President Obama Signs Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act

President Barack Obama signed the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) into law on July 22 – a federal-wide reform effort designed to help job seekers access employment, education, training, and support services to succeed in the labor market and to match employers with the skilled workers they need to compete in the global economy. WIOA is the first legislative reform in 15 years of the public workforce system. It will take effect July 1, 2015 – key implementation dates for Department of Labor. It supersedes the Workforce Investment Act of 1998 and amends the Adult Education and Family Literacy Act, the Wagner-Peyser Act, and the Rehabilitation Act Amendments of 1998. Highlights of the new act:

• States will be required to strategically align workforce development programs to ensure that employment and training services provided by the core programs are coordinated and complementary so that job seekers acquire skills and credentials that meet employers’ needs.
• The alignment of workforce development programs with regional economic development strategies to meet the needs of local and regional employers.

The bill will consolidate several existing federal workforce programs and provides $58 billion in funding over six years. WIOA also will allow governors to reserve up to 15 percent of grant funding for state-specific workforce activities. Governors may use some of these reserved funds for entrepreneurial training and support programs. It will require state and local workforce development boards to develop individualized, comprehensive four-year local plans that must outline efforts to promote entrepreneurial skills training and microenterprise services.

According to a fact sheet from Whitehouse.gov, the Obama administration will work with key stakeholders including business and union leaders, school administrators, workforce experts, and state and local elected officials to replicate successful training strategies in communities throughout the United State.  These programs will fall under three categories:

•  Engaging employers in partnerships to define needed skills, offer apprenticeships, and hire graduates;
• Developing data-driven tools available to provide the necessary information to help job seekers, states, and communities make smart choices; and,
• Enabling federal and state agencies to develop and pilot promising job-driven training strategies and scale them.

For more information, including an FAQ, about WIOA visit: http://www.doleta.gov/WIOA/.

The announcement was accompanied by a new report – Ready to Work: Job-Driven Training and American Opportunity.  Under the leadership of Vice President Joe Biden, the Obama Administration developed the report using dialogue conducted with policymakers, economists, workforce development professionals, educators, union leaders, business executives, and entrepreneurs. The report highlights three consistent problems faced by employers, workers, and training institutions:

• Employers can not find enough skilled workers to hire for in-demand jobs to grow their businesses.
• Education and training programs need better information on what skills those in-demand jobs require.
• Workers, whether studying, looking for work, or wanting better career paths, often are not sure what training to pursue and whether jobs will be waiting when they finish.

To address these issues, the authors make several recommendations to reform and create new federal programs. Recommendations include:

• Networking tools for the long-term unemployed;
• Establishing a new center to spur regional workforce and industry partnerships;
• Developing public-private partnerships to expand innovative coding bootcamps;
• Modernizing and expanding the DOL’s Office of Apprenticeship; and,
•  Making low-cost online learning tools universal available.

The report also highlights numerous successful workforce development and training programs from across the country. Read the report…