OPPORTUNITIES THE NEW LAW PRESENTS TO CONNECT WITH PARTNERS

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1 OPPORTUNITIES THE NEW LAW PRESENTS TO CONNECT WITH PARTNERS Lori Strumpf President Strumpf Associates: Center for Strategic Change

2 Here are a Few of the New Provisions for Adult Education: The bill embraces unified planning among workforce, adult education, and other stakeholder groups at the state level. It strongly coordinates Titles I and II. Promotes coordination between a local workforce development board and adult education providers by requiring that the board review a provider s application for Title II funds before the application is submitted to the state eligible agency. Readiness for work and college is made a major service option for Adult Education. Provision is made for more attention to distance learning and technology. Certain National Leadership and State Leadership activities are now required. States are expected to measure Adult Education service to employers and to meet stronger accountability requirements. WIOA calls for the Department of Education to fund an independent evaluation of Adult Education programs at least every four years 2

3 Opportunities to Partner Across Core Programs What are your current partnerships under WIA? How did you establish them? What is working about the partnership? What are the challenges? What have the partnerships accomplished? Why Partner under WIOA Required Expand access and capacity for adults to gain skills 3

4 Partnerships to Build Skills Create joint ownership of solutions. When adopting a collective-impact approach, key stakeholders from various sectors agree to a common agenda, shared accountability, mutually reinforcing activities, continuous communication, and a coordinating agency. In this way, communities can tackle challenging issues while building the capacity of stakeholders to do even more. Collective Impact The commitment of a group of important actors from different sectors to a common agenda for solving a specific social problem. Collaboration is nothing new. The social sector is filled with examples of partnerships, networks, and other types of joint efforts. But collective impact initiatives are distinctly different. Unlike most collaborations, collective impact initiatives involve a centralized infrastructure, a dedicated staff, and a structured process that leads to a common agenda, shared measurement, continuous communication, and mutually reinforcing activities among all participants. 4

5 Expand Opportunities for Adults to Improve Foundation Skills. The current federally funded adult education system reaches fewer than 2 million adults annually. With the Survey of Adult Skills estimating that there are 3 million adults in the United States who want to get started on skill development but face a variety of barriers, and 36 million adults who could benefit from improved skills, U.S. residents clearly need greatly expanded opportunities for learning. 5

6 What Skills Are Foundational Equipped for the Future (EFF) Secretary's Commission on Achieving Necessary Skills (SCANS) WorkKeys (ACT) 21 st Century Skills Search Institute 6

7 Make Career Pathways Available and Accessible WIOA focuses on the development of career pathways (7) CAREER PATHWAY. The term career pathway means a combination of rigorous and highquality education, training, and other services that (A) aligns with the skill needs of industries in the economy of the State or regional economy involved; (B) prepares an individual to be successful in any of a full range of secondary or postsecondary education options, including apprenticeships registered under the Act of August 16, 1937 (commonly known as the National Apprenticeship Act ; 50 Stat. 664, chapter 663; 29 U.S.C. 50 et seq.) (referred to individually in this Act as an apprenticeship, except in section 171); (C) includes counseling to support an individual in achieving the individual s education and career goals; (D) includes, as appropriate, education offered concurrently with and in the same context as workforce preparation activities and training for a specific occupation or occupational cluster; (E) organizes education, training, and other services to meet the particular needs of an individual in a manner that accelerates the educational and career advancement of the individual to the extent practicable; (F) enables an individual to attain a secondary school diploma or its recognized equivalent, and at least 1 recognized postsecondary credential; and (G) helps an individual enter or advance within a specific occupation or occupational cluster. 7

8 Career Pathways Utilizes contextualized instruction, a model found to be effective with low-skilled adult learners. High-quality career pathways also engage employers in helping ensure that they address their current and future hiring needs and result in the employment of pathways participants. Career pathways that are aligned with local and regional labor market trends should be available in every community. 8

9 Use WIOA to Align Policies and Programs to Integrate Services for Adults. Education, social services, and workforce development systems that serve low-skilled and vulnerable populations should work together seamlessly for their clients. Often this is not the case, and customers experience disconnected and conflicting services and enrollment requirements. WIOA provides opportunities to work together to identify and address policy and regulatory barriers to providing integrated services. Common measures are now a requirement. 9

10 Increase the Return on Investment in Skills Training for Business, Industry, and Labor Programs such as incumbent worker training, on-the-job training, apprenticeships, and more closely coordinated training programs, can be used to increase the foundation and technical skills of entry-level employees and new hires. 10

11 Assess Your Readiness for Partnerships in WIOA Brandeis University (Brandeis) and Strumpf Associates: Center for Strategic Change (Strumpf) have created a robust self-assessment tool to help your organization or partnership to evaluate your capacity to implement quality youth work programs using WIOA and other resources. The sample tool is a preliminary way to help you think about your organization and partnerships and whether you meet WIOA standards and the Baldrige Criteria for Performance Excellence. A complete self assessment tool is available in consultation for its use with Brandeis/Strumpf. We stand ready to assist your organization or partnerships to meet the standards and develop the necessary systems, policies, and practices to sustain them. 11

12 ABOUT Strumpf Associates Lori Strumpf is president and founder of Strumpf Associates: Center for Strategic Change (CSC), a firm dedicated to facilitating organizational change in public organizations. The Center s practice is focused on change management consulting in state and local organizations. The primary focus of the company is on organizations that contribute to community development. The firm is dedicated to the vision of developing quality in public service and community based organizations. SA works nationwide as an organizational change consultant, helping public institutions and multi-agency initiatives incorporate, merge, develop boards, and transform organizations to quality managed workplaces. SA provides technical assistance on how to design and implement quality youth and adult programs that move individuals into training, post secondary education and jobs. Strumpf Associates has assisted over 400 local Workforce Investment Boards develop one stop service delivery systems, improve practices with regard to delivering services to employers, and developing quality data collection and analysis systems that lead to data-driven decision making. Lori Strumpf has a Masters and Specialist Degree in Educational Counseling from the University of Florida. 12

13 Thank You for Attending! Be sure to visit the CASAS website at Follow us on Twitter twitter.com/casassystem and use the hashtag #casassi2015 to tweet updates, photos, and stories. Keep in touch with Facebook facebook.com/casassystem use the hashtag #casassi2015 to share photos and post stories. Visit us on the YouTube Channel 13