If there is a single mantra that is heard over and over again, it is that the country must find a way to put Americans back to work. Though a major obstacle to putting people back to work is a lack of jobs, another obstacle is the mismatch between the skills of unemployed workers and what business needs. This mismatch has contributed substantially to the slow. rate of return of America's unemployed to the workforce.
Recognizing this is one part of the solution. Addressing it head on is yet another part. There is at least one important way to address this problem at the local level and that is through the nation's workforce development system. Established by the Workforce Investment Act (WIA), the nation's workforce development system is designed to provide a wide range of services to individuals in need of job training and placement assistance.
For example, last year, the workforce development system provided more than 10 million Americans with a wide range of services including apprenticeships, job training, basic education and job placement assistance. More than 8 million of those came through the Workforce Investment Act system alone. The remainder came through a range of workforce development programs designed to meet the needs of specific populations like migrant workers, American Indians, seniors and youth. And if you add those who received Internet-based assistance, an additional 8.5 million adults were helped.
As one travels across the country, one will find example after example of individual job training programs that have provided individuals with excellent job training assistance that have resulted in them being, placed in well-paying if entry level jobs. Programs funded by the WIA are placing nearly 60 percent of their enrollees in jobs paying on average nearly $14,000 per year. And of those in jobs, nearly 80 percent were still on the job after one year.
The reasons for these successes have much to do with the very creative and effective ways WIA programs develop and implement programs.
In Eugene, Ore., for example, 67 manufacturers, Lane Community College, the Lane Workforce Partnership, local high schools and the Society of Manufacturing Engineers came together to establish an alliance that was designed to raise awareness about careers in manufacturing among the residents of the Eugene area, and to ensure alignment of local training programs with manufacturing business needs.
The alliance sponsored manufacturing-education forums, tours of local manufacturers, business speaking engagements in the high schools, a booth at career fairs and an annual manufacturing workforce summit.
A manufacturing careers website (www.lanemanufacturing.org) was also developed that provides information to the community about manufacturing careers, local manufacturing businesses, and where to find training.
The Lane Workforce Partnership also designed a program to promote health care sector jobs and to provide training and employment assistance to those interested.
Working with the Community Health Care Education Network, the Lane Workforce Partnership developed a strategic plan to address the health workforce shortage, leveraged and distributed scholarships targeted at jobs in health care, developed an entry-level worker wage progression and career pathway program with McKenzie-Willamette Medical Center, Peace Health Laboratories and Peace Harbor Hospital, and leveraged state lay-off aversion funds to retrain individuals so they could move into demand jobs.
As a result of this effort, 70 percent of the students pursuing training in health care completed training and become employed in the industry making between $14.64 and $28.82 an hour as certified nursing assistants, medical office assistants, health records technicians and physical therapy assistants.
In the Louisville, Ky., metropolitan area, the demand for registered nurses was outstripping supply, and major hospitals were finding that they had a shortage of qualified staff. Two healthcare systems in Louisville turned to KentuckianaWorks, Greater Louisville's Workforce Investment Board, to help both their hospitals and their employees.
Working with local health care providers, KentuckianaWorks implemented an incumbent worker training program that trained and placed 30 licensed practical nurses (LPN) in registered nurses (RN) positions. Wages increased from a maximum of nearly $20 per hour to nearly $32 per hour, and the shortage of RNs was successfully addressed.
KentuckianaWorks health care job training programs have had a substantial impact on the overall employment rates for health care professionals. From 2008 to 2010, the vacancy rate in healthcare positions, excluding RNs, decreased from 8.5 percent to 5 percent, while the vacancy rate for RNs decreased even more significantly from 8 percent to 4.2 percent in the Greater Louisville region.
With KentuckianaWorks training 1,200 individuals in healthcare training (384 as RNs) over the past three years, Workforce Investment Act funding continues to provide critically needed workers in fast-growing industries and to remain relevant to the needs of both the workforce and employers.
In Virginia's Hampton Roads area, six municipalities, including Hampton, came together to create the first regional workforce development center, which now houses the Thomas Nelson Community College's workforce training programs, Old Dominion University's Peninsula Higher Education Center and the employment programs of the Virginia Employment Commission and the Peninsula's One-Stop Career Resource Center.
The two-story, 92,000 square foot facility provides workforce training and employment programs to the entire Virginia Peninsula Community, serving everyone from high-tech companies moving to the Peninsula, to existing businesses seeking to improve workers' skills, to individual job seekers.
The center is equipped with a flexible manufacturing lab, high-tech computer and research labs, career and employment assistance programs, a high stakes testing center and a career resource center.
This facility has been a key asset in the region's economic development efforts and has contributed to the expansion, retention and attraction of existing and new businesses.
Examples included a four-year advanced manufacturing grant that was able to place more than 4,000 individuals in jobs in more than 70 companies and the creation of a partnership with expanding businesses that resulted in the screening and hiring of 600 workers in the expansion of a local manufacturer.
These successes, along with countless others across the country, demonstrate the impact that the Workforce Investment Act has had on local communities and their residents.
Through very tangible and distinct projects--health care for some, advanced manufacturing for others--these programs have placed individuals in well-paying jobs that also include the possibility for career ladders.
As Congress and the Administration continue to grapple with significant unemployment, slow jobs growth, slow economic growth and generally unfavorable economic conditions, the nation should not hesitate to continue to look to the Workforce Investment Act system to help get America back to work.
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