Counseling Customers About Income Goals, Career Paths and Work Supports

• Fresno County Workforce Investment Board, CA
• Montana Workforce Investment Board

Overview

As a large rural state with over 147,000 square miles and a total population of less than 1 million, Montana faces many challenges in assisting WIA customers to achieve self-sufficiency. In response the Montana WIB identified several priorities for its OJT dollars. Montana focuses on high-skill, high-wage occupations, allots more hours of training in each job zone, and has clear policy language relating to the integration of apprenticeship and OJT contracts.

An important component of the program is its emphasis on flexibility and responsiveness. For instance, the Montana Workforce Board requires the OJT contracts anticipate a training period that is long enough to encompass the time needed for the actual training and additional time in recognition that there may be some unexpected periods where the trainee is unavailable and encourages providing related services such as occupational, pre-vocational or literacy training, to be sequenced or concurrent with on-the-job training as appropriate for the customer. Although this approach may make the training contracts more costly in the short term, it has substantially improved the success rate of OJT participants and the program as a whole.

The WIB has strong, clear policy language relating to the integration of apprenticeship and OJT contracts.

• Clear policy language is helpful to jobseekers, employers, and contract managers. The tone effectively communicates the WIB’s no-nonsense approach to OJT contracting.
• Montana's strong apprenticeship system encompasses significant involvement of organized labor. Contracts written for recognized apprenticeable occupations are required to be coordinated with the Apprenticeship Section of the Montana Department of Labor and Industry, which then works with the employer. Employers training for apprenticeable occupations are strongly encouraged to participate in a formal apprenticeship program. Results of this policy include greater access by WIA customers to apprenticeship training and improved wage quality for OJT participants
• In addition to its own policies, the WIB recast a number of Federal OJT requirements. The guidelines detailed in the WIB’s "Hire First" Principle under their Program Standards and Cost Guidelines for OJT Contracts are excellent examples of this type of recasting.

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Partners and Funding

One of the advantages of Montana's policy improvements is that the development and enforcement do not result in substantial additional administrative cost for the WIB.The Apprenticeship Section actually assists in evenly distributing staff time and thus associated costs.
The additional allowable OJT training time represents a potential increase in training costs. However, these policies result in substantial improvements in trainee success rates thus creating a more efficient long term benefits and use of training dollars .

Challenges

As a large rural state with over 147,000 square miles and a total population of less than 1 million, Montana faces many challenges in assisting WIA customers to achieve self-sufficiency. These challenges include relatively few employers, limited industry growth and limited number of quality jobs.

In response to these challenges, the Montana WIB identified several priorities for its OJT dollars:

• Use OJT dollars to train only for high-skill occupations
• Ensure adequate training time for high-skill training
• Ensure effective coordination with apprenticeship system
• Build in flexibility to respond to jobseeker needs and thus improve OJT success rate.

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Keys to Successful Implementation

• Articulate policy objectives clearly and in detail, and in plain language
• Acknowledge and fully integrate vital systems such as apprenticeship
• Work closely with local WIBs to ensure effective implementation

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Model Materials

• OJT Policy Excerpt: "Hire First" Principle [DOC, 24KB]
• OJT Policy Excerpt: Job Zone - Training Time Conversion Chart [DOC, 24KB]

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