Promising Practice #3
Employing Sector Strategies
Overview
Many Workforce Investment Boards (WIBs) have learned that a combined focus on high-wage and high-demand occupations (or sectors) is necessary to ensure customers are able to move to economic self-sufficiency. While some customers will be able to train immediately for a job yielding a self-sufficiency wage, many will need to pursue a career path that leads them to self-sufficiency over a series of jobs within a sector, increasing skills and earning power along the way.
Sector initiatives are industry specific workforce development approaches that respond to both the needs of employers and jobseekers. The National Network of Sector Partners identifies four common elements that distinguish sector initiatives from conventional programs.
In pursuing sector strategies, a number of WIBs have adopted a regional approach, forming partnerships with nearby WIBs, as well as regional employers and education/training providers. Leaders in the field are targeting more than 15 different industries across the nation such as manufacturing, health care, information technology, construction, childcare, printing, and many others. Many WIBs choose the health care sector, in large part because the sector is experiencing labor shortages almost everywhere in the country, and demand projections are high. In addition, the sector offers a range of higher-skill, higher-wage occupations. The challenge in this and other sectors is to create accessible career ladders and education and training opportunities that will allow customers with low education and skill levels to progress along a career path that will lead to self-sufficiency.
Case Studies:
- Boston Private Industry Council, MA
- Lancaster County Workforce Investment Board, PA
- Workforce Boards of Metropolitan Chicago, IL
- Worksystems, Inc. Portland, OR
» Promising Practice #4: Negotiating On the Job Training Contracts and Customized Training Services
WIA Law/Regulations
The Workforce Investment Act (WIA) requires that training services be directly linked to occupations or sectors that are in demand. [134(c)(4)(G)(iii)] However, WIA does not offer any detailed discussion of tis issue nor how to develop a sector approach. Innovative WIBs are developing their own goals to embrace sector strategies and their focus on high-demand, high-wage jobs with career ladders.
The National Network of Sector Partners [www.nedlc.org/nnsp] identifies four common elements that distinguish sector initiatives from conventional programs:
- Target a specific industry, crafting solutions tailored to that industry in that region.
- Include a strategic partner with deep knowledge of the targeted industry and its companies and link them with organizations such as community-based nonprofits, employer organizations, organized labor, community colleges, and others.
- Provide training strategies that benefit low-income individuals, including the unemployed, nontraditional labor pools and low-wage incumbent workers; and
- Promote systemic change that cultivates a win-win environment by restructuring internal and external employment practices to achieve changes beneficial to employers, low-wage workers, and low-income job seekers.