The Workforce Investment Act and the One-Stop Delivery System

[Excerpt] The Workforce Investment Act of 1998 (WIA; P.L. 105-220) is the primary federal program that supports workforce development. WIA includes five titles: • Title I—Workforce Investment Systems—provides job training and related services to unemployed or underemployed individuals; • Title II—Adult Education and Literacy—provides education services to assist adults in improving their literacy and completing secondary education; • Title III—Workforce Investment-Related Activities—amends the Wagner-Peyser Act of 1933 to integrate the U.S. Employment Service (ES) into the One-Stop system established by WIA; • Title IV—Rehabilitation Act Amendments of 1998—amends the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, which provides vocational rehabilitation services to individuals with disabilities, to integrate vocational rehabilitation into the One-Stop system; and • Title V—General Provisions—specifies components of State Unified Plans and provisions for state incentive grants. Workforce development programs provide a combination of education and training services to prepare individuals for work and to help them improve their prospects in the labor market. In the broadest sense, workforce development includes secondary and postsecondary education, on-the- job and employer-provided training, and the publicly funded system of job training and employment services. Most workforce development occurs in the workplace during the course of doing business. The federal government provides workforce development activities through WIA’s programs and other programs designed to increase the employment and earnings of workers. Workforce development may include activities such as job search assistance, career counseling, occupational skill training, classroom training, or on-the-job training

A workforce development strategy for the Adult Career Information, Advice and Guidance workforce in England

This paper outlines Lifelong Learning UK’s approach to the development of a Workforce Development Strategy for the adult career information, advice and guidance workforce in England. Lifelong Learning UK, the independent employer-led sector skills council (SSC) with strategic responsibility for the workforce development of staff working in the lifelong learning sector, brought adult career information, advice and guidance (CIAG) into its footprint in April 2009, thereby providing all employers within the adult CIAG sector in England with the opportunity to engage with a strategic UK wide perspective for workforce planning and development

Holistic Learning: A workforce development paradigm

The development of workforce knowledge, skills and attitudes are widely acknowledged in extant literature as being pivotal levers to deliver process improvement and efficiency. The success of an organisation depends as much on its technical system as on the social system that supports it. Strategies for improving organisational performance need to incorporate arrangements for developing the workforce competences required to implement strategy. Lean construction by definition involves continuous small-step improvements (Kaizen), problem solving and employee involvement at all levels. The argument for providing workplace systems that support life-long learning within construction businesses therefore takes on greater significance. This paper reports on the pilot for a wider research aimed at firmly linking construction businesses to the learning domain. The pilot involved a survey of domain experts (276) which sought to characterise the Nigerian construction industry in terms of its knowledge and learning requirements, the supply systems for construction skills, the individual attributes required for optimal performance, and the appropriate pedagogical approaches for learning construction skills. Findings to date suggest that the Nigerian construction industry exhibits many characteristics of Taylor-Fordist systems but with tendencies towards knowledge-based systems suggesting the need for improved systems of learning. The training systems of construction firms were found to supply a small percentage of skilled workers to the industry pool, but the few were perceived to be the most competent. Construction skilled workers were perceived to require not only cognitive but also emotional and social competencies for optimal performance. This paper posits that the construction industry needs to align its skill provision systems with modern learning theory to create effective learners and learning environments within organisations to drive the learning needed for performance and innovation. The paper proposes the development of a conceptual model which captures the key elements of an effective skills learning solution for construction

A review of training and materials which aim to support the children's workforce to reduce the impact of childhood poverty and disadvantage

The Children’s Workforce Development Council (CWDC) commissioned DMSS Research and Consultancy to undertake a review of national and local support, guidance and training that aims to equip the children’s workforce to reduce the impact of child poverty. The project had the key objective of identifying effective models and strategies for developing the knowledge and skills of the children’s workforce in relation to child poverty and disadvantage, taking into account the diversity of needs in the core, and wider, workforce and across the public, private, voluntary and independent sectors

Factors Affecting the Development of Workforce Versatility

Among all strategies supporting the firms' flexibility and agility, the development of human resources versatility holds a promising place. This article presents an investigation of the factors affecting the development of this flexibility lever, related to the problem of planning and scheduling industrial activities, taking into account two dimensions of flexibility: the modulation of working time, which provides the company with fluctuating work capacities, and the versatility of operators: for all the multi-skilled workers, we adopt a dynamic vision of their competences. Therefore, this model takes into account the evolution of their skills over time, depending on how much they were put in practice in previous periods. The model was solved by using an approach relying on genetic algorithm that used an indirect encoding to build the chromosome genotype, and then a serial scheduling scheme is adopted to build the solution

Workforce Intermediaries: Powering Regional Economies in the New Century

Examines the role of workforce intermediary organizations in developing local strategies and funding, and coordinating the efforts of stakeholders in regional economic development. Outlines the qualities of successful workforce intermediary organizations

Understanding the training and education needs of homecare workers supporting people with dementia and cancer: a systematic review of reviews

Many people with dementia, supported by family carers, prefer to live at home and may rely on homecare support services. People with dementia are also often living with multimorbidities, including cancer. The main risk factor for both cancer and dementia is age and the number of people living with dementia and cancer likely to rise. Upskilling the social care workforce to facilitate more complex care is central to national workforce strategies and challenges. Training and education development must also respond to the key requirements of a homecare workforce experiencing financial, recruitment and retention difficulties. This systematic review of reviews provides an overview of dementia and cancer training and education accessible to the homecare workforce. Findings reveal there is a diverse range of training and education available, with mixed evidence of effectiveness. Key barriers and facilitators to effective training and education are identified in order to inform future training, education and learning development for the homecare workforce supporting people with dementia and cancer

Collaborating and Coordinating with Employers

A 2009 research brief produced for the NTAR Leadership Center, a consortium led by the John H. Heldrich Center for Workforce Development at Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey. Founded in 2007 under a grant/contract with the Office of Disability Employment Policy at the U.S. Department of Labor, the NTAR Leadership Center's mission is to build capacity and leadership at the federal, state, and local levels to enable change across workforce development and disability-specific systems that will increase employment and economic self-sufficiency for adults with disabilities. This brief examines the evolving relationship between disability employment initiatives and employers, and highlights the implications that these collaborations have for effectively formulating broad-scale promotion of disability workforce investment initiatives

Workforce Development in the South West Voluntary and Community Sectors:Skill Shortages Study

The Voluntary Sector National Training Organisation, now the National  Workforce Development Hub, describes the Voluntary and Community  Sector  as  diverse  and  covering  a  variety  of  different  organisations.  Organisations range from traditional charities, to companies that trade to  support their social aims, through to informal community organisations.  The sector also includes federations, or networks of local groups working  under national umbrellas.  Voluntary and community sector organisations  provide  a  wide  range  of  services  and  activities  and  many  of  the  organisations are involved in the delivery of learning, whether through  accredited training or informal learning.  The Government has increasingly recognised the importance of Voluntary  and  community  sector  organisations  and  the  key  role  that  they  play  nationally,  regionally  and  locally.    Initiatives  to  support  the  sector,  underpinned by funding, have been undertaken and the Government has  been  active  in  encouraging  and  commissioning  research  and  strategic  planning  in  the  sector,  in  particular  emphasising  the  importance  of  developing the skills, capacities and potential of the workforce.  Sector organisations generally display a strong commitment to training  and workforce development.  However, in spite of this commitment and  the presence of a high proportion of well‐qualified workers, skills gaps,  that is skills lacking in the current workforce, and skills shortages caused  by recruitment difficulties, are present in the sector.  There are also skills  gaps and shortages in the volunteer workforce