to expand employment opportunities for
these young people who do not have a current connection either
to school or employment.
According to a recent report from the Center for American
Progress, while the post-pandemic labor market has seen
increased participation from young people ages 16 to 19,
there's still millions that do face barriers to employment. How
can WIOA better support young people to reconnect to both
education and the economy?
Ms. White. Thank you for the question, Senator. I mean, I
think the easiest answer through WIOA is the expansion of
access to work experiences. They have been proven to yield
results in the short-and long-term for young people's outcome,
labor market outcomes.
I think to the extent that WIOA can be leveraged to create
more of those paid work opportunities for young people and to
create incentives for employers to hire these young people who
pay face significant barriers to entry to the labor market,
that's one way to make sure that young people that are served
by WIOA have access to these jobs. You're right, youth
unemployment is at 9, almost 9.5 percent right now, which is
pretty high.
Senator Kaine. Great. Thank you, Mr. Chair. Well I'm going
to keep going since they're talking about----
[Laughter.]
Senator Kaine. Does anybody else just want to say something
about this youth employment and kind of the opportunity to
better connect young people either to school or work with WIOA.
Mr. Dickerson. From an employer standpoint, in our
conversations, we acknowledge work experience is valuable,
apprenticeships are valuable. One challenge and one question I
would ask our panelists and this Committee to consider is there
needs to be an education for business and industry leaders on
how to effectively do that. Because we have some real
challenges of bringing young people into our manufacturing
facility.
But we have opportunities. Like we have a business academy
in Northeast Louisiana that allow students to go into the
business office setting, which is a much safer environment than
a manufacturing facility. And so, considering some of those
resources and those conversations, I think, would be
beneficial.
Senator Kaine. Great. Please, Dr. Bly-Jones.
Dr. Bly-Jones. I just want to build on that because I think
we've talked a lot about adding additional funds for
individuals. I want to accentuate the point that Mr. Dickerson
just made in terms of resources to work with local employers. I
think that's an important component.
Oftentimes, local workforce boards are tasked with working
with employers and don't necessarily have the additional
resources to convene for those sector partnerships to educate
employers on the best way to work with youth in those work-
based learning experiences. And so, I would elevate the point
that was mentioned before, that we need the resources to
actually help with some of those sector partnerships as well.
Senator Kaine. Thank you so much. Thank you, Mr. Chair.
The Chair. Senator Marshall.
Senator Marshall. Okay. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Dr. Bly-
Jones. If we were to start a program like yours in Kansas City,
Wichita, bigger city, what would be the most important advice
you'd give us? What would be the things to not do, perhaps?
Dr. Bly-Jones. Thank you for the question and considering
creating a jobs council in Kansas City.
[Laughter.]
Senator Marshall. We probably have something like it, but
I'm still just trying--I think that lessons learned are always
good to go over.
Dr. Bly-Jones. I love the sound of it because it really is
about systemic change and it is about coalition building. And
so, a lot of the work we do is in partnership. One of the
things I want to echo, we've heard a lot of how separate our
systems are. Really, WIOA is about integrating all of these
systems.
We've talked about K-12, we've talked about adult Ed, we've
talked about individuals with disabilities. We talked about the
stigmas that are attached to individuals that have criminal
records. We've talked about the need for educators to be
employed to be educated employers, to be educated about how the
system works, and how they can best leverage this system for
talent acquisition.
I would say to get the partners that are required in the
workforce ecosystem, all of the partners that I've mentioned,
and then think about your local economy and what skills are
needed to actually fill those jobs. We heard that there are a
lot of jobs and there are a lot of people who are unemployed.
And so, making sure that we're skilling them up for the jobs
that actually exist.
Senator Marshall. What would you say are the impediments to
success? What is the most common reasons people drop out of
this program you're outlining?
Dr. Bly-Jones. I think we talk about getting individuals
jobs. I think we have to be mindful about quality jobs. I think
we have to think about the benefits that come with employment,
and what it costs to maintain employment. We talked about the
supportive services that are needed, whether that is the
transportation or whether that is affordable childcare.
Another crisis we have in the country now is mental health.
And so, even including that when we talk about our youth, and
we talk about our adults, and the trauma that individuals have
endured, I think mental health is another component that needs
to be included when we think about supportive services as well.
It's those wraparound services from the point of the person
actually getting the job, to actually keeping the job. The
retention component.
The Chair. Thank you. Let me ask kind of a simple question
here. What has been brought up by a number of Senators is the
fact that we put many, many, many billions of dollars into
rebuilding our crumbling infrastructure, and yet we don't have
the kind of skilled workforce that we need in order to move
that as rapidly as we would like.
What I've heard in Vermont, and I would like you to comment
on this, is it's one thing to talk about giving people the
skills, but to give people the skills you need to have.
Somebody knows the profession. I can't teach them to be a
plumber unless I'm a good plumber, or an electrician, or
whatever.
What I've heard in Vermont is, especially in the schools,
to get somebody who has the skills out of the workforce to
become a teacher becomes a whole project unto itself. Not to
mention if he's making $100,000 dollars as a plumber, and I'm
going to pay him $50,000 as a teacher, he isn't going to do it.
Is that an issue that we're running into around the country?
Who wants to speak to that?
Mr. Dickerson. Yes, sir.
The Chair. Dr. Sullivan.
Mr. Dickerson. I'll give an example. In Northeast
Louisiana, we have manufacturing companies and other companies
that are partnering with those school districts where they
actually allow employees to take a couple of hours a day and go
teach at a certain school district in that area. And that's
what's happening at the----
The Chair. Paid by the employer----
Mr. Dickerson. The employer----
The Chair.--As part of their job in a sense.
Mr. Dickerson.--That's right.
The Chair. That's interesting.
Mr. Dickerson. I think that's the model of partnership at
the local level that we're seeing that I hope can be seen at
the Federal level is the work and the success is going to
happen at the local level. The more of these conversations from
local----
The Chair. Let me get it straight. So, you're working for
me, you're a skilled worker. I'm going to pay you to go to a
local school. You'll get your salary.
Mr. Dickerson. Yes, sir.
The Chair. What about the teaching skills? I mean, you
could be a great worker and not necessarily a great teacher.
How do you deal with that one?
Dr. Sullivan. Transition largely for us is aimed at
retiring individuals, maybe plumbers, maybe process operators
as they retire out, we're bringing them into the college and it
takes time. We need to spend time with them to help them
understand pedagogy, how to teach.
The Chair. Exactly. All right. So, you could be a great
plumber, but not a great teacher.
Dr. Sullivan. Yes.
The Chair. All right.
Dr. Jones.
Dr. Bly-Jones. I was just going to point to the gap in pay
in terms of bringing a professional in, and it is best to
actually recruit from those who are actually looking to retire
soon.
The Chair. If you have sympathetic employers, does his idea
makes sense to you, having an employer pay?
Dr. Bly-Jones. I think at the local community, that level
of engagement is what I think you saw when you walked into that
high school. The excitement that a young person or any person
has when they're contributing to their local economy. So, being
able to work as a local employer and be able to contribute in
K-12 or even the community college, that's what we're looking
for in community investment.
The Chair. I have the sense that at least in some school
districts what you are suggesting, which kind of makes common
sense, somebody may say, well, you don't have the teaching
certificates that you need or qualifications. Are we running
in--is that a bureaucratic problem, or who wants to speak to
that one?
Mr. Dickerson. Go ahead. Well, I know while I was in the
school district we had the certifications to train up those
teachers that would transition. But what I'm specifically
talking to is more of a collaboration approach of--it might not
be a person moving out of their career and into a career in
education. As much as it is, we're going to teach this class
because we have a shortage, and that's really the relationship
at the local level.
The Chair. Senator Romney.
Senator Romney. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. When I was serving
as Governor of Massachusetts, I would hear occasionally some
stories that gave me some concern. Let's say that a lumper in
Massachusetts--by the way, you probably don't know what a
lumper is, but this is a person who unloads a fishing boat and
works in a canning factory, a fishing factory.
This person lost their job because of overfishing, or
regulation, or whatever--I'm not getting into that--but if they
lost their job, they then were overwhelmed with the process of
trying to get unemployment and maybe some housing vouchers and
perhaps TANF. And then they needed job training because those
lumping jobs are not going to come back.
I looked at how many Federal job training programs there
were. There were 49 at the time. And I would hear that a person
that had lost their job was overwhelmed with the complexity of
getting help. And I mean, is that a real problem? Do people who
are in one profession that maybe is going away and need help,
do they have a hard time figuring out how to access various
government programs that might be available to them? Dr. Bly-
Jones, do you have any thoughts on that?
Dr. Bly-Jones. Usually what happens--thank you for the
question--usually what happens is it's a rapid response team
that goes out and they are notified at the state level when an
employer is actually facing a layoff of individuals. And so, a
rapid response team is sent out to that employer to talk to
individuals about the resources that exist. So, it's at that
time that they may learn about the different Federal services
that you mentioned.
In theory, it would be seamless and that is the intention.
And then they go from there into what is referred to as
American Jobs Centers that are located in most local
communities, again, to be able to actually access resource----
Senator Romney. But the job centers are not going to have
TANF, or housing vouchers, or unemployment insurance. Right?
Dr. Bly-Jones. No. They would have an individual you would
talk to, and they would have all of those services there. It is
considered a one-stop center.
Senator Romney. Not at the job center. The one-stop center,
that's what I'm getting to, which is, a Governor smarter than
me, Mike Leavitt of Utah had an idea, which instead of having
all these offices separate, the job training, and the TANF, and
the Housing and so forth, let's have one office and let that
one office help an individual that became unemployed. And that
worked extremely well for the State of Utah.
That, unfortunately, is prohibited under law at the Federal
level. We can't put those offices together. And only one state
was grandfathered to allow that to occur. And that was the
State of Utah. I have introduced a piece of legislation which
is known as the One Door to Work Act, which would allow as many
as five other states to be able to also do what Utah does,
which is have a one-stop place where individuals can go to get
help with unemployment Housing, TANF, food stamps, as well as
job training.
Mr. Dickerson, you come from Louisiana. Louisiana is one of
the states that said we would love to be able to do that. And
I'm delighted that for instance, the Ranking Member and other
Members of this Committee support this idea. Is that something
that you believe would be helpful in your state?
Mr. Dickerson. Yes, sir. That's the work of our Louisiana
Workforce and Social Service Reform Task Force that was put
together by the Governor and our Secretary of Workforce and
Department of Child and Family Services as well.
It's both sides of it. It's not only for the employee, but
also for the employer. But to your point one challenge that
we've heard in our conversations at the local level around the
one-door policy is to make sure that those one-stop centers are
appropriately staffed to accommodate all of those services, and
that those staff members are educated so that when that
individual does come in, they not only get access to the
services, but the service delivery mechanism is there to meet
them. And that's something we would support.
Senator Romney. Yes. Excellent. I would just note one more
thing, which is that Governor Leavitt, and the Utah program,
assigns a caseworker. As soon as someone becomes unemployed,
they get a caseworker who begins helping them with everything
from the support they need for safety net services at the same
time, to laying out a plan for getting them back into the
workforce and training.
It's an extraordinary program working well in the State of
Utah, and I'm delighted that the Ranking Member and others in
this Committee support this idea of letting at least five other
states get the chance to try this on a temporary basis and see
if it's working well for them. I know Louisiana, Texas, other
states have said, please let us do this. Thank you so much, Mr.
Chairman.
The Chair. Yes.
Senator Marshall. Mr. Chairman, I ask unanimous consent to
enter into the record a letter from 46 business groups and
think tanks expressing support for Senate Bill S. 3825, Senator
Romney's One Door to Work Act.
[The following information can be found on page 90 in
Additional Material:]
The Chair. Without objection.
Senator Murray.
Senator Murray. Well, thank you very much, Chairman
Sanders, for having this really critical hearing. When I was a
young teenager, my dad got MS. We have seven kids in our
family, and the only reason we were able to get back on our
feet was a workforce training job that gave my mom some skills
to get a job. It really saved our family. So, these are really
important.
Now today, because Democrats passed laws that made
generational investments in American manufacturing and
infrastructure and clean energy, we are seeing historic job
growth. And in every corner of my State of Washington, I hear
from businesses who need more skilled workers to grow and
compete. Workers who want to learn new skills and start new
careers so they can set themselves and their families up for a
success.
Investing in workforce training doesn't just help build a
strong economy from some statistical level. It really changes
lives and it helps people working parents like my mom. That is
exactly why I'm so passionate about doing a strong bipartisan
reauthorization of our Federal workforce programs.
Mr. Chairman, 10 years ago, I worked alongside my
Republican colleagues, the late Senator Isakson to pass the
Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act back then. Just like
now, we had a divided Congress with a Democratic Senate and a
Republican House. We knew it wasn't going to be easy, but we
also knew it was going to be worth it, and that we could make a
real progress if we listened to each other and listened to
folks back home, and focused on where we could agree and what
could actually make a difference for people.
Now, no one got everything they wanted at that time, but in
the end, we all got a bill that we were very proud of, and a
bill that was really helpful for workers and businesses and the
economy. So, there's no question in my mind that we can do that
again, and it is way past time to build on that progress so we
can keep our economy strong and put the American worker first,
which is why this conversation is so important today. So, I
really appreciate us having this hearing.
Ms. White, according to the National Center for Educational
Statistics, just over one in 10 young people are neither
enrolled in school or are working. Currently, WIOA requires 75
percent of funding for youth be set aside for out-of-school
youth to get connected to the critical employment and training
resources services they need. But we have a lot more work to
do. Can you talk to us about the importance of reaching out-of-
school youth in the WIOA funding?
Ms. White. Absolutely. Thank you for the question, Senator
Murray. For the out-of-school youth who have disconnected, the
public workforce system is often their place of last resort.
It's really their last lifeline to reconnect to training, to
education into the labor market.
Under the current version of the bill, 75 percent, as you
said, is required to go toward that population of Opportunity
Youth. That introduction in 2014 has allowed for WIOA to serve
more vulnerable youth than was previously possible under the
prior bill.
I think the legislation must retain a requirement that a
majority of funds be devoted to the most vulnerable young
people. At the same time, I don't know that there is a perfect
flat number that works in every single community. There are
communities that would like to and have found ways to dedicate
resources to keep students connected to school rather than
reaching them after they withdraw.
There are lots of interesting ideas out there around
assigning priority for service frameworks that could help local
workforce boards make decisions about how and when to
intervene, and how and when to serve young people that I think
could be really effective and reflect the expertise of local
workforce professionals.
That said, I do think it's critical that we retain a very
clear requirement on the percentage of funds that must go to
that population.
Senator Murray. Very good. Thank you. I appreciate that.
Dr. Bradley, we work to strengthen the quality guardrails
in the 2024 reauthorization, and the last several years have
really shown us that we've got more work to do. So, as we work
on this lot 10 years later, what more can we do to strengthen
the quality of the training provided, including through
stronger requirements for eligible training providers in their
programs?
Dr. Bradley. Thank you, Senator. You're right. There's
always work to be done on this issue. And I think that one of
the things at JFF that we've learned, we talked to a lot of
state practitioners, and I think there's some really good state
examples. New Jersey is doing some great work in this area,
Alabama, Minnesota, to kind of build in quality measures.
They're doing this at the state level, but lessons could be
learned at the Federal level.
I think that regular ETPL update more regular than exists
now, which is part of the House bill, I think something akin to
having states do like a college scorecard, but for the
workforce system. And I also think that there are other steps
you can take to allowing locals, for example, to have more say
about providers in their area. Right now, the eligible training
provider list is set at the state level.
Another thing that the House bill does that may improve
qualities, they have this contingent eligibility mechanism that
would allow maybe training providers that have a promising
practice. And it could be high quality, but may not have been
around for a long time to sort of receive payment in a
structured way, sort of as they meet performance outcomes.
Senator Murray. Is there a way to track those outcomes so
we know that somebody got a quality training at a program?
Dr. Bradley. There are. And one of the things that I think
can help on that is that a lot of times wage records are used
to track outcomes. And one of the things specifying that
there's a specific state agency that's sort of responsible for
the backend work on tracking outcomes because they have access
to the wage record data. That would be another improvement.
Glad to discuss further.
Senator Murray. Thank you very much. Thank you, Mr.
Chairman.
The Chair. Senator Tuberville.
Senator Tuberville. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Whenever I
hear from my folks back in Alabama workforces, top of their
mind--we're struggling right now in our state. Struggling to
fill jobs, struggling to match up the right people with the
right job, struggling to keep businesses open, struggling to
keep cost affordable. It's a huge problem. Reauthorization of
the Workforce Innovation Opportunity Act will be a huge step in
the right direction. I think we all agree with that.
Now, I know my colleagues on both sides, they all have been
hearing a lot about this issue. We've all discussed it, and
people across the country have been speaking up offering
solutions. A lot of my colleagues have spoken up and presented
their ideas. And I have, one, myself, introduced a Workforce
Data Act yesterday. This bill is simple. It was developed in
coordination with stakeholders across the WIOA system, and it
would help ensure these Federal dollars are getting to the
right folks.
My bill would improve data sharing within the WIOA's
system, and allow local boards and providers access to wage
data from the unemployment insurance system. This would allow
them to measure performance with better and more accurate
measures of success. We will be able to determine which
training is working and which folks are being helped by these
programs. Pretty straight forward and simple. Hopefully we can
do something with this.
Mr. Dickerson you started your career as a high school
coach, I think we have a little bit in common. And thank you
for your service, because teaching is a service, coaching is a
service. Can you tell us about what employers are looking at
from the WIOA system?
Mr. Dickerson. Yes, sir. Thank you for the question. And
some of my fondest memories were as a high school coach, and
there's a lot of lessons that can be applied in the business as
well.
But from an industry standpoint, I think a partnership in
our workforce development is what we're looking for. And I made
a statement in my testimony that it's our time to really step
up and help bridge that gap. But for too long and for too many
years, especially since Covid, I think business and industries
are spending more internal dollars on developing their own
workforce because of the lack of participation from the
external. And that's just sustainable for a business and our
budget.
Considering a strong partnership with our community
partners, our local workforce boards, our community technical
college system is what we'd really be looking forward to.
Senator Tuberville. Is the current system working?
Mr. Dickerson. I think there's challenges with the current
system that make it difficult to be successful. I think we have
some spotlights in Northeast Louisiana that I'm proud of to say
that we are working, but not to scale and not to meet the
demand of employers in our areas.
Senator Tuberville. Yes. Education is the opportunity for
our kids in the country. And I heard even earlier about people
that have lost their jobs, which is rightly so. Education, all
my life, our education system has abandoned us in some degree.
We need to do a lot more work with that.
I know I have two huge manufacturing plants in Mobile. We
make commercial jets, we make ships and submarines, and they
have gone out recruiting in McDonald's and Walmart to train
people how to weld and how to do plumbing and electricity. Some
of the best workers. We can't sustain our Country like that. We
can't do it. It's got to be done through the educational
system.
Too many of our kids go to 4-year schools that they don't
need to go. I've watched that. I was part of that. And so, kids
that come and get a degree in something that they could never
get a job and had to go work at Walmart. So, Mr. Sullivan, why
is WIOA funding having such a minimum impact on our broader
workforce needs?
Dr. Sullivan. Thank you for the question. I think it's
important to note the funding level of WIOA. I think it was
referenced at about $3 billion. Just for a sake of reference,
the Federal Pell Program is about $30 billion. So, just let
that sink in for a second about the scope and scale.
Think about the number of colleges that are available and
the ability to be able to scale, as you heard Mr. Dickerson say
a few minutes ago, to ensure that everyone has that
opportunity. I think that's where we've got to find a way. But
the reality is, there are very few people out of the 150,000
that we have educated every year in Louisiana's community and
technical colleges that are funded via WIOA. That number is
likely very similar to the number that you have in Alabama,
somewhere around the 1,100 or 1,200 range.
Senator Tuberville. Yes. We're in a tough situation. I'm
all for Pell Grants. I dealt with them for years with football
players and all that. The problem is, I think they're misused,
but we could use Pell Grant more for workforce development, for
kids that just want to specify on something. I think that
junior colleges, obviously, there's a lot of things that we can
do to help, but we just don't do it. We talk about it. We don't
do it. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
The Chair. Senator Markey.
Senator Markey. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. We cannot solve
our current significant overdose crisis without programs that
support workers. This is why the Workforce Innovation and
Opportunity Act demonstration grants funding workforce
development programs in states, counties, and towns with
widespread opioid use are so important.
In New Bedford, Massachusetts, for example, this funding
enabled 140 formerly incarcerated individuals to get training
for high-demand jobs with a living wage in the maritime trade
industry.
As the public health crisis evolves with rising
polysubstance use disorder and substances like xylazine finding
its way into fentanyl, we have to fund these programs
permanently.
Mr. Bradley, in your testimony, you state that workforce
development is essential to help every individual create and
sustain a career that will enable them to support themselves
and their loved ones. Why is it important for WIOA to fund
programs that allow people impacted by substance use disorder
to find meaningful, dignified, and well-paid work?
Dr. Bradley. Thank you, Senator. Yes, it's important. I
think you've hit on a key point here, which is that people who
interact with the workforce development system are coming from
all different circumstances, all different sets of needs,
different sets of backgrounds, different sets of challenges and
barriers.
In one of the programs that you're talking about, the DOL
did a couple of pilot programs, demonstration programs, through
the authority of WIOA in sort of 2018, 2019, related to the
opioid crisis. And because of the flexibility that they had
under the demonstration authority, they were able to move into
this area.
I don't think opioids is like mentioned in the statute of
WIOA, but when crises happen, DOL is able to direct some of its
resources at the national level toward these. So, I guess, I
would say that it's important to remember that not everybody
coming into the system has similar challenges, similar needs.
There needs to be some flexibility about the type of
programming to meet them where they are.
Senator Markey. Senator Romney was talking about the
fishing industry in Massachusetts earlier, and New Bedford is
the largest port in the United States' fishing ports. And so,
this is the kind of program that is working to help people to
be able to make a new life for themselves.
YouthBuild is a Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act
program that serves over 5,000 16-to 24-year-olds who are not
working and are not in school. The young people enrolled in
YouthBuild obtain a high school degree, learn trades by
building affordable housing in their community, and gain
fundamental jobs skills. These programs help kids get
opportunities they were previously denied and give them the
tools to build the pathway to their future.
My YouthBuild for the Future Act would support this crucial
work by providing more funding. That programs can use more
flexibly. This program works, which is why we need to provide
enough funding for it by allowing Department of Labor funds to
match AmeriCorps funds.
YouthBuild will also need flexibility in spending funds
such as being able to provide meals to participants. We cannot
expect young people to learn while they're hungry. So, Ms.
White, why is it important to fully and flexibly fund
YouthBuild?
Ms. White. Thank you for the question, Senator, from my
home state. So, as you mentioned, YouthBuild provides critical
training opportunities for young people who face really
significant barriers to employment. And they provide a really
important service to the communities where they're working in,
in building homes.
A big part of the flexibility that you mentioned, I think
is important because as we've seen in YouthBuild, there are
really positive short-term outcomes for young people. There's
less evidence that over time those positive benefits are
retained.
Many of the programs that are having really strong results
today have been able to forge partnerships with community
colleges, with AmeriCorps, with other organizations, so that
young people who complete those programs have a warm handoff to
a clear next step.
Flexible resources for YouthBuild programs to continue
developing strong partnerships with employers in their
communities connecting to apprenticeship programs and forging
partnerships with community colleges in other education
programs so those young people have a very clear and supported
transition. When the program ends, we'll help ensure that
YouthBuild continues to be successful and increases the long-
term benefits for its participants as well.
Senator Markey. Thank you. Thank you for your work. And Dr.
Bly-Jones, could you talk about why it's important to have
workforce training in the clean energy sector, this growth
sector for our economy?
Dr. Bly-Jones. Thank you for the question. And so, it's
important, and I have to say under the leadership of my
Governor, J.B. Pritzker, he signed into legislation. So, we are
actually using state funds for the Clean Energy Jobs Act. And
it is really about making sure that we have renewable energy.
It's also comprehensive. It's an example of the sector
partnership that I talked about when I talked about working
with contractors, talking about the communities that have been
affected by pollution, and making sure those individuals are a
part of the skills development for those clean energy jobs that
we will have in Illinois.
In addition to that, we've also included the population
that we referenced earlier; those returning citizens. So, we
are being intentional about the population. We are being
intentional working on both sides of the equation with the job
training program, but also with the contractors, and
subcontractors, and the employment piece to make sure that we
are not training individuals for jobs that don't exist, but
that we are doing the match on the front end and ensuring that
the employers are engaged with us throughout the entire
process, and that's a true sector partnership.
Senator Markey. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
The Chair. Senator Braun.
Senator Braun. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I come from a place
in Southern Indiana, where I live in a town in a county that's
got one of the lowest unemployment rates, both town and county.
And our state, we're the biggest manufacturing state per
capita. We've got a place called Ivy Tech, that's that bridge
between what should be done in high school. Like, it used to be
done to where you don't need a bridge on basic skills. Sue
Ellspermann, who runs Ivy Tech gave me some disturbing news
that they've got a labor participation rate of 86 percent, want
to take a crack at our 63. So, they do what I remember years
ago to where every high school was emphasizing career and
technical education, the pathway there I think has been
oversold. It's also too darn expensive to boot.
I'm interested. Have we really changed the dynamic? So, you
don't need as much participation here. We definitely need that
flexibility to where Pell money can be used for that. But let's
go back to the source of the issue.
I was on our school board and found out the guidance
counselors were stigmatizing against stuff we're talking about.
And that's where it's got to start with transparency. Maybe a
portal here, at least in every state, what are the high-demand,
high-wage jobs so parents and kids can clearly see it and then
get establishment education behind it to where they're telling
kids and parents what makes more sense, especially when you
look at what the cost of a college education was 40 years ago
compared to what it is now.
A lot of times the end result is you get exported out of
state to find a job with a bad degree or back into the
basement. So, I'd like each one of you to comment on, if we do
all of this, we put more programs behind it.
When I was in our state legislature seven, 8 years ago, we
were spending $1 billion on 19 different programs, and none of
them are really doing that much good. And the true solution is
maybe not K through 6, but it's middle school through high
school when it's a bargain for education and getting everything
lined up with transparency and proper guidance.
We'll start with Ms. White, and try to keep it to 30
seconds or so, so I can hear everybody's opinion.
Ms. White. Thank you for the question, Senator. So, I mean,
I think your point about alignment is spot on. I think that's
something that has to happen between our middle schools, or
high schools, and post-secondary training and education
options.
One thing I would emphasize, I had a chance to travel last
year with the delegation from Indiana to the institute in
Switzerland, where there's a team right now. One thing I want
to underscore about what's so different about that system is
the employer leadership and the employer coordination. That's a
really big difference. The employers are not just playing a
role in hiring students for work-based learning. They are
working hand in hand with educators to define that curriculum.
And we need mechanisms in place to make that happen stronger
and more rapidly.
Senator Braun. Good point, because they were detached in
Indiana from that equation. They just thought the system was
going to produce it automatically.
Dr. Bradley.
Dr. Bradley. Thank you, Senator. Yes, one, I agree with you
that there needs to be some connectivity and continuity, and I
think one of the ways of looking at successful dual enrollment
programs.
When you're in high school being dually enrolled in an
institute of higher education, and people can start--students
can start to understand what they might want to go into and
start building the skills and abilities to do that. But you're
introduced at a younger age, and there's a clear path forward
just out. The idea is it doesn't just stop in 12th grade. You
can see the future.
Senator Braun. Dr. Sullivan.
Dr. Sullivan. Senator, thank you for your leadership,
certainly on the JOBS Act. but I'll tell you, I think a lot of
what we've heard today is about blending what we have
traditionally thought of in different frames of education.
Things are different today. Even dual enrollment is effectively
a blending of K-12 in post-secondary.
What I would urge is a much less of a siloed approach, and
an approach that allows individuals to have dollars to be able
to go out and find the training that has the greatest value for
them, but not to limit that to a one-shot deal.
A final point, do not drop benefits just because an
individual gets a job. What we know is that there's a benefits
cliff that is happening in this country that needs to be
smoothed out, that allows an individual to get a job and keep
those benefits.
Dr. Bly-Jones. Thank you, Senator. I have three words that
I'm going to use. I'm going to use awareness, coordination, and
alignment.
Aware of the actual occupations that exist in that local
community, local economy. Alignment with the actual systems
that we've talked about. So, talking about the employer,
talking about the schools, the jobs, and all of those
supportive services. And coordination, everything has to be
coordinated. We've talked about this. We've talked about
needing more resources, but the way to best utilize and
leverage resources is to make sure they're properly
coordinated. Thank you,
Senator Braun. Mr. Dickerson.
Mr. Dickerson. Yes, Senator. I want to talk about a couple
of things that are, I would say, actionable that are happening
in Northeast Louisiana. One, one conversation you talked about
the stigma between college-bound and career-bound education.
And our belief and our message is that every student is a
career-bound student, whether that's immediately after high
school, 4 years, or 16 years. When they complete high school,
they're going to end up in our workplaces. And so, we want to
celebrate working in our area.
The second thing is our sector partnership. The Northeast
Louisiana Manufacturers Alliance and Consortium is developing a
website. Because you talked about awareness about careers in
our area, but the manufacturing, and really branding, and
marketing manufacturing in Northeast Louisiana that's going to
go live here in the next couple of months.
But in that, I want to share one way that we're getting
into the classrooms is through virtual 360 tours where a
student will have a library, teachers have a library of videos,
they can tour our manufacturing facility and a dozen others
without ever leaving their classroom, just to bring that
awareness piece in.
Senator Braun. Thank you. Very good.
The Chair. Senator Murkowski.
Senator Murkowski. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Just following-
up on that, and I wish that I had been there for the full scope
of that question. But to the comments that you had made, Mr.
Dickerson, I was reading an article from The Wall Street
Journal just yesterday, and it's entitled, Gen Z Plumbers and
Construction Workers are Making #Blue Collar Cool. So, I mean,
doesn't that get your attention?
We spend a lot of money trying to figure out, all right,
how are we going to attract young people into the trades? And
the article goes on about a young woman who is an electrician
in Cornwall, New York, and she's on TikTok, Instagram, and
Facebook. Did you see her recently atop a bucket truck, adding
utility outlets to power poles, or fixing an electric panel in
a water damaged basement. And then, we've got a plumber, 23-
year-old guy out of California who has a TikTok video of
himself removing a water heater with a dolly.
By the time he woke the next morning, it had 470,000 views.
So, all right, people, let's pay attention to our young people,
how they are communicating this. And they're looking at this
and they're seeing these are good jobs. These are not only jobs
that can take care of a 23-year-old young person, but it's
really good wages. And they point that out in this article and
how these young people are kind of blowing out the stereotypes.
They talk about one young woman who wants to show that it's
Okay to be feminine in a male-dominated industry of welding.
So, she's in full makeup and mascara, whatever it is that
takes. But I think these are good reminders to us that how we
are able to reach young people about these career opportunities
and why they truly are careers.
This is not just a detour on your way to a college degree.
These are jobs that everybody needs. You've got great people
that want to be doctors and lawyers, but every one of them
needs to have their toilet worked on in their house. They need
to have their lights go on, they need their electricians. So,
how we make this real, I think, is so much of what we're trying
to do with workforce development.
I just came from a meeting with the Alaska Home Builders
Association and we're talking about really the housing crisis
within our state. And it comes down to one thing. You've got
builders, but they can't get the framers, they can't get the
electricians, they can't get what they need. It's all
workforce, workforce, workforce.
As we are looking to focus on the Workforce Innovation and
Opportunity Act, I'm one who's looking to make sure that we're
advancing our legislation for that next generation. Not
thinking what it is that we think they should have, but what it
is that is going to attract them that's going to be able to
provide for those jobs.
I want to make sure that we're incorporating flexibility
into these programs because I come from a big state with big
geography, low population, super high costs. Your
transportation costs just are killers. But I'll tell you one of
the things that has been an impediment to our workforce
training programs is they're all located in your cities, in
your larger population centers.
But I've got 80 percent of the State of Alaska. Our
communities are not connected by roads. So, people have got to
fly in. So, it's not like they can go take a training class and
then be at home dealing with their kids, or spouse, or whatever
it is. So, for us, what they're looking for are childcare,
transportation costs.
How we can incorporate flexibility into these programs is
something that I hope that you would all share, is going to be
a positive. That also is an attraction when it comes to young
people looking to these training opportunities.
I've talked, haven't allowed you more than 40 seconds now
to say anything, but can any of you speak to how important it
is to how flexibility----
The Chair. I'm going to give you an extra minute. How's
that?
[Laughter.]
Senator Murkowski. Oh, thank you. Thank you, Chairman.
Flexibility.
Dr. Bradley. Thank you, Senator. That's a great question. I
did not know. Did you say 80 percent of Alaskan towns are not
connected by roads?
Senator Murkowski. That is correct. It's either by water or
by air.
Dr. Bradley. Oh, interesting.
Senator Murkowski. Interesting and very costly.
Dr. Bradley. Yes, indeed. I would say, and just to go back
to Senator Markey's questions about the flexibility, that
people come to the workforce system with very different
backgrounds, very different needs.
We had a panel recently where workforce leaders from
different cities came in and they were talking about the
workforce system being a barrier reduction system. And so,
meaning that people are going to come in with different
barriers and have different needs and that there has to be some
flexibility. Everyone doesn't get the same treatment
essentially.
I would say that's the importance. You'd see diverse
populations coming in with very different needs and
backgrounds.
Dr. Sullivan. I would just add that it's not only a diverse
population, but it's also Federal regulations that we're all
expected to follow with populations that are diverse, with
goals that are diverse, and with timeframes that are diverse.
And so, it is absolutely necessary that we have the
flexibility.
The final point is we all expect these programs and the
training to be aligned with the regional economy. Federal
guidelines to align with the regional economy. So, you can
imagine that's threading a needle. So, looking for that
flexibility is going to be key.
Senator Murkowski. Do you think that the way things are
structured currently that we do have that flexibility,
government programs by their very nature are not inherently
built to be flexible?
Dr. Bly-Jones. I'll jump in. Thanks for that question and
expanding upon that. One of the areas of advocacy that the
Chicago Jobs Council continues to advance is making sure there
are barrier reduction funds, and that the definition of
supportive services is more expansive. So, you talked about----
Senator Murkowski. Would that include like childcare,
transportation?
Dr. Bly-Jones. Yes. I was just going to say you talked
about childcare, you talked about transportation. We talk a lot
about supplies for individuals, what they need to actually get
to work. You talked a lot about construction. A lot of the
equipment that individuals need can be very costly.
Then, the other component I mentioned earlier is even
adding in the mental health piece. So, expanding the definition
of what supportive services actually are, and then making sure
you have those funds allocated to actually reduce the barriers
for individuals to be able to get to work.
We talked a lot about fines and fees that keep people away
from work too. A lot of work that we do at CJC is eliminating
some of those barriers related to fines and fees that can
inhibit someone from--they can have a suspended driver's
license and can't get to work. So, being able to address all of
those things with a much more expansive definition is what we
look to advocate for in terms of reducing barriers.
Senator Murkowski. Thank you. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
The Chair. Thank you, Senator. I think you've had almost
every Member of the Committee here which tells you how
important this issue is to people from all over the country.
And I thank all of you for being here today.
This is the end of our hearing. For any Senators who wish
to ask additional questions, questions for the record will be
due in 10 business days, June 27th by 5 p.m.
The Chair. I ask unanimous consent to enter into the record
four statements in support of workforce development. Without
objection.
[The following information can be found on page 74 in
Additional Material:]
The Chair. The Committee stands adjourned. Thank you.
ADDITIONAL MATERIAL
[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
QUESTIONS FOR THE RECORD
Response by David Bradley to Questions of Senator Lujan and Senator
Hassan
senator lujan
Question 1. Based on your extensive knowledge of WIOA, could
efforts to increase flexibility for program administration allow WIOA
programming to better serve Native communities?
Answer 1. Yes. In recognition of the need to reduce costs and time
for administering workforce development programs for federally
recognized tribes and tribal organizations, Congress enacted P.L. 102-
477 (often referred to as ``477'') in 1992. In brief, P.L. 102-477
allows federally recognized tribes to submit ``477 Plans'' to the
Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) that allow for the consolidation of
multiple Federal funding streams and reporting requirements, which
allows for more funding to be spent on support for job placements and
case management activities. The law, which has been amended twice since
its enactment, has resulted in significant, but incomplete
consolidation. As of 2024, there are 78 Plans approved across 38
individual Federal programs, which represent 298 federally recognized
tribes. While this consolidation has resulted in cost savings through
consolidated administration, the 298 tribes with 477 plans currently
represent just over half of the 574 federally recognized tribes.
Additional efforts to incentivize more tribes to participate in 477
plans would provide greater flexibility and reduced administrative
costs, thus allowing more individuals to participate in employment and
training programs.
Question 2. In your understanding, does the funding allocated to
WIOA Section 166 adequately meet the need for employment and training
services currently experienced by Native communities?
Answer 2. Funding for programs authorized under Section 166 of WIOA
and its corresponding predecessor programs under previous versions of
WIOA--the Job Training Partnership Act (JTPA) and the Workforce
Innovation Act (WIA)--has declined significantly in the past several
decades. In Fiscal Year (FY) 2024, programs authorized under Section
166 of WIOA received $60 million. Compared to funding for similar
programs under JTPA in its first year (1984), this is a small drop of
$2.2 million in nominal terms (-3.6 percent) but a steep decline of
$127.6 million in inflation-adjusted terms (-68.0 percent). If WIOA
programs for Native Americans were funded at the same level (inflation-
adjusted) in 1984, Section 166 would now be funded at $188 million,
rather than the current $60 million. Given the relatively higher rates
of unemployment and poverty among Native Americans, this significant
decline in funding makes it more difficult to provide adequate
employment and training services to Native communities.
senator hassan
Question 1. I've heard from some stakeholders who say WIOA
reporting requirements are overly burdensome. State and local leaders
devote significant resources to writing lengthy plans which--in some
cases--end up acting as more of a compliance exercise than a strategic,
project management tool. I've also heard that community partners are
sometimes dissuaded from becoming eligible training providers due to
WIOA's performance reporting requirements. This can unintentionally
stifle innovation and the diversification of providers.
How do we strike the right balance between performance
accountability and nonburdensome reporting requirements? Are the
current performance indicators the right ones? If not, what should be
added or taken away?
Answer 1. In enacting WIOA in 2014, Congress adopted a set of 6
common performance metrics that would apply across all titles of WIOA.
This was an effort to streamline data collection and reporting and to
allow for easier comparison of performance across all WIOA programs.
While streamlining performance indicators was a step in the right
direction, there are additional measures that Congress could take to
reduce the administrative burdens associated with collecting and
reporting data. For example, a designated state agency should be
required to assist training providers by performing all ``back end''
data operations, such as matching program participants with wage
records. In addition, automatic eligibility for certain providers, such
as community colleges, would reduce barriers to entry for some training
providers. Current WIOA performance indicators center on outcomes that
occur after exiting a WIOA program. While these indicators provide
important information about employment placements, credential
attainment, and wage gains, this may lead to a focus on short-term
results for an outcome to count. Adding an indicator that captures
career progression could encourage system providers to focus on career
pathways and other strategies that are effective over a period beyond
just placement in employment.
Question 2. Students in rural communities often struggle to find
post-secondary educational opportunities that align with the needs of
businesses in their communities. This results in many young people
leaving their communities or not pursuing post-secondary education.
What improvements should we make to WIOA so that rural communities
can develop and sustain strong workforce development systems?
Answer 2. Rural communities often face challenges unique from urban
or suburban settings, such as a lack of training providers, unreliable
internet service, a lack of public transportation, and limited options
for career advancement. Starting in 2019, DOL is currently funding its
sixth round of grants under the Workforce Opportunity for Rural
Communities (WORC) Initiative, which is designed to provide grants to
help address persistent economic challenges through aligning community-
led economic and workforce development strategies and activities.
Building on the lessons learned and best practices from WORC grantees,
Congress could codify the WORC Initiative in WIOA (currently it is
authorized under the demonstration authority in WIOA and thus not
directly in statute). Codifying the WORC Initiative would allow
Congress to set program parameters and priorities, authorize funding
levels, and create a more stable program rather than relying on
demonstration authority.
Question 3. Competency-based assessments can help individuals
bypass unnecessary course or training requirements if they're able to
demonstrate that they already have the desired knowledge for a given
role or credential.
How can we improve and expand the use of competency-based
assessments in the workforce system?
Answer 3. Competency-based assessments have a critical role in the
larger ecosystem of skills-based employment practices, which focuses on
documenting and translating skills and competencies, regardless of
where they were obtained, into signals of qualification in the labor
market. Congress could encourage the expansion of competency-based
assessments by supporting the development and implementation of a
common skills language used by employers, learners, jobseekers, and
education providers. This also includes the development and deployment
of digital credential wallets that are recognized and accepted across
education systems, workforce systems, and employers. These wallets
would serve as repositories of easily shareable and verifiable digital
records of people's work and learning histories and would facilitate
seamless transitions across learning and employment opportunities.
Federal support for efforts to develop and scale digital credentials
wallets could include funding pilots that use innovative technologies
such as blockchain to ensure portability and verification, convening
key stakeholders, and supporting research and development.
______
Response by Dr. Lisa Bly-Jones to Questions of Senator Lujan, Senator
Hassan and Senator Smith
senator lujan
Question 1. Thanks to the passage of the Bipartisan Infrastructure
Law and Inflation Reduction Act, we've seen an investment of Federal
dollars across the country that will allow us to build infrastructure
that meets the needs of the 21st century. In additional to Federal
dollars though, we need a skilled workforce that is ready to begin
construction on these infrastructure projects.
What can we do here at the Federal level to ensure WIOA programs
are nimble enough to meet the demand of sectors such as broadband or
clean energy that require skilled workers?
Answer 1. Although WIOA requires states and local workforce boards
to support industry partnerships, WIOA does not supply targeted
funding. To ensure WIOA programs are nimble enough to meet the demand
of sectors such as broadband or clean energy, WIOA reauthorization
should include dedicated funding to establish and maintain industry and
sector partnerships. With WIOA there is a lot of emphasis on
individuals, but there is also a need for stronger ties to employers
that provide access to career pathways for workers with progressive
levels of education, training, supportive services and credentials
throughout an individual's career.
Each local community has a local economy and employers in those
communities are best able to identify emerging industry trends,
recommend training needs based on the skills required for the
occupations that exist. It's critical to involve employers on the front
end and establish industry or sector partnerships that bring together
local businesses, and other stakeholders, to develop workforce
strategies and provide training that supports area demand. This is
especially valuable for small and medium-sized businesses.
A reauthorization of WIOA should include language similar to the
Digital Skills for Today's Workforce Act which would establish a
formula grant program for states to develop digital skills training
programs as well as provide funding to support digital equity among
individuals who face barriers to employment and who have been
historically underrepresented. Digital Skills Building is necessary in
today's labor market to keep up with technological advancements.
Technology is increasingly prevalent at all career levels and across
industries. According to a NSC report, ``Recent research shows that 92
percent of jobs require digital skills and that number is expected to
increase. At the same time, only two-thirds of workers have the
foundational digital skills necessary to enter and thrive in today's
jobs.'' Workers and businesses require digital skills support
especially related to upskilling opportunities for workers who are on
the job and reskilling opportunities for those who have lost jobs.
senator hassan
Question 1. I've heard from some stakeholders who say WIOA
reporting requirements are overly burdensome. State and local leaders
devote significant resources to writing lengthy plans which--in some
cases--end up acting as more of a compliance exercise than a strategic,
project management tool. I've also heard that community partners are
sometimes dissuaded from becoming eligible training providers due to
WIOA's performance reporting requirements. This can unintentionally
stifle innovation and the diversification of providers.
How do we strike the right balance between performance
accountability and nonburdensome reporting requirements? Are the
current performance indicators the right ones? If not, what should be
added or taken away?
Answer 1. Striking the right balance between performance
accountability and nonburdensome reporting requirements are accurately
described as a challenge and concern.
With funding not keeping pace with inflation and wage increases,
offices responsible for reporting requirements are short-staffed and
stretched thin, which creates a burden when there is insufficient
staffing to support the work.
The current performance indicators are the right ones, but they do
not go far enough to measure if workforce programs are leading to long-
term economic gains for workers and businesses. The current measures
reflect short-term outcomes and do not adequately capture how people
progress from entry-level jobs, experience wage and skill advancement
with an employer, and continue their education to progress along a
quality career pathway.
WIOA performance indicators should be expanded to include measures
on quality credential attainment, employment and wage outcomes for at
least 2-years after program completion, occupation specific job
placement and measures on job quality, such as hourly wages and hours
worked.
WIOA should also disaggregate all training performance outcomes by
race, ethnicity, gender, and other important demographic or
socioeconomic factors like English language proficiency, income, and
geography, in order to effectively evaluate progress toward equitable
outcomes and the efficacy of the public workforce system for all
workers, including workers of color who are the majority of those
accessing these services.
Access to workforce data enhances our ability to advocate for
workforce equity. By receiving comprehensive data on the state's
workforce, we can better identify areas of improvement, advocate for
policies that benefit all residents and measure programmatic progress.
senator smith
Question 1. I frequently hear from people who are eager to go into
high-quality, good-paying careers, but struggle to do so. These are
people who want to work hard, contribute to their communities and
support their families, but they face some tremendous barriers. It's my
belief that some of the key things that help people get and keep jobs
are transportation, training and childcare. Dr. Bly-Jones, some argue
that providing supportive services through WIOA is not a good use of
funds or that we should have stricter rules about how much should go
toward training and limit what we can spend on supportive services.
What do you think of that perspective, and what challenges have you
encountered when facilitating access to supportive services?
Answer 1. The Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA, P.L.
113-128) programs appear to be reaching the at-risk populations the
workforce system is intended to serve. Some customers, however, have
greater barriers than others, and it is not clear that all customers
get the services they need to succeed. WIOA programs do not provide
sufficient supportive services to help customers overcome systemic
barriers that disproportionately impact women, people of color, people
with disabilities, and other groups.
In 2021, the Chicago Jobs Council released Supportive Services:
Lessons Learned from the Field which outlines the importance of
expanding and enhancing supportive services within workforce
development programs to address systemic barriers to employment,
particularly for groups that have been marginalized. This includes
childcare, housing, and transportation, which are essential for
securing and maintaining employment as well as mental health services
which have become increasingly important following the pandemic.
In that report, contributors identified that ``six months or a year
is not enough time for people who have experienced trauma, such as
mental illness, homelessness, or incarceration, to seamlessly
transition back into the workforce'' and that ``losing supportive
services during the gap of time between when a client becomes employed
and gets their first paycheck can make it hard for participants to meet
their own needs.'' \1\ Congress can ensure that there are sufficient
resources to bolster supportive services and have those services extend
past probationary employment periods in order to help give participants
more time to adjust and settle into jobs. Language in the BUILDS Act
could serve as a model for these efforts as the legislative text
includes provisions to provide support to workers in the pre-employment
stage and for as much as a year into a job.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\1\ https://static1.squarespace.com/static/
63a0838721aff66b22dd2598/t/63a0987639ba57582d347355/1671469174913/
Supportive-Services-Summary-Report-Sept-2021-FINAL.pdf.
For people facing entrenched barriers to employment, particularly
women and people of color, the process of finding a good-paying job
along a career pathway can be especially challenging. These systemic
and structural barriers can manifest as limited affordable childcare
options, lack of transportation access, inadequate or unaffordable
healthcare, and housing instability resulting from public disinvestment
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
in those services.
Question 2. We have made record investments in critical sectors
like manufacturing and clean energy through the Inflation Reduction Act
and the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. Nationwide, we've
already seen the creation of 800,000 new manufacturing jobs and 270,000
clean energy jobs since the beginning of the Biden administration,
including 1,100 clean energy jobs in Minnesota. We will need to
continue to grow our workforce. Dr. Bly-Jones, how can we ensure that
as we do so, all workers will have the opportunity to benefit?
Answer 2. The ideal model for comprehensive inclusive strategies is
local Sector Partnerships and Pathways. The workforce system is a dual-
customer system, serving the needs of both jobseekers and businesses.
State and local workforce boards work directly with businesses and
industries to understand and address their workforce needs and support
economic development. In that role, both state and local boards have an
opportunity to collaborate with businesses to increase the diversity of
their workforce and increase the availability of quality jobs and the
supports workers need to succeed in them. WIOA reauthorization should
include dedicated funding to establish and maintain industry and sector
partnerships.
Many quality jobs with family sustaining wages require a
postsecondary degree or credential. The Chicago Jobs Council (CJC) has
been working with coalition partners and stakeholders to build a robust
clean energy workforce in Illinois by fostering collaborations across
the labor, education, and industry sectors.
CJC was actively involved in the passage of the Illinois Climate
Equity Jobs Act (CEJA), which could be a national model for clean
energy and infrastructure jobs. CEJA prioritizes investments, job
training, and business opportunities in communities disproportionately
impacted by pollution and climate change. It funds training programs to
prepare workers, including formerly incarcerated individuals, for clean
energy jobs. CEJA establishes programs to assist both startup
contractors in the solar industry as well as contractors looking to
grow and become prime contractors for renewable energy projects. CEJA
aims to reach 100 percent renewable energy by 2050, phasing out fossil
fuel plants by 2045. Requires 40 percent renewable energy by 2030 and
50 percent by 2040--a major increase in clean energy deployment.
Additionally, the act supports workers, creates new community grants,
and promotes utility accountability and ethics reform. Overall, it
establishes Illinois as a national leader in equitable climate policy
by centering disadvantaged communities, driving major emissions
reductions, and holding utilities accountable--all without raising
taxes.
Established sector partnerships provide real-time conversations and
innovation to pivot where needed based on emerging needs and keeping
pace with technological advances. Localized collaboration supports
employers in their recruitment and retention efforts to create a
pipeline and build a diverse workforce within their industry. Long-
standing relationships with employers happens at the local level. WIOA
reauthorization should include dedicated funding to establish and
maintain industry and sector partnerships.
In 2020, CJC released a report entitled Building Pathways to Clean
Energy Jobs in Illinois, which highlights the importance of investing
in the future clean energy workforce as part of public investments in
clean energy infrastructure. The report is informed by interviews with
clean energy employers, workforce development practitioners, policy
experts, and uses publicly available labor market and job posting
information to illustrate how the state can effectively invest in
workforce development so that people marginalized by racism, sexism,
and environmental injustice can directly access [clean energy] jobs,
advance within green industries, and benefit from public investments in
clean energy. \2\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\2\ https://static1.squarespace.com/static/
63a0838721aff66b22dd2598/t/63a0986c2f41ed099d83a59c/1671469164785/
Building-Pathways-to-Clean-Energy-Jobs-in-Illinois-March-2021.pdf.
Through collaboration and partnership with those closest to the
issues. The Chicago Jobs Council (CJC) is a relentless advocate for
economic equity and inclusion, working tirelessly to empower
individuals from all walks of life to achieve financial stability and
self-sufficiency.
______
Response by Matthew Dickerson to Questions of Senator Hassan
senator hassan
Question 1. Students in rural communities often struggle to find
post-secondary educational opportunities that align with the needs of
businesses in their communities. This results in many young people
leaving their communities or not pursuing post-secondary education.
What improvements should we make to WIOA so that rural communities
can develop and sustain strong workforce development systems?
Answer 1. Summary: It is no secret that rural communities are
grappling with substantial challenges in establishing effective
workforce development systems, primarily due to factors such as brain
drain, sparse employer distribution over vast geographic areas, under-
resourced populations, and limited access to crucial skills training
and employment opportunities. These obstacles are intensified by
diminishing Federal support, which constrains the ability of local
workforce boards to afford tuition and vital supportive services
necessary for fostering workforce talent in economically disadvantaged
regions. This situation forces many residents to migrate to urban areas
in search of improved prospects, subsequently depriving rural areas of
essential services like healthcare, affordable housing, and skills
development facilities.
The shortfall in funding complicates the implementation of
customized skills training programs that could benefit both local
employers and their prospective employees. Although the Workforce
Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) provides personalized guidance
and case management important for participant success, the scarcity of
supportive services in rural locales presents considerable challenges.
Additionally, the establishment of industry and community partnerships
and access to American Job Centers (AJCs) are hindered by the limited
organizational presence and logistical constraints such as inadequate
public transportation, high costs, or insufficient internet access for
virtual services.
A pressing need exists to augment WIOA funding tailored to rural
local workforce development areas to rectify these issues and bolster
support for rural districts. This increase in financial support would
alleviate some of the economic pressures these areas face, enabling the
realization of robust workforce development systems that empower
marginalized individuals and contribute to rural communities' economic
growth and sustainability. Revising transportation funding under WIOA
and addressing employment within family run businesses are critical
steps. Moreover, adapting the WIOA to enhance post-secondary education
alignment with local business needs, expand workforce training for
better economic mobility, modify performance metrics for more adaptable
training provision, and incorporate Economic Development as a mandated
resource-sharing partner can significantly aid these efforts.
Narrative: Rural communities continue to experience challenges in
their efforts to provide remote services and programs to both
individual and employer customers. The ``brain-drain'' which widens
prime-age employment gaps, and creates an unfair competition with large
corporations in big cities for top talent continues to exist.
Additionally, rural workforce systems operate differently from their
urban and suburban counter parts, facing unique challenges such as
having fewer employers spread across a larger geographic area and
historically under-resourced populations when compared to their urban
counterparts.
In many instances, students in rural, poor areas lacking adequate
access to necessary skills training; particularly skills training that
may result in a full-time, unsubsidized employment opportunity in a
demand occupation in a targeted industry. Likewise, employers encounter
difficulties in sourcing affordable skills training that meets their
workforce integration needs. From the viewpoint of a rural, local
workforce board covering 6,500 square miles, and with a single
community college operating three rural campuses, hosting economically
viable training classes typically necessitates a minimum class size of
10 or more. Given the specialized training needs of businesses,
consortia of employers are impractical.
A constant reduction in Federal funding has left local workforce
boards unable to cover the demand for tuition costs and essential
supportive services that are critical for significantly improving the
workforce talent in rural, economically disadvantaged areas. As a
result, both youth and adults are forced to relocate to larger urban
centers in pursuit of education, skills training, and job prospects.
This forced migration leaves those who remain, feeling trapped and
abandoned; often forced into accepting low-wage jobs that fail to
provide self-sufficient wages and perpetuates generational poverty in
rural areas. Additionally, this migration of people seeking better
opportunities elsewhere often results in limited access to healthcare,
diminished affordable housing options, and restricted opportunities for
skills development in rural American communities.
Many times, local employers in rural communities can benefit from
customized skills training which is a viable employer-based training
service available under WIOA, to train prospective trainees prior to
employment placement. However, the magnitude of training needs (i.e.,
classroom, employer-based) far exceeds the availability of funding. In
addition, small businesses lack the employer match necessary to
implement the Customized Training Agreement.
A critical component of WIOA is the personalized guidance provided
by the case management staff which is tailored to the specific needs
and goals of each individual participant. This individualized approach
fosters a deeper connection between the case manager and the
participant, enhancing participant engagement and motivation to achieve
successful program outcomes. Regular check-ins and progress assessments
by case managers ensure that participants stay on track toward the
achievement of their education and employment goals as jointly created
and agreed upon by the individual and his/her case manager and made a
part of the individual's program plan (IEP). This accountability
fosters a sense of responsibility and ownership over their professional
development, ultimately strengthening their human capital through
consistent growth and improvement. While urban and suburban areas have
many supportive service options available, rural areas do not, making
it more expensive and cumbersome to provide support.
Developing and maintaining industry and community partnerships are
very important to the workforce system. However, finding partners in
rural areas is challenging because many organizations do not exist in
these communities, and those that do face similar challenges and
frustrations as the AJCs.
Accessing rural AJCs becomes equally challenging for individuals
when public transportation is unavailable and they cannot afford
private transport. Even when transportation is accessible, it often
proves unreliable for reaching training or job opportunities located
miles away from their residences. Additionally, while virtual services
are an alternative, individuals face significant hurdles in areas where
internet access is minimal, costs are prohibitive, or non-existent in
rural communities.
Without resources to maintain the level of services needed to
support these marginalized individuals, rural areas will continue to
suffer.
Strategy: What improvements should we make to WIOA so that rural
communities can develop and sustain strong workforce development
systems?
Improving the WIOA to better support rural communities involves
several key strategies:
1. Increase WIOA Funding to Rural Local Workforce Development
Areas: Despite stagnant or reduced funding under WIOA, rural local
areas are grappling with rising operational costs, stringent
regulations, and set-asides earmarked for special programs; many of
which ultimately send its program participant to the American Job
Centers for additional services. Consequently, rural local areas
struggle to meet the hiring demands of employers seeking candidates for
high-demand, high-wage occupations who can be trained through employer-
based programs. Additional workforce development funding would support
expanded efforts by employers to provide immediate employer-based
training and classroom training that can help ensure sustainable wage
earnings for individuals seeking job training and placement assistance.
Furthermore, resources for offering tuition and supportive services to
job seekers with certain barriers have been so inadequate that local
boards in rural areas can no longer keep up with demand.
Because of rising operational costs, it would be
beneficial if the WIOA funding would include an additional
allotment to directly support the infrastructure costs
associated with operating career centers. It is critical, now,
more than ever to maintain AJCs in rural communities. Because
of the barriers that exist for the population that we serve, we
do not want transportation to ever be a concern, or barrier.
While there are some available options to reach individuals
virtually, it is critical that we continue to provide intensive
case management and career development services, in-person to
individuals who have been determined to be the ``hardest to
serve'' populations in need of public assistance, as these
services can prove to be the lifeline needed for many people to
experience success.
2. Formula Funding Adjustments: Modify the formula for distributing
funds to account for the unique challenges and lower population
densities of rural areas. This could involve allocating a minimum
percentage of funds specifically designated for rural workforce
development efforts. At the very least, the threshold utilized to
determine unemployment and excessive underemployment should vary
annually to correspond with the national unemployment rate, workforce
participation rate, or the current dislocated worker formulary for all
funds which equitably allocates funds to all parishes/counties.
Over the past three funding cycles most states
experienced substantial decreases to their WIOA formula funding
in each of the Title I programs funded under WIOA while the
Federal allocations have remained constant. The allocation must
depend on the hold-harmless factors to avoid even deeper cuts
to states. A review of the allocation formula to ensure that
certain data variables do not have devastating effects leading
to these outcomes. Possible consideration can be to use the
Workforce Participation Rates over the Unemployment Rates,
giving a more accurate depiction of eligible adults who are not
engaged in the workforce. The formula should provide greater
sources of funds to rural area with large populations of
individuals who are not part of the state's current workforce,
and therefore not included in the Workforce Participation Rate
of the state.
3. Flexibility in Fund Usage: Provide greater flexibility in how
funds can be used in rural areas. This includes allowing funds to
support innovative approaches, such as mobile training units, distance
learning technologies, or partnerships with local industries, which may
be more effective in rural settings. Expand the amount allowable for
local incumbent worker training which is currently set at 20 percent of
adult and dislocated worker allocations.
Combine Adult and Dislocated Worker funds into a
single funding category to allow greater flexibility.
Y Currently, the transfer of funds can be cumbersome
and does not provide local areas with the level of
flexibility and nimbleness needed to respond quickly to
local demand shifts.
Y Dislocated Workers, under a combined funding
concept, can become a ``priority population'' like
others under current law.
4. Capacity Building: Allocate resources for technical assistance
and capacity building tailored to rural workforce development boards to
mitigate unique challenges around skills training access and funding.
This can help them effectively utilize funds, implement programs, and
navigate regulatory requirements.
Raise the allowable 20 percent percentage from Adult/
Dislocated Worker program funding a local area can expend on
incumbent worker training. These opportunities would help meet
the demand of local employers' unique skill upgrade needs;
thereby opening new job opportunities for entry level
positions. Employers would then be able to provide upward
movement for established employees increasing retention rates
and experience modifiers.
Rural areas often have difficulties finding partners
(foundations, chambers of commerce or other economic
development agencies) when many of the organizations do not
exist in rural communities; and when they do, these
organizations share the same challenges and frustrations AJCs
experience.
5. Targeted Support for Priority Industries: Focus funding on
priority industries for rural areas, such as agriculture, renewable
energy, healthcare, and tourism. This ensures that workforce
development efforts are aligned with local economic opportunities and
demand.
6. Flexible Training Delivery Models: Promote flexibility in
training delivery models to accommodate the dispersed populations and
geographic challenges of rural areas. This may include online learning
options, mobile training units, or partnerships with local community
colleges and businesses.
Rural communities often have unique economic and
demographic characteristics that may not fit well with a
standardized One-Stop Operator requirement. Removing this
requirement allows communities to tailor their workforce
development strategies to better meet local needs and leverage
local resources.
Removing the One-Stop Operator requirement can reduce
financial burdens and redirect resources to more effectively
support workforce development initiatives that directly benefit
employers and job seekers.
Overall, removing the One-Stop Operator requirement
for rural communities aims to promote flexibility, reduce
barriers to effective service delivery, and empower local
stakeholders to design and implement workforce development
strategies that are responsive to their unique challenges and
opportunities.
7. Integration of Wagner Peyser Services: Implementing the ``one
door'' strategy for integrating service delivery of both WIOA Title 1
and Title III at AJCs allowing local staff to provide employment
services promises to enhance operational effectiveness, improve service
delivery, optimize resources, and ultimately benefit both the limited
staff at remote facilities and enhance outcomes for job seekers and
employers alike.
Cost-Effectiveness: Utilizing local staff can be more
cost-effective than deploying personnel from distant locations.
It minimizes travel expenses and allows resources to be
allocated more efficiently toward direct service delivery.
Accessibility and Convenience: By having services
delivered locally, job seekers can access assistance more
conveniently. This reduces barriers such as transportation
costs and time constraints, making it easier for individuals to
seek and maintain employment.
By implementing these improvements, WIOA can better support rural
communities in developing and sustaining strong workforce systems that
are responsive to local needs and conducive to long-term economic
growth.
______
Response by Monty Sullivan to Questions of Senator Hassan, Senator
Smith, and Senator Budd
senator hassan
Question 1. I've heard from some stakeholders who say WIOA
reporting requirements are overly burdensome. State and local leaders
devote significant resources to writing lengthy plans which--in some
cases--end up acting as more of a compliance exercise than a strategic,
project management tool. I've also heard that community partners are
sometimes dissuaded from becoming eligible training providers due to
WIOA's performance reporting requirements. This can unintentionally
stifle innovation and the diversification of providers. How do we
strike the right balance between performance accountability and
nonburdensome reporting requirements? Are the current performance
indicators the right ones? If not, what should be added or taken away?
Answer 1. Accountability for Federal job training funds under WIOA
is critical to ensuring that individuals are receiving the training
that is most effective to obtain and maintain employment. The major
indicators of performance that are essential to assess most job
training programs are employment status post-training and earnings.
Within the totality of the WIOA system, however, an indicator that
assesses measurable skills gains is also important, especially when
considering how adult education fits into the WIOA system.
Question 2. Students in rural communities often struggle to find
post-secondary educational opportunities that align with the needs of
businesses in their communities. This results in many young people
leaving their communities or not pursuing post-secondary education.
What improvements should we make to WIOA so that rural communities can
develop and sustain strong workforce development systems?
Answer 2. Fostering stronger connections between educational
institutions, such as community colleges, and businesses is critical.
In Louisiana, the individual campus leaders within the Louisiana
Community and Technical College System work closely with businesses in
their local communities to understand the skills and knowledge
businesses are seeking in potential employees. This guides campus
leaders and our system to streamline educational opportunities and
industry-specific skills and knowledge. WIOA should further encourage
collaboration between businesses and community colleges.
senator smith
Question 1. It's important to me that we prepare job seekers for
high-quality, good-paying careers. However, these usually require a
firm grasp of the English language, digital literacy and numeracy. In
Minnesota and around the country, adult basic education programs are
instructing people from a variety of backgrounds in these critical
skills. What can Congress do to improve the delivery of these services,
reduce the challenges that providers may face and better respond to the
needs of adult learners?
Answer 1. As I said in my testimony, adult education programs are
essential to ensuring that our Nation's workforce can take advantage of
job training opportunities as well as succeed in obtaining and
retaining employment. Ensuring that we fund the Federal Adult Education
State Grant program is critical to reaching all of the people who need
adult education services to improve and strengthen their employability.
Adult education providers in Louisiana are adept at delivering these
services and are limited primarily by a lack of funding.
senator budd
Question 1. Dr. Sullivan, I'd like to highlight Workforce Pell and
how passing Workforce Pell this Congress will meet the needs of workers
and employers. As you may know, I introduced the Promoting Employment
for Lifelong Learning ( PELL) Act this Congress, which would allow low-
income students to use their Pell Grants at short-term, high-quality
programs that prepare them for in-demand jobs. Unfortunately, students
or workers looking to skill or re-skill do not have this option today
because Federal policy has unfairly supported only degree programs
instead of all postsecondary pathways. The PELL Act would allot short-
term programs at all institutions to be eligible while requiring these
programs to meet a number of quality requirements, so both students and
taxpayers can be assured that Pell Grant funds are supporting only
high-quality programs. As Board President of Rebuilding America's
Middle Class, you have expressed support for the PELL Act. Can you
explain why you think this bill is important? Can you describe ways
you've seen short-term program providers partner with employers to
develop relevant high-quality skills that open up good opportunities
for job seekers?
Answer 1. Extending Pell Grant eligibility to short-term courses is
essential if we are to meet American workers where they are. Many
students who attend our colleges are single parents who are also
working full-time. They simply do not have the time to spend multiple
years pursuing an associate degree part-time; a short-term program
resulting in a credential that leads directly to a good paying job with
benefits is one of the only sustainable paths for them to pursue. When
that person achieves their first credential, it puts them on a path to
earn additional credentials and possibly degrees, widening their
economic possibilities. Expanding Pell to cover these short-term
credentials may be the most important tool that Congress can give
Americans seeking a better economic future.
Question 2. Dr. Sullivan, employers are often deterred by stiff
requirements when considering whether to invest in training current or
prospective employees. Employers face the choice of paying for this
training or saving the money to allocate to other business-related
costs. How could partial reimbursements to small and medium-sized
businesses for job training accelerate worker opportunities and help
close the skills gap? Specifically, how might this encourage employers
to invest more in training and upskilling their workforce?
Answer 2. Employers working closely with community colleges produce
programs that are directly applicable to available jobs in a local
community. Employers must be part of the discussion to identify
education and training opportunities to fund with WIOA, state or local
job training resources. Often, the work that small and medium-sized
businesses do on the front end with community colleges ensures that the
businesses get a return on their investment in time.
Question 3. Dr. Sullivan, in your view, how critical are short-term
credential programs to meeting the immediate needs of local employers
and addressing skills gaps in the workforce? Can you provide examples
of partnerships between your colleges and local businesses that could
be strengthened by the availability of short-term Pell Grants?
Answer 3. Short term credential programs are extremely critical to
meeting both the needs of employers and the individuals they employ.
For example, in the healthcare space, Baton Rouge Community College
(BRCC) has partnered with local hospitals and healthcare providers to
offer short-term nursing and medical assistant programs. These programs
are designed to quickly produce qualified healthcare professionals to
meet the growing demand in the region. Short-term Pell Grants could
expand these programs, enabling more students to enroll and complete
their training, thus alleviating the critical shortage of healthcare
workers. Additionally, South Louisiana Community College (SLCC)
collaborates with Ochsner Health to provide fast-track certifications
for emergency medical technicians (EMTs) and paramedics. Increased
funding through short-term Pell Grants would allow for more extensive
training resources and potentially higher enrollment rates, directly
impacting the availability of emergency services personnel. Further,
Central Louisiana Technical Community College (CLTCC) has a strong
partnership with local trucking companies to offer CDL training
programs. These programs are essential for producing qualified truck
drivers needed to support the logistics and transportation sectors.
Short-term Pell Grants would make these programs more accessible,
helping to mitigate the driver shortage that many companies face. Last,
Louisiana Delta Community College (LDCC) partners with
telecommunications companies to provide short-term training programs in
broadband installation and maintenance. These programs are crucial as
the demand for broadband services continues to grow. Short-term Pell
Grants could help increase the number of trained technicians,
supporting the expansion of broadband infrastructure in rural and
underserved areas.
Question 4. What are the current barriers preventing students from
enrolling in and completing short-term credential programs, and how
could short-term Pell Grants help overcome these barriers? Are there
specific financial, logistical, or informational obstacles that these
grants could address?
Answer 4. Expanding the eligibility of Pell Grants to cover short-
term credentials would cure the problem of allocating funding to pay
for the program that provides the credential. Any single parent with a
low to moderate income may struggle to come up with the funds to cover
even a $500 short-term program. Pell Grant eligibility for such
programs removes that financial barrier.
Question 5. Dr. Sullivan, how can workforce development boards
ensure that their services are closely aligned with the evolving needs
of local employers? What mechanisms or partnerships would be most
effective in achieving this alignment?
Answer 5. Fostering strong connections between workforce boards and
local employers is critical to ensuring that training programs financed
with WIOA dollars actually relate to local available jobs. There is no
substitute for ongoing and specific dialog between local boards and
businesses about employer needs and the ways a local board can help
respond. WIOA should encourage this sort of collaboration.
Question 6. Dr. Sullivan, I believe that it's important for WIOA to
have effective performance indicators that ensure trainees receive
quality education and are well-prepared for employment. What metrics or
indicators do you think are most crucial to evaluate the success of
training programs?
Answer 6. Among other indicators, employment post-training and
earnings are key metrics that should be used to assess the success of a
training program. Both are directly tied to the real-world challenges
facing an individual who is seeking employment--whether employment can
be maintained and if earnings are sufficient for the needs of the
person and/or their family.
______
Response by Taylor White to Questions of Senator Hassan, and Senator
Smith
senator hassan
Question 1. Registered apprenticeships help address workforce
shortages and help students earn while they learn. Like many states,
New Hampshire is facing a shortage of highly qualified educators in
secondary math and science, as well as special education. The New
Hampshire National Education Association, Southern New Hampshire
Services, New Hampshire colleges, and others are doing important work
to make teaching a viable career pathway through a New Hampshire
Registered Educator Apprenticeship Program. How is WIOA being utilized
to support registered apprenticeships in critical shortage areas, and
what more can be done?
Answer 1. Funding available to state and local workforce boards
through the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) can support
Registered Apprenticeship programs for new, incumbent, or dislocated
workers, both youth and adult, in a number of ways, whether or not
those programs are in critical shortage areas. For example, WIOA Title
I funding can be used to support:
Pre-Apprenticeship Programs: WIOA funding is
frequently used to support pre-apprenticeship programs that
provide basic skills development, work experiences, and other
supports designed to help participants qualify for entry into a
Registered Apprenticeship program.
Instructional Costs: Individual Training Accounts
funded through WIOA can be used to cover the costs associated
with the classroom-based instruction (i.e. ``related
instruction'') that apprentices are required to complete,
including tuition, fees, books, and other costs, so long as the
training provider delivering the instruction is on the Eligible
Training Provider List (ETPL). Under WIOA, all sponsors of
Registered Apprenticeship are eligible for the ETPL.
On-the-Job Training Costs: Under WIOA, on-the-job
training (OJT) contracts may be established with employers to
support the OJT component of Registered Apprenticeship
programs. Governors and local boards may choose to provide
reimbursement to employers of costs up to 75 percent of
apprentice wage rates under WIOA.
Case Management and Supportive Services: Prior to
entry into a pre-or Registered Apprenticeship, WIOA-eligible
workers can receive screening assessments, basic skills and
language training, and career planning support through WIOA. In
some cases, WIOA dollars may be available to fund supportive
services like transportation or child care to assist
participants preparing for or enrolled in apprenticeship
programs. However, because Registered Apprentices are employed
and earn increasing wages over time, many will no longer
qualify for services through WIOA once the program is underway.
Despite the many ways that WIOA funding can be used to support
participation in Registered Apprenticeship, there are fewer connections
than one might expect between the two systems, especially at the local
program level. Research has shown that many local workforce personnel
lack a deep understanding of the apprenticeship system, making it
difficult for them to promote apprenticeship opportunities to employers
or potential participants. \1\ Likewise, in our own experience working
with place-based practitioners, we find that many local apprenticeship
sponsors and program leaders lack connections to their local workforce
boards and are unfamiliar with the process by which a pre-apprentice or
Registered Apprentice might qualify for support through WIOA.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\1\ Copson, E. et al., 2022. Challenges and Opportunities for
Expanding Registered Apprenticeship with Workforce Innovation and
Opportunity Act (WIOA) Title I, Urban Institute. United States of
America. https://wdr.doleta.gov/research/FullText-Documents/ETAOP2022-
39-AAI-Brief-WIOA-Final-508-9-2022.pdf; Bergman, Terri and Deborah
Kobes. 2017. The State of Apprenticeship among Workforce Boards.
Boston, MA: Jobs for the Future. https://jfforg-prod-
new.s3.amazonaws.com/media/documents/NAWB-Apprenticeship-092717.pdf.
Even for those who are very familiar with Registered
Apprenticeship, however, there can be barriers to integrating more
fully with that system. For example, some providers find the
eligibility determination processes too cumbersome and opt not to
pursue resources that might benefit their participants. Additionally,
Registered Apprenticeship programs tend to have higher entry
requirements (e.g. high school diploma or equivalency) than other types
of training provided through the WIOA system. Many WIOA-eligible
individuals simply do not meet these criteria at system entry.
Registered Apprenticeships are typically longer than the short-term
training programs funded through WIOA, too. Providing funding for
multi-year programs can impose administrative complications on local
workforce boards and can be more challenging to capture in performance
reporting. Even more fundamentally, longer programs tend to be more
expensive than shorter programs. For budget-constrained workforce
boards, more expensive programs typically means serving fewer people
overall--an unappealing prospect in our current system, which
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
incentivizes local actors to prioritize quantity over quality.
For these reasons--and because many apprentices do not remain WIOA-
eligible once they are employed and earning good wages through a
Registered Apprenticeship program--it is more common to see WIOA
dollars supporting pre-apprentices rather than Registered Apprentices.
Pre-apprenticeships can equip workers with the skills and knowledge
they need to compete for Registered Apprenticeship opportunities,
especially in many critical shortage occupations that require a high-
level of numeracy, literacy, or other foundational skills for entry.
Pre-apprenticeships have been used effectively in many sectors to
create pathways for disadvantaged workers--including workers of color,
workers with disabilities, women, and youth--to access careers in
fields where they are currently underrepresented. However, the quality
of pre-apprenticeship programs can also vary considerably and many do
not provide a true pathway to employment.
As the public education system has experienced an acute labor
shortage, pre-apprenticeship and Registered Apprenticeship programs for
teaching assistants, paraeducators, classroom teachers and even
principals have developed. Over the past 3 years, the number of these
programs has grown rapidly. Based on emerging research, WIOA does not
appear to be a widely utilized source of funding for educator
registered apprenticeship programs. \2\ Research conducted by the U.S.
DOL-funded Educator Registered Apprenticeship Intermediary reveals that
programs use a mix of one-time Federal funding (e.g., ARPA, SAE grants
and ABA grants), state funding (e.g. recurring appropriations), and
local funding (e.g. district allocations for staffing). \3\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\2\ Erica Mallett Moore, Dana Grayson, John Diaz, and Melissa
Raspberry, Educator Registered Apprenticeships: Funding Profiles for
Five Programs (Research Triangle, NC: Educator Registered
Apprenticeship Intermediary, in press).
\3\ Ibid.
The programs that have leveraged WIOA (such as New Hampshire's
program and the enrichEd Pathways model in Texas) are using Title I
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
funding to:
Provide progressive wages
Fund tuition costs (up to $6,000 per year for 3
years)
Provide wraparound supports
Cover certification costs
In these programs and many others (including those outside of the
education field), WIOA funding is braided with other funding sources to
meet apprentices' needs. This is especially true when it comes to
providing wraparound supports. Many programs leave it up to individual
apprentices to connect with their local job centers to find out if they
are eligible for support under WIOA. This likely leads to
underutilization of available resources.
To better support apprenticeship in critical shortage areas through
WIOA, Congress should:
Increase investment in WIOA Title I overall so that
state and local workforce boards receive funding that is
commensurate with the employment and training needs they are
facing. Additional resources can reduce budgetary pressure that
lead workforce leaders to prioritize short-term, often low-
quality training programs that frequently fail to deliver
lasting benefits for workers or employers. Given cuts proposed
in the House of Representatives' most recent appropriations
proposals, WIOA legislation should authorize a funding level at
least twice the current spend and emphasize high-quality
training as a focus of new resources. Doing so would improve
but not eliminate the effects of years of underinvestment in
the public workforce system: Even if the U.S. doubled its
spending on workforce training programs, we would still rank
far behind international peers in the percentage of GDP
dedicated to similar programs. \4\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\4\ For information on peer nation's investments in workforce
training, navigation supports, hiring incentives, and other active
labor market policies, see the Organization for Economic Cooperation
and Development tables available at: https://www.oecd.org/en/data/
indicators/public-spending-on-labour-markets.html.
Modify performance indicators to emphasize quality
employment outcomes as a primary goal of the public workforce
system. For example, WIOA should require measures of post-
program earnings at least 1 year after program completion, and
require wages be compared to median earnings in metropolitan
statistical area (MSA) or the regional living wage. Indicators
should also be added to collect information on whether or not
program completers remain employed in occupations and
industries related to their field of training. Such changes can
drive local boards to prioritize higher quality training
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
options, including pre-and Registered Apprenticeship.
Encourage the use of WIOA Governor's Reserve funding
for activities that provide staff training and develop stronger
linkages between local workforce boards and apprenticeship
agencies/sponsors in industries experiencing critical shortages
of workers in occupations that pay at least a living-wage.
Sector-specific strategies to forge such partnerships have been
effective in addressing critical shortage areas in some
industries and regions, especially when supportive services
(such as those offered through WIOA) are included alongside
targeted training. \5\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\5\ Alyssa Ratledge, Cynthia Miller, and Kelsey Schaberg,
``Meeting the Needs of Job Seekers and Employers,'' MDRC, September
2020, https://www.mdrc.org/publication/meeting-needs-job-seekers-and-
employers.
Expand access to high-quality work experiences
available to WIOA-eligible youth through a work experience fund
or grant program designed to support the development of new
programs aligned to a set of rigorous quality standards,
including pre-and Registered Apprenticeship model. The fund
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
could be used to:
Y Reimburse employers for up to 75 percent of wages
for providing work experiences to youth who are also
participating in an eligible education and training
program. Subsidies should be reserved for jobs that pay
at least $15 an hour and which include opportunities to
earn industry recognized credentials or credit, to
ensure public dollars are used to create paths to
prosperity rather than to poverty.
Y Offer incentives for local workforce boards to
create progressive work experiences that ``link'' to a
clear next step toward further training, a more
advanced work experience, or a full-time job. Youth-
serving pre-apprenticeship programs that confer
preferential access to or advanced standing in
registered apprenticeship programs are just one
promising example.
Y Offer incentives to employers for hiring youth who
face the most significant barriers to employment.
Especially in a period when high schools are racing to
dramatically expand work-based learning programs for
students, WIOA must take steps to ensure the young
people it serves are not overlooked by employers
fielding multiple requests for partnership.
Y Build the capacity of workforce boards to
collaborate with education and apprenticeship partners
as well as employers to establish local or regional
career pathway systems that include different tiers of
work experiences and multiple paths to credentials that
lead to well-paying jobs and promising careers. \6\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\6\ For more details on this proposed concept, see U.S. Senate
Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions. ``The Workforce
Innovation and Opportunity Act: Supporting Efforts to Meet the Needs of
Youth, Workers, and Employers.'' Testimony by Taylor White, Director,
Partnership to Advance Youth Apprenticeship. June 12, 2024.
Support research and evaluation activities to
identify effective practices and programs and tailor future
legislation and investment to replicate best practices, while
phasing out apprenticeship and other training programs that do
not reliably improve employment outcomes.
Senator Smith
Question 1. Thank you so much for speaking during the hearing to
the importance of exposing kids, especially underserved youth, to a
variety of career options before they leave the school system. Could
you expand on how you think Congress can more effectively facilitate
connections between young people and career exploration or employment
opportunities?
Answer 1. Currently, Federal funding to support connections between
young people and career exploration and employment opportunities comes
primarily from two sources: the U.S. Department of Labor and the U.S.
Department of Education. Congress funds these activities through three
pieces of legislation:
The Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA),
which includes dedicated funding for skills development,
training programs, work experiences, and other employment-
related supports for youth (as well as adults);
The Strengthening Career and Technical Education for
the 21st Century Act (Perkins V), which provides funding for
our Career and Technical Education (CTE) system; and,
The Every Student Succeeds Act (ESSA), which provides
funding for a wide range of academic and enrichment activities
provided to students in our elementary, middle, and high
schools.
WIOA funding supports both in-and out-of-school youth (ISY and OSY,
respectively), though current legislation requires a greater share of
resources be used to support OSY. Perkins and ESSA both focus on ISY.
Whereas Perkins has an explicit focus on CTE, ESSA does not. However,
resources provided through ESSA can be used to support career connected
learning opportunities and often are. For example, a 2017 report led by
Advance CTE and Education Strategy Group found that nearly three-
quarters of states' ESSA plans indicated they would use ESSA funding to
support learning and activities related to career development. \7\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\7\ For more information on how ESSA can support career education,
read Advance CTE's.
Within each of these pieces of legislation, myriad funding streams
and programs support (or can be used to support) career exploration and
employment. In addition, there are dozens of additional funding sources
and streams scattered across other pieces of legislation, all designed
to help young adults explore or prepare for careers. While these
supports are valuable and necessary, they are siloed and often poorly
connected. This reality contributes to a fragmented landscape of
programs at the state and local level, and prevents the development of
a truly systemic approach to preparing young people for careers. \8\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\8\ For a more detailed discussion of the issues of budget siloes
and fragmentation, ``How can Federal funding support systems alignment
for career pathways? A blog series exploring lessons from three
examples of flexibility'' available at https://www.newamerica.org/
education-policy/edcentral/how-can-Federal-funding-support-systems-
alignment-for-career-pathways/.
Fortunately, Congress can address some of these challenges by
taking steps to promote greater alignment between these major pieces of
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
legislation and the systems they support by, for example:
Revisiting and aligning definitions, accountability
requirements, and eligibility requirements and determination
processes each time legislation is reauthorized. \9\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\9\ Congress should also ensure definitions and data priorities in
WIOA, Perkins, and ESSA are aligned, to the greatest extent practicable
to TANF, SNAP and other relevant social and human service programs.
Incentivizing--not just permitting--greater
cooperation and coordination across state education and
workforce actors in mandatory planning processes, including
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
those required for WIOA and Perkins.
Creating grant programs and other incentive
structures that emphasize cooperation across programs that
connect or span youth-serving systems, for example, by linking
high school CTE programs and pre-apprenticeships to re-engage
OSY, or by supporting the expansion of dual enrollment CTE
pathways for ISY;
Supporting states to develop stronger career advising
infrastructure with middle and high schools;
Supporting an ecosystem of intermediaries and out-of-
school time providers to provide career exposure and education
opportunities that supplement and reinforce those provided
through the public education and workforce systems, with a
focus on students who face barriers in education and
employment;
Investing in state and local data infrastructure to
better connect K-12 education data, higher education data, data
from the public workforce system, and employment data to
understand how early career exposure activities, work-based
learning, and various secondary and postsecondary education and
training paths affect employment outcomes.
Supporting research and evaluation to develop an
evidence base for the many career exposure, work-based
learning, career training, and other related programs supported
in the ecosystem to identify best practices and target future
investment.
It is worth pointing out that the resources the U.S. Federal
Government dedicates to career exposure, career and technical
education, and workforce training is very low relative to other
nations' investments in similar infrastructure and programs, even
despite the high number of Federal funding sources, streams, and
programs. \10\ If policymakers are committed to creating opportunities
for our Nation's future workers to gain career exposure, workplace
experiences, and valuable education and training opportunities at
scale, we must substantially increase our investment in the systems and
programs that provide them.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
\10\ OECD. See footnote 3 above.
Finally, a persistent challenge in developing a coherent ecosystem
of career exposure, experience and training opportunities for youth and
adults is our fragmented approach to engaging employers, who are
themselves a fragmented stakeholder group. Employers sit on local and
state boards and are engaged in various advisory capacities by public
economic development agencies, workforce boards, the CTE system and
other training and education institutions. While there are some bright
spots that demonstrate employers can play a more active, sustained role
in talent development, many of these engagements are superficial. The
U.S. lacks a robust, cross-system strategy for engaging employers in
the development, evolution, and delivery of career-oriented training--
not only for youth, but for adult and incumbent workers, too.
International examples can offer useful lessons, but our approach to
solving this problem will need to be American made. Congress should
encourage innovative strategies to organize and engage American
employers as co-developers of tomorrow's workforce, rather than
consumers or distant supporters of it.
______
[Whereupon, at 12:01 p.m., the hearing was adjourned.]
[all]