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COUNTY OF SAN MATEO
Inter-Departmental Correspondence
County Manager’s Office
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DATE:
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October 5, 2010
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BOARD MEETING DATE:
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October 19, 2010
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SPECIAL NOTICE/HEARING:
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None
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VOTE REQUIRED:
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Majority
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TO:
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Honorable Board of Supervisors
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FROM:
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David Boesch, County Manager
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SUBJECT:
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Executive Summary: Strengthening Workforce Investment Board and County Communications
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RECOMMENDATION:
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Accept this report on the Workforce Investment Board requested by your Board during the June 2010 budget hearings.
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BACKGROUND:
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The Workforce Investment Act of 1998 (WIA) is the federally funded employment and training program enacted August 7, 1998 (P.L. 105-220), which replaced the Job Training Partnership Act (JTPA). WIA was enacted to streamline and strengthen the country’s job-training system to create universal access to an integrated “one-stop,” delivery system of multiple employment services, job training, and education programs that are designed to meet local community industry demands.
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The goal of WIA is to improve the quality of the workforce, reduce welfare dependency and enhance the productivity and competitiveness of the nation’s economy by providing a wide variety of career development services including services for adults, youth, for those underemployed, as well as the unemployed.
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Workforce Investment Boards (WIB)
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The legislation replaced JTPA’s Private Industry Council’s with Workforce Investment Boards (WIB) with broader responsibility for developing a more comprehensive local workforce investment system and more specific memberships, as well as a required youth council. Local WIA administration can be organized as government entities or nonprofits. In California, more than 50 are organized as government entities nested within human services or social services or economic development departments. There are 17 mandatory WIB members; some have as many as 40 members, most about 33, with only three with fewer than 20 members. The mandated WIB participation was envisioned to achieve greater community visibility and result in the WIB serving as the workforce development mechanism for the community. With limited government funding and little partnership funding materialized, this vision has not yet been realized in most communities.
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Summary
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It is important for the WIB to communicate and engage community partners and stakeholders to be sure that the County is best serving the needs of our residents in all communities; that we are responding to the needs of the recently unemployed, those now underemployed, those chronically unemployed, as well as planning for future workforce development needs and growth in our valuable diverse economic sectors, such as biotech, clean/green, technology and health. That requires building and strengthening relationships through enhanced communication and collaboration.
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Recommendation
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Your Board may consider the following recommendations to improve the WIB’s overall communication:
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§ Inclusive of broad community partners and stakeholders, prepare a five-year WIB strategic plan with strategies that integrate job placement and workforce training and development; with performance measures that are reported quarterly to the WIB and the Board of Supervisors;
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§ Annual WIB work plan reviewed by the Board’s Housing, Health and Human Services Committee and submitted to the Board of Supervisors;
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§ WIB to meet with all city economic development staff, chambers of commerce, sector industry leaders, as well as participate in SAMCEDA, to ensure WIB activities are aligned with community needs; and
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§ Anticipate and prepare for the reauthorization of WIA: conduct a Program Performance Audit of the WIB to identify areas for local improvement and legislative reform.
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Accepting this report contributes the Shared Vision 2025 outcome of a Prosperous Community by creating jobs, building community and educational opportunities for all residents.
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