The Alaska Workforce Investment Board (AWIB) will meet May 6 and 7 at AVTEC in Seward.  

Agenda items include WIOA, priority occupations, Alaska’s maritime industry, and the Cross-Industry Workforce Development Plan Collaboration, as well as an industry panel and a tour of AVTEC.  

Public testimony is slated for 3:30 – 4:00 on May 6. The full agenda is posted here.

Prepared by Citrus College in California, this 9-minute video talks about preparation for the realities of tomorrow's labor market, and speaks to making informed decisions about postsecondary options, early exploration of career choices, and the need for technical skills.

Direction and Motion Graphics: Brian Y. Marsh brianymarsh.com
Written and Narrated by: Kevin Fleming teloses.com

The complete transcription of the video with data references is available here: citruscollege.edu/academics/cte/Pages/default.aspx

By Jeff Green and John Irwin in Bloomberg News, August 25, 2014

Two years out of high school, Evan Fischbach is earning $40,000 a year. His secret: shop class.

Fischbach, 19, has known he wanted to work on cars ever since he took an automotive class in his junior year of high school in Saline, Michigan. His college-educated parents wondered if he was aiming too low.

Then when Fischbach was still a junior, a local auto dealer desperate for mechanics hired him as an apprentice in the service bay. Now he’s earning about three times as much as the average 19-year-old high school grad and slightly more than the national median, according the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

“Friends weren’t interested in auto shop when I suggested it and now I think they wished they had tried it,” said Fischbach, who works at the LaFontaine Chrysler Dodge Jeep Ram dealership. “I’m not rich, but I’m not hurting, either.”

H.R. 803, the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA), which amends and reauthorizes the Workforce Investment Act of 1998 (WIA), was signed into law by President Barack Obama on July 22, 2014. According to the US Department of Labor, "WIOA is 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. Congress passed the Act by a wide bipartisan majority; it is the first legislative reform in 15 years of the public workforce system.

WIOA 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. In general, the Act takes effect on July 1, 2015, the first full program year after enactment, unless otherwise noted. The U.S. Department of Labor (DOL) will issue further guidance on the timeframes for implementation of these changes and proposed regulations reflecting the changes in WIOA soon after enactment."

Key provisions include:

• requires states to strategically align workforce development programs
• promotes accountability and transparency
• fosters regional collaboration
• improves the American Job Center System
• improves services to employers and promotes work-based training
• provides access to high quality training
• enhances workforce services for the unemployed and other job seekers
• improves services to individuals with disabilities
• makes key investments in serving disconnected youth and other vulnerable populations
• enhances the Job Corps Program
• reinforces connections with Registered Apprenticeship
• streamlines and strengthens the strategic roles of workforce development boards

Read the entire bill here.
Visit the USDOL's WIOA website.
Visit the USED's WIOA website.

The Pathways to Prosperity Network is now two years old, with eight state members—California, Georgia, Illinois, Massachusetts, Missouri, New York, Ohio, and Tennes_see—doing significant work in creating career pathways in grades 9-14. Two more states, Arizona and Delaware, joined the Network in June 2014. This report is a letter to the field about what’s been accomplished to date. As is often the case in such initiatives, the results thus far are due to a combination of good luck, good timing, deep knowledge of implementation, and a simple but urgent message and strategy. The unique stories of the developments in each state are included in this report as well as observation and description of key aspects of this work across the states in the Network as a group.

Download or read the report here.

By Howard Pankratz
The Denver Post
(posted Juy 6, 2014)

Poor alignment of American businesses with the schools that train their workers is creating a "skills gap" that may make it hard to fill as many as 650,000 technical- and science-based jobs by 2018.

The country needs a shift in how industry and educational institutions relate to each other, economists and business executives say.

"We do not take an approach — either at the national level or state level — that creates an ease of communications between employers and educational institutions that are going to impart skills and background to potential employees," said Joe Fuller, a Harvard Business School researcher. "This is why we have 12 million to 13 million unemployed people and 650,000 job openings in manufacturing right now."

Recent college graduates typically have only about half the skills they need in the workplace, according to John Miller, chief operating officer for Denver-based consulting firm Hands-On Learning.

Read the entire article.

June 4, 2014

A Dear Colleague Letter on Career Counseling [PDF, 361KB] was jointly released by the U.S. Departments of Education, Labor and Health and Human Services to provide education, workforce development, social services, and private-sector leaders with information about ways that high schools and human services agencies can work with the American Job Center network to ensure that students and their parents have relevant and timely information with which to make informed career decisions. In support of the Administration's goal of leading the world in college completion by 2020, the three Departments are committed to giving students informa­tion about college and career options, and opportunities that can help them make informed choices for their futures.

“The Alaska Oil and Gas Workforce Development Plan recognizes the needs of the industry today and 
in the coming years,” said Labor and Workforce Development Commissioner Dianne Blumer. “The plan 
also anticipates the new workforce demand created by increased investment and a portfolio of new 
projects.” 



To read or download the full plan - http://www.labor.alaska.gov/OilandGasPlan/

Workforce Innovation Fund Solicitationhttp://www.doleta.gov/workforce_innovation/solicitation.cfm#r2 
Round 2 

The solicitation for Round 2 under the Fund will provide up to $53 million in grants authorized by Consolidated Further Continuing Appropriations Act, 2013 (P.L. 113-6) and the Consolidated Funding Act, 2014 (P.L. 113-76) to states, local workforce areas, and entities eligible for Section 166 Indian and Native American Program grants.
See News Release dated May 2014

These funds will support innovative approaches to the design and delivery of employment and training services that generate long-term improvements in the performance of the public workforce system, both in terms of outcomes for job seeker and employer customers and cost-effectiveness. Particularly the Fund seeks to:

• Re-tool service delivery strategies and/or policy and administrative systems and processes to improve outcomes for workforce system customers; and
• Evaluate the effectiveness of such activities.

By focusing on change at both the service delivery and the systems levels, and by requiring rigorous evaluation of each investment, ETA seeks to ensure that these investments form the basis for broader change and continuous improvement in the operation of the public workforce system. By adding new value for our customers, ETA seeks to contribute to the identification and documentation of evidence-based practice within the field of workforce development.