Table Of Content

ft V\^. 610; hy^/^io UMASS/AMHERST 3ia0bb 02A1 ETflb H Climbing the Ladder: Expanding Opportunity Through Training Governor's Task Force To Reform Adult Education and Worker Training Recommendations of the Task Force July 19, 2001 GOVERMENT DOCUMENTS COLLECTION JAN 2 2003 ' University of Massachusetts Depository copy Commonwea th of Massachusetts | Honorable Jane Swift, Governor and Chair of Task Force v Governor's Task Force to Reform Adult Education and worker Training Final Recommendations of the Task Force Table of contents introduction and Executive Summary 1 Mission of the Task Force 4 Key Findings 5 Recommendations 7 Next Steps 12 Reference List Appendix A: List of Task Force Members Appendix B: List of interviews and Discussions Appendix C: Summary of FY01 State and Federal Funding for workforce Development Appendix D: Supply and Demand for Adult Basic Education and English for Speakers of other Languages Classes in FY01 Attachment 1: Directory of Massachusetts workforce investment Boards & One-Stop Career Centers Task Force to Reform Adult Education and Worker Training July 19, 2001 Introduction and Executive Summary In her first policy initiative as Governor of Massachusetts, Jane Swift established an interagency Task Force to Reform Adult Education and Worker Training. The Task Force was created to address the growing disparity between the demands of a rapidly changing workplace and the limited skills of many workers. This skills gap has reached alarming proportions. According to a recent study published by MassINC1 1.1 million Massachusetts workers—fully one-third of the state's workforce—lack the , skills needed to perform jobs in today's technology-driven economy. In the past, this hole in the labor market could be filled by a growing population. But today, the Commonwealth's population growth has slowed to a trickle. What growth we do have is driven by immigrants, many of whom lack even the most basic command of English. As a result of these factors, critical sectors of our economy are facing limits to their growth and competitiveness, brought on by acute worker shortages in key job categories. The threat to our overall economic health is only half the skills-gap story. The other half is more personal and compelling. Without a solid set of marketable job skills, thousands upon thousands of workers and their families will face lives of limited possibilities. To be sure, workforce development is about ensuring that Massachusetts businesses stay competitive and stay here. But it is also about ensuring expanded opportunities for working families. The existing workforce development system was built to serve the needs of the unemployed. Today, that focus needs to be complemented by a new emphasis on upgrading the skills of the many incumbent workers who do not have the competencies they need to build productive careers in today's job market. The broad membership of the Task Force brought together agencies involved in workforce development and education, in order to help design an integrated system of lifelong learning opportunities. A more coordinated approach is essential, because the single most important thing we can do to strengthen the quality of our workforce is to address the pervasive and persistent weaknesses in adult literacy and numeracy. 1 John Comings, Andrew Sum &Johan Uvin, NewSkillsfora NewEconomy:AdultEducation'sKeyRolein Sustaining Economic GrowthandExpanding Opportunity. (Massachusetts Institute for a New Commonwealth)(December 2000). Report is available at http://www.massinc.org. Of course, this problem is best addressed at the source, while young people are still in school. That is why the Administration is so sharply focused on putting in place meaningful academic standards, along with an assessment and accountability system, to ensure that all students are given the educational opportunities they need and deserve. Workers who lack these skills bump up against barrier after barrier in the job market, and are forced to look to adult education programs to overcome the gaps in their K-12 experience. In short, in today's world, competency in English and math is no longer optional. Indeed, it is the essential building block of economic opportunity. The workforce development system has grown up over the years on an ad hoc, piecemeal basis, resulting in dozens of discrete, often disconnected, programs run by a wide variety of independent, but overlapping state and local agencies. The result is a non-system that is difficult to access for both workers and employers. Moreover, although there are many high- functioning programs, the whole adds up to less than the sum of its parts. The Task Force's recommendations are designed to begin the process of building an integrated workforce development system that addresses the needs of the employed and unemployed, alike. This theme of integration takes several forms and affects all levels of the workforce development system: • Integratedstatepolicy-making, through gubernatorial leadership of a strengthened State Workforce Investment Board. • Integratedresources, through a new competitive grant fund supporting career-ladder programs. • Integratedservice delivery'at the local level, through regional and cross-regional industry teams involving multiple companies, agencies and programs. • Integratedperformance measuresthat cut across programs and agencies. Specifically, the Task Force recommends the following: 1. Commit to the goal of an integrated workforce development system, where each program and agency supports a common mission and strategic purpose, with funding resources aligned to these shared, measurable objectives. 2. Build the capacity of the State Workforce Investment Board (SWIB) to assume a leadership role in the development of workforce policy, by designating the Governor SWIB co-chair (along with an appointed business leader) and by establishing a special committee to stimulate systemic reform through the allocation of competitive grant awards. 3. Launch the Building Essential Skills through Training (BEST) Initiative to help meet the demand for more highly skilled workers through a model of integrated job training and adult education services. By pulling together $3.5-to-$7.0M from a variety of existing programs, BEST will support regional proposals that give front-line workers a foundation of skills to achieve wage and career advancement, while reducing persistent job vacancies in key sectors. This small pool, which will be managed by the SWIB in collaboration with Commonwealth Corporation, is a downpayment on a $30M proposal included in the Governor's supplemental budget bill. Governor's Task Force to Reform Adult Education and Worker Training 4. Create consistent and meaningful performance measures that apply system-wide, including the expanded use of wage record data to track the income effects of various training programs. 5. Conduct a comprehensive review of existing workforce programs to evaluate program effectiveness using system-wide performance measures and to determine how well each program supports the core objectives of the overall workforce development system. Such a review will also explore barriers to expanded system capacity, including the limited access of providers to investment capital. 6. Reduce the waiting list for GED and literacy programs by enacting the Governor's supplemental budget bill, which includes an additional $22 million for the Adult Basic Education system. The bottom line is that Massachusetts' future will increasingly depend on our ability to maximize We the potential of the existing workforce. don't have a single worker to waste. Governor's Task Force to Reform Adult Education and Worker Training