[Federal Register Volume 61, Number 58 (Monday, March 25, 1996)]
[Notices]
[Pages 12109-12111]
From the Federal Register Online via the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
[FR Doc No: 96-6988]



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NATIONAL SKILL STANDARDS BOARD


Request for Comments; Notice of Public Hearings

AGENCY: National Skill Standards Board.

ACTION: Request for comments; Notice of public hearings.

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SUMMARY: This Notice is designed to: (1) Notify the public of the 
dates, locations, and times of public hearings to be held by the 
National Skill Standards Board (NSSB) around the country to solicit 
oral and written statements on the Board's work; and (2) solicit public 
comment on key questions the Board is addressing. This is the first of 
a series of public hearings to foster a public dialogue. The second 
series of hearings, tentatively scheduled for Summer 1996, will solicit 
public input on the future work of the Board, including the 
identification of occupational clusters. The Board will continue to use 
public hearings as a way to inform its decision-making.

DATES: A. Hearing Dates: The dates of the first set of public hearings 
are as follows:

Tuesday, April 9, 1996: Kansas City, MO
Thursday, April 11, 1996: Phoenix, AZ
Monday, April 15, 1996: Miami, FL

    B. Comment Dates for Public Hearings: Comments and notices of 
intent to present oral and/or written statements at the hearings must 
be received 10 business days before the date of the hearing at which 
they will be presented. The requirements for comments are set forth in 
the ``Supplementary Information'' section below. We welcome responses 
to the Questions for Public Comment.

ADDRESSES: The locations of the three public hearings are as follows:

Kansas City: Kansas City Marriott Downtown, 200 West 12th Street, 
Kansas City, MO 64105, (816) 421-6800.
Phoenix: Crown Plaza Phoenix, 100 North First Street, Phoenix, AZ 
85004, (602) 257-1525.
Miami: Crown Plaza Biscayne, Biscayne Boulevard at 16th Street, Miami, 
FL 33132, (305) 374-0000.

    Notice of intent to present oral statements or written statements 
must be mailed to NSSB Public Hearing Coordinator at the address below.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Judy Gray, Executive Director, NSSB 
Public Hearing Coordinator, National Skill Standards Board, 1441 L 
Street, NW, Suite 9000, Washington, DC 20005-3512, (202) 254-8628, 
(202) 254-8646 (fax).

SUPPLEMENTARY INFORMATION:

Form of Public Comment

    The hearings will begin at 9:30 a.m. and adjourn at 3:30 p.m. To 
assist the NSSB in appropriately scheduling speakers, the written 
notice of intent to present oral comments should include the following 
information: (1) The name, address, and telephone number of each person 
to appear; (2) affiliation; and (3) the specific questions, issues or 
concerns that will be addressed.
    Individuals who do not register in advance will be permitted to 
register and speak at each hearing in order of registration, if time 
permits. Speakers should limit their oral remarks to no more than 10 
minutes. Although it is anticipated that all persons desiring to do so 
will have an opportunity to speak, time limits may not allow this to 
occur. However, all written statements will be accepted and 
incorporated into the public record. The proceedings will be audiotaped 
and transcribed.

Meeting Procedure and Objectives

    The hearing panel will be comprised of members of the NSSB. A 
designated member of the NSSB will preside at each of the hearings. The 
Presiding Board Member will:
    (1) regulate the course of the meeting, including the order of 
appearance of persons presenting oral statements;
    (2) dispose of procedural matters; and
    (3) limit the presentations to matters pertinent to the issues 
raised in this notice.

Background on the Mission of the National Skill Standards Board

    The National Skill Standards Board was created by The National 
Skill Standards Act of 1994 (108 Stat 192, 20 U.S.C. 5933), signed into 
law by President Clinton on March 31, 1994. The Board's purpose as 
stated in the Act is ``to serve as a catalyst in stimulating the 
development and adoption of a voluntary national system of skill 
standards and of assessment and certification of attainment of skill 
standards: (1) That will serve as a cornerstone of the national 
strategy to enhance workforce skills; (2) that will result in increased 
productivity, economic growth, and American

[[Page 12110]]
economic competitiveness; and (3) that can be used consistent with 
civil rights laws'' by the stakeholders enumerated in the Act: the 
nation, industries, employers, labor organizations, workers, students, 
entry-level workers, training providers, educators and government.
    The Act also states that this voluntary national system of skill 
standards will serve: (1) to facilitate the transition to high 
performance work organizations; (2) to increase opportunities for 
minorities and women; and (3) to facilitate linkages between other 
components of the national strategy to enhance workforce skills.

NSSB Mission Statement

    The mission of the National Skill Standards Board is to encourage 
the creation and adoption of a national system of skill standards which 
will enhance the ability of the United States to compete effectively in 
a global economy. These voluntary skill standards will be developed by 
industry in full partnership with education, labor and community 
stakeholders, and will be flexible, portable and continuously updated 
and improved. This national skill standards system is intended to do 
the following:
     Promote the growth of high performance work organizations 
in the private and public sectors that operate on the basis of 
productivity, quality and innovation, and in the private sector, 
profitability;
     Raise the standard of living and economic security of 
American workers by improving access to high skill, high wage 
employment and career opportunities for those currently in, entering, 
or re-entering the workforce;
     Encourage the use of world-class academic, occupational 
and employability standards to guide continuous education and training 
for current and future workers.

Skill Standards Purposes and Characteristics

    This section provides contextual and background information for the 
questions posed in the next section. We want to know if our operating 
assumptions make sense to you. This information also summarizes key 
sections of the authorizing legislation and the NSSB's discussions to 
date.
    The National Skill Standards Board envisions its work as 
stimulating the industry-led development of voluntary skill standards 
that embody the academic, occupational and employability components of 
work. The skill standards will pertain to broad clusters of major 
occupations that involve one or more industries and that share common 
skill requirements. One of the areas on which the NSSB is soliciting 
public comment is the characteristics that should be used by NSSB as 
endorsement criteria for skill standards. (Skill Standards development 
is the responsibility of industry-led voluntary partnerships as 
described below, not the NSSB.) As described in the legislation and in 
the NSSB mission statement, the skill standards should:
    (1) take into account relevant skill standards used by other 
countries;
    (2) meet or exceed the highest applicable skill standards used in 
the United States;
    (3) take into account academic standards;
    (4) take into account the requirements of high performance work 
organizations;
    (5) be in a form that permits regular updating;
    (6) promote portability of credentials and facilitate worker 
mobility within an occupational cluster or industry, among industries, 
as well as mobility from state to state or from one locale to another; 
and
    (7) not discriminate by race, color, gender, age, religion, 
ethnicity, disability or national origin, consistent with Federal civil 
rights law.
    The skill standards should be flexible, portable, and continuously 
updated and improved. The skill standards must be future-focused, and 
be based on competencies. The skill standards and the means to meet 
those standards should be available in a variety of settings to anyone 
who is interested in them.
    The skill standards should reflect the skill requirements and the 
performance levels necessary for our workers to be at least as well-
prepared to compete in the global economy as workers elsewhere in the 
world. To achieve this goal, the skill standards should reflect the 
requirements of high performance enterprises, that is, enterprises that 
compete not only on price, but on the basis of quality, timeliness, 
customization, and variety. Such competition requires workers who are 
highly skilled. The skill standards should increase the supply of 
qualified workers to high performance enterprises, and improve an 
individual's access to the jobs needed in today's and tomorrow's global 
economy.
    We hope that a voluntary system of skill standards will offer a 
framework to employers, employees, labor organizations, educators, 
training providers, states and local communities as they create, refine 
and re-create their programs and systems to improve the preparation of 
the people in their communities for the highly demanding jobs of the 
modern economy. Skill standards should serve those who are trying to 
assure their long-term employability: students leaving our colleges and 
high schools; workers who have been laid off; displaced homemakers, 
public assistance recipients and others who are entering or reentering 
the labor force; and currently employed workers. Our hope is that 
voluntary national skill standards will support efforts of states, 
organizations, firms and communities to develop and build innovative 
solutions to workforce preparation issues. We also hope that our work 
will support and guide innovative industry programs such as worker 
certification programs and skill-based compensation programs that are 
designed to enhance the portability and transferability of work skills.
    Through these hearings, we hope to hear and learn from the work of 
regional and local communities, the states, employer and labor efforts 
to create and implement skill standards and to understand their 
successes and failures and the processes they used. We also want to 
hear how the work of the NSSB can best support these innovative 
efforts.

Occupational Clusters

    The first function of the NSSB (enumerated in Section 504 of the 
legislation) is to identify ``broad clusters of major occupations that 
involve one or more than one industry in the United States and that 
share characteristics that are appropriate for the development of 
common skill standards.'' The skill standards endorsed by NSSB will not 
address every segment of the U.S. economy. Instead, they will focus on 
those segments of the economy that will enhance the ability of the 
United States to compete in the global economy. Consistent with the 
National Skill Standards Act, the NSSB intends to meet this challenge 
by promoting the growth of high performance enterprises within these 
significant economic segments.
    The National Skill Standards Act charges the Board with stimulating 
the development of skill standards (as described in the previous 
section) for occupational clusters. The Board views the development of 
skill standards for those jobs which are specific to one company as 
outside the Board's scope. And although the Board hopes to be involved 
in the dialogue of what would be helpful for people to know and be able 
to do for success at work, the actual development of such foundation or 
academic standards is also beyond the purview of the NSSB's mission.

[[Page 12111]]

    One of the approaches we are considering would be to focus on 
encouraging industry to lead partnerships of key stakeholders to 
identify and set voluntary skill standards for cross industry clusters. 
These clusters could cut across multiple industries and could be 
defined by the work people do. Skill standards would be defined by the 
way work is done in an organization striving for high performance from 
its employees. Within each cluster, the skill standard would reflect 
multiple levels of performance, each higher level representing a 
progression in responsibility from the one preceding it. For each 
cluster, there may be multiple industry standards, each of these 
industry standards incorporating the cluster standard on which it is 
based. This process would be dynamic, needing constant reexamination of 
the clusters and the industry standards derived from them, so that the 
skill standards would reflect the continually changing demands of the 
economy. Only if the voluntary standards have value for the employer 
and the worker, will they be used.

Voluntary Partnerships

    The Board itself will not develop skill standards. Instead, the 
legislation calls for the NSSB to encourage the formation of industry-
led voluntary partnerships to develop the skill standards, and to 
endorse skill standards produced by voluntary partnerships. The NSSB 
must decide on the criteria, their definition, and how a partnership 
will demonstrate it meets these endorsement criteria. The NSSB welcomes 
the input of the public on these topics to inform our decisions.
    The legislation requires that the voluntary partnerships have the 
following composition:
     Representatives of large and small businesses who have 
expertise in the area of workforce skill requirements and who are 
recommended by national business organizations or trade associations in 
the occupation or industry for which a standard is being developed;
     Representatives of trade associations that have received 
grants from the Department of Labor or the Department of Education to 
establish skill standards prior to enactment of the National Skill 
Standards Act;
     Employees who have expertise in the area of workforce 
skill development and who shall be:

--Individuals recommended by organized labor organizations representing 
employees in the occupation or industry for which a standard is being 
developed; and
--Such other individuals who are non-managerial employees with 
significant experience and tenure in such occupation or industries as 
are appropriate given the nature and structure of employment in the 
occupation or industry;

     Representatives of educational institutions; community-
based organizations; and state and local agencies involved in 
education, vocational-technical education, or employment and training;
     Representatives of other policy development organizations 
with expertise in the area of workforce skill requirements;
     Representatives of non-governmental organizations with a 
demonstrated history of successfully protecting the rights of racial, 
ethnic, or religious minorities, women, individuals with disabilities, 
or older persons; and
     Individuals with expertise in measurement and assessment, 
including relevant experience in designing unbiased assessments and 
performance-based assessments.
    The foregoing information on the NSSB's mission, and its views on 
the purpose and characteristics of skill standards, occupational 
clusters, the focus of the Board's work, and the composition of the 
voluntary partnerships are intended to serve as background and a 
context for public response to the questions below. The Board strongly 
encourages your comments; they will help shape and inform its decision 
making process.

Questions for Public Comment

    1. What constructive advice can you offer the board as it works 
towards its mission?
    2. Are the characteristics of skill standards as described in the 
section ``Skill Standards' Purposes and Characteristics'' important? 
Would you add or delete characteristics?
    3. How do you see your efforts benefiting from a voluntary skill 
standards framework?
    4. What models might we learn from and what guidance can you 
provide on the process NSSB uses for building a framework of voluntary 
skill standards?
    5. What guidance would you give the board as it develops criteria 
for endorsing voluntary partnerships?
    6. What skill sets are most necessary to assure the success of your 
group or enterprise and the employability of workers, now and long 
term?
    7. Do you agree that the focus of NSSB's work should be on setting 
skill standards for broad clusters of jobs or occupations that could 
cut across multiple industries? If not, what do you think our focus 
should be and why?
    8. Does the emphasis on encouraging the development of skill 
standards for highly skilled jobs needed in the modern economy make 
sense?
    9. Does it make sense for the board to encourage the growth of 
organizations who wish to become high performance?
    10. What principles should guide the identification of occupational 
clusters?
    A copy of the authorizing legislation will be available at the 
hearing. Interested parties may call (202)-254-8628 to request a copy.

    Signed at Washington, DC, this 18th day of March, 1996.
Judy Gray,
Executive Director, National Skill Standards Board.
[FR Doc. 96-6988 Filed 3-22-96; 8:45 am]
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