On June 18, the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Subcommittee on Employment, Safety and Training heard testimony on the reauthorization of the Workforce Investment Act (WIA).
Approved by Congress in 1998, the WIA consolidated employment and training programs, requiring states and localities to establish a centralized, one-stop delivery system that would provide federally funded employment and training services.
Michael Kennedy of the Pacific Mountain Workforce Development Council testified that the current law is “over-regulated and under-funded.” He went on to say that it “by omission or commission creates barriers that have limited [job training professionals] to provide training, to support retention, expansion and retooling of growth industries, and our ability to obtain effective data for improving performance and measuring our effectiveness.”
Mr. Kennedy told the committee that federal, state, and local decisions on worker training should be focused on increasing responsiveness to the needs of local businesses, and that maintaining local leadership is critical.
“The personnel needs of businesses are extremely localized. In the Northwest and across the nation, each local economy demands a customized strategy for developing the local workforce. This strategy can only come from the local business leaders, who know, better than anyone else, what their industries need to increase productivity, remain competitive and profitable and create more jobs for local workers. Now, and into the future, the system must be more responsive to the needs of local business and economic development, and more able to close local skills gaps and move local workers into good, highly skilled careers,” he said.
The subcommittee also heard testimony from Charles Ware of the Wyoming Workforce Development Council. Subcommittee Chair Mike Enzi (R-WY) invited Mr. Ware to testify on behalf of his home state of Wyoming, and on the unique job training challenges rural areas face. In his testimony, Mr. Ware stressed the importance of flexibility and ease of access in rural states.
“Rural states rely predominantly on WIA and related federal funding sources to deliver workforce investment services. As WIA Reauthorization moves forward, these changes will have a profound impact on the futures of rural states. … It is critical to have flexible methods to continue to ensure rural access to One-Stop Systems. Flexible outreach efforts to rural communities continue to be a critical component of ensuring effective workforce development practices,” said Mr. Ware.
Curtis Austin of Workplace Florida, Inc. also urged greater flexibility for states. “The ability to invest public resources in labor market exchange, training dislocated workers, retraining incumbent workers, or assisting disadvantaged adults to the next career level should be only one factor to influence workforce activities. Labor market conditions in a given area should be the other. … The frustration Congress seemed to have with the workforce system’s failure to quickly utilize Workforce Investment Act funds and invest them in local communities, is in part a function of appropriating funding based on where the labor markets were, not where they are or where they may be. Funds are currently allocated on a ‘needs based formula’ that reflect where the economy was. The introduction of a major employer or the loss of the same can dramatically change the economic situation.”
Sigurd Nelson of the General Accounting Office Department of Education, Workforce, and Security Issues said that the WIA was “perhaps a far more radical change than it initially appeared.” However, he said, “in just under three years, states and localities have learned to embrace its flexibility. … They are doing what WIA envisioned bringing on new partnerships and forging relationships at all levels. … The process of implementation has not been perfect, but it is moving forward.”
