Senate Hearing, 112TH Congress - Addressing Workforce Needs at The Regional Level: Innovative Public and Private Partnerships

S. HRG.
112896
ADDRESSING WORKFORCE NEEDS AT THE

REGIONAL LEVEL: INNOVATIVE PUBLIC AND
PRIVATE PARTNERSHIPS
HEARING
BEFORE THE
SUBCOMMITTEE ON EMPLOYMENT AND WORKPLACE

SAFETY
OF THE
COMMITTEE ON HEALTH, EDUCATION,

LABOR, AND PENSIONS
UNITED STATES SENATE
ONE HUNDRED TWELFTH CONGRESS
SECOND SESSION
ON
EXAMINING ADDRESSING WORKFORCE NEEDS AT THE REGIONAL

LEVEL, FOCUSING ON INNOVATIVE PUBLIC AND PRIVATE PARTNERSHIPS
FEBRUARY 16, 2012
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COMMITTEE ON HEALTH, EDUCATION, LABOR, AND PENSIONS

TOM HARKIN, Iowa, Chairman
BARBARA A. MIKULSKI, Maryland
MICHAEL B. ENZI, Wyoming
JEFF BINGAMAN, New Mexico
LAMAR ALEXANDER, Tennessee
PATTY MURRAY, Washington
RICHARD BURR, North Carolina
BERNARD SANDERS (I), Vermont
JOHNNY ISAKSON, Georgia
ROBERT P. CASEY, JR., Pennsylvania
RAND PAUL, Kentucky
KAY R. HAGAN, North Carolina
ORRIN G. HATCH, Utah
JEFF MERKLEY, Oregon
JOHN MCCAIN, Arizona
PAT ROBERTS, Kansas
AL FRANKEN, Minnesota
LISA MURKOWSKI, Alaska
MICHAEL F. BENNET, Colorado
MARK KIRK, IIllinois
SHELDON WHITEHOUSE, Rhode Island
RICHARD BLUMENTHAL, Connecticut
DANIEL E. SMITH, Staff Director
PAMELA SMITH, Deputy Staff Director
FRANK MACCHIAROLA, Republican Staff Director and Chief Counsel
SUBCOMMITTEE
ON
EMPLOYMENT
AND
WORKPLACE SAFETY
PATTY MURRAY, Washington, Chairman

JEFF BINGAMAN, New Mexico
JOHNNY ISAKSON, Georgia
AL FRANKEN, Minnesota
LAMAR ALEXANDER, Tennessee
MICHAEL F. BENNET, Colorado
ORRIN G. HATCH, Utah
SHELDON WHITEHOUSE, Rhode Island
MARK KIRK, Illinois
RICHARD BLUMENTHAL, Connecticut
MICHAEL B. ENZI, Wyoming (ex officio)
TOM HARKIN, Iowa (ex officio)
SCOTT CHENEY, Staff Director
TOMMY NGUYEN, Minority Staff Director
(II)
C O N T E N T S
STATEMENTS
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 2012
Page
COMMITTEE MEMBERS
Murray, Hon. Patty, Chairman, Subcommittee on Employment and Workplace Safety, opening statement .........................................................................
Isakson, Hon. Johnny, a U.S. Senator from the State of Georgia .......................
Enzi, Hon. Michael B., a U.S. Senator from the State of Wyoming ....................
Franken, Hon. Al, a U.S. Senator from the State of Minnesota ..........................
Whitehouse, Hon. Sheldon, a U.S. Senator from the State of Rhode Island ......
1
2
2
15
45
WITNESSPANEL I
Sherrill, Andrew, Director, U.S. Government Accountability Office, Washington, DC .............................................................................................................
Prepared statement ..........................................................................................
3
5
WITNESSESPANEL II
Hunn, David, Executive Director, Northern Virginia Workforce Investment
Board, Vienna, VA; Accompanied by Geraldine Hofler, Project Director,
Northern Virginia Community College, Springfield, VA ..................................
Schramm, Patricia, Executive Director, Workforce Development Board of
South Central Wisconsin, Inc., Madison, WI; Accompanied by Bettsey
Barhorst, Ph.D., President, Madison College, Madison, WI .............................
Harmsen, Sandy, Director, San Bernardino County Workforce Investment
Board, San Bernardino, CA; Accompanied by James Watson, President
and CEO, CMTC, Torrance, CA ..........................................................................
Sessions, Marlena, CEO, Workforce Development Council of Seattle-King
County, Seattle, WA; Accompanied by Barbara Trehearne, Ph.D., RN,
Group Health Cooperative, Seattle, WA ............................................................
(III)
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ADDRESSING WORKFORCE NEEDS AT THE

REGIONAL LEVEL: INNOVATIVE PUBLIC
AND PRIVATE PARTNERSHIPS
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 2012
U.S. SENATE,
SUBCOMMITTEE ON EMPLOYMENT AND WORKPLACE SAFETY,
COMMITTEE ON HEALTH, EDUCATION, LABOR, AND PENSIONS,
Washington, DC.
The subcommittee met, pursuant to notice, at 10:07 a.m., in
Room SD430, Dirksen Senate Office Building, Hon. Patty Murray,
chairman of the subcommittee, presiding.
Present: Senators Murray, Franken, Whitehouse, and Isakson.
OPENING STATEMENT
OF
SENATOR MURRAY
Senator MURRAY. Good morning. This subcommittee will come to

order.
Many people say that there is no asset more important to our
country and our employers than our workers, and I really happen
to believe that that is true. A skilled and educated workforce has
been the force behind the greatest economy and the most robust
middle class this world has ever known. More families have been
able to propel themselves upward in America than anywhere else,
and much of that can be traced back to the education and training
our workers have been empowered with.
But as we all know, workers, employers, and our economy are
facing significant challenges today. Our workers are still the best
in the world, but it is harder and harder for our education and
skills training systems to keep pace with their needs in our rapidly
changing economy.
Our economy is highly complex and constantly in flux. Industries
we once counted on are gone. Others we cant even imagine are
right around the corner. Global competitors are everywhere and
multiplying. We have a larger, more diverse, and increasingly illprepared workforce.
One thing we know for sure is no one program, provider, system,
or approach will yield the scope and scale of the success we need.
Partnerships of all types are essential, partnerships between workforce and economic development; employers and educators; community-based organizations and the government; childcare providers,
transportation systems, and housing providers. Partnerships are
key.
Yesterday, along with my good friends and colleagues, Senators
Isakson, Harkin, and Enzi, I was pleased to release a new report
(1)
2
by the Government Accountability Office that takes an in-depth
look at innovative collaborations between workforce boards and employers that meet local needs. Those partnerships have much to
teach us. But weve already learned a lot and have taken great
strides to incorporate those lessons into draft legislation to improve
the system.
Today, were going to hear about ways to make timely, efficient,
and effective workforce development opportunities available that
combine the ability to earn and learn at the same time, that integrate classroom and work-based learning, that move people along
career pathways, that effectively prevent layoffs, and that respond
to and help shape regional economic development and growth strategies.
We have heard countless stories, many unsubstantiated and frequently repeated without any fact-checking, about how the current
system isnt working well. No system is perfect. But I care deeply
about the effectiveness of our workforce development programs and
systems. And because of that, I will keep pushing them to improve
and serve workers, businesses, and communities even better. If
something isnt working well, we need to fix it.
But this report highlights that there are also countless examples
of programs and partnerships and systems that do work well,
where they effectively support workers, businesses, and communities, and well hear some of those stories today. Im looking forward to hearing from all of our witnesses about this important
issue.
But before I introduce our first witness, I would like to turn to
Senator Isakson, who has been my partner in this.
And thank you for being here today.
STATEMENT
OF
SENATOR ISAKSON
Senator ISAKSON. Thank you, Madam Chairman. Id like to ask

unanimous consent that the opening statement of Ranking Member
Enzi be submitted for the record.
Senator MURRAY. Without objection.
[The prepared statement of Senator Enzi follows:]
PREPARED STATEMENT
OF
SENATOR ENZI
Thank you Chairwoman Murray and Ranking Member Isakson

for holding todays subcommittee hearing, and for your commitment to improving and modernizing the workforce development
system in this country.
I appreciate the work that the Government Accountability Office
(GAO) did in identifying successful models between employers and
workforce development boards across the country. I look forward to
their testimony today.
The GAO report being released today comes at a very important
time. Even with an unemployment rate of 8.3 percent, 52 percent
of U.S. employers are having difficulty in filling positions within
their organizations.
Unfortunately, the concept of a skills gap is not new. Since
2006, surveys consistently find that 30 to 40 percent of employers
cannot find workers with the knowledge and skills needed to fill
3
available jobs. This makes engaging employers and keeping them
committed to working with the workforce system even more critical.
Employers need help in addressing these workforce challenges.
We must encourage policies that meet employers immediate and
long-term needs in recruiting, hiring and retaining a skilled workforce.
We are already doing this in Wyoming. For example, the tourism
industry is Wyomings second largest industry, generating over
30,000 jobs. The Wyoming Workforce Development Council is addressing the workforce needs of industries like tourism and health
care by bringing together industry, education and training providers, and government.
In response to high turnover in the industry, the Council developed the Wyoming Lodging and Restaurant Association Hospitality
Partnership. This partnership brings employers, training providers,
and workforce and economic development services together to provide for a highly trained workforce. Currently, the partnership is
identifying more education and training opportunities for individuals to complete industry recognized credentials which will open
doors for career advancement and industry growth.
Today we will learn about successful partnerships that are meeting the supply- and demand-side needs of regional economies. I
look forward to hearing about what is working, as well as what
challenges still must be addressed.
The information we will hear about today will inform what we
do as we move ahead with the reauthorization of the Workforce Investment Act (WIA). Another GAO report identified 47 employment
and training programs administered by nine agencies that are
funded by the Federal Government. We need to think about how
to better utilize our scarce resources by streamlining and consolidating duplicative and redundant programs to more effectively and
efficiently meet the workforce development needs of our workers
and our businesses.
I look forward to your testimony.
Senator ISAKSON. Ill be very brief. I thank Mr. Sherrill for being
here today and GAO for following up on the request made by
Chairman Murray, myself, Chairman Harkin, and Ranking Member Enzi.
Public-private partnerships and success stories are things we like
to hear. We hear about too many tragedies up here in the Congress
all the time. And Im anxious to hear from our participants who
have been asked to participate in Panel II.
Welcome, Mr. Sherrill. Were glad to have you.
STATEMENT OF ANDREW SHERRILL, DIRECTOR, U.S.
GOVERNMENT ACCOUNTABILITY OFFICE, WASHINGTON, DC
Mr. SHERRILL. Chairwoman Murray, Ranking Member Isakson,

and members of the subcommittee, Im pleased to be here today to
discuss the findings from our report that was released yesterday.
We examined promising practices for collaboration between local
workforce investment boards, employers, education providers, and
others that have demonstrated positive results.
4
Specifically, we examined the factors that facilitated these innovative collaborations, the major challenges to collaboration, and
what actions the Department of Labor has taken to support local
workforce boards in their collaborative efforts. We asked officials
from five Federal agencies and national workforce and economic development experts from 20 organizations to nominate what they
viewed as the most promising, innovative initiatives in which local
workforce boards collaborated effectively with employers and other
partners to achieve positive results.
From over 89 nominations covering 28 States, we selected 14 initiatives for in-depth review. While the 14 initiatives varied in
terms of their purpose, sector, and partners, the boards and their
partners cited six common factors that facilitated and sustained
collaboration. These were: a focus on urgent, common needs; leadership; the use of leveraged resources; employer responsive services; minimizing administrative burden; and results that motivated
the partners to continue their collaboration.
Almost all of the collaborations grew out of efforts to address urgent workforce needs of multiple employers in a specific sector,
such as health care, manufacturing, or agriculture, rather than focusing on individual employers. The urgent needs ranged from a
shortage of critical skills in a sector to the threat of layoffs and
business closures.
The partners in these initiatives made extra efforts to provide
employer responsive services, and this took various forms. These
included employing board staff with industry-specific knowledge,
tailoring services such as jobseeker assessment and screening to
address employers specific needs, adjusting training course content
in response to shifting industry needs, and providing instruction
that led to industry recognized credentials.
For example, in San Bernardino, a training partner integrated
an industry recognized credential in metalworking into its training
program to make it more relevant for employers. To help meet employers long-term training needs, some initiatives like those in Seattle and Madison incorporated career pathways in which training
is sequenced in length to provide additional training to support career advancement.
In all the initiatives, partners remained engaged in these collaborative efforts because they continued to produce a wide range of reported results, such as increased supply of skilled labor, job placements, reduced employer recruitment and turnover costs, and
averted layoffs. For example, in Wichita, of the nearly 1,200 workers who were trained in the use of composite materials in aircraft
manufacturing, over 80 percent found jobs in the field. In Cincinnati, according to an independent study, employers who participated in the health care initiative realized almost $5,000 in cost
savings per worker hired.
For the workforce system, the partnerships led to various results,
such as increased participation by employers in the workforce system, greater efficiencies, and models of collaboration that were replicated in other industries. While these boards were successful in
their efforts, they cited some challenges to collaboration that they
needed to overcome.
5
Some boards were challenged to develop comprehensive strategies to address diverse employer needs with WIA funds. For example, some board staff said that while their initiative sought to meet
employer needs for high-skilled workers through skill upgrades
among their existing workers, WIA funds can be used to train current workers only in limited circumstances, and the boards use
other funding sources to do so.
In addition, staff from most boards said that WIA performance
measures do not directly reflect their efforts to engage employers.
Many of these boards use their own measures to assess their services to employers, such as the number of new employers served
each year or the hiring rate for jobseekers they refer to employers.
The Department of Labor has taken a wide range of actions to
support local collaborations like these. These include conducting
webinars and issuing guidance on relevant topics and collaborating
with other Federal agencies to fund a new grant program to encourage the development of industry clusters.
However, Labor has not made information it has collected on effective practices for leveraging resources readily accessible, even
though many of the boards that we reviewed cited leveraging resources as a key to facilitating collaboration. So we recommended
that Labor compile information on workforce boards that effectively
leverage WIA funds with other funding sources and disseminate
this information in a readily accessible manner. Labor agreed with
our recommendation and noted its plans to implement it.
That concludes my prepared statement, and Id be happy to answer any questions you might have.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Sherrill follows:]
PREPARED STATEMENT
OF
ANDREW SHERRILL
Chairwoman Murray, Ranking Member Isakson, and members of the subcommittee, I am pleased to be here today to discuss collaboration between workforce
boards, employers, and others. As the United States continues to face high unemployment in the wake of the recent recession, federally funded workforce programs
can play an important role in bridging gaps between the skills present in the workforce and the skills needed for available jobs. However, there is growing recognition
that these programs need to better collaborate with employers to align services and
training with employers needs. As you know, the Workforce Investment Act of 1998
(WIA) 1 envisioned such collaboration by focusing on employers as well as jobseekers, establishing a dual customer approach. To create a single, comprehensive
workforce investment system, WIA required that 16 programs administered by four
Federal agenciesthe Departments of Labor (Labor), Education, Health and Human
Services, and Housing and Urban Developmentprovide access to their services
through local one-stop centers, where jobseekers, workers, and employers can find
assistance at a single location.2 In addition, WIA sought to align federally funded
workforce programs more closely with local labor market needs by establishing local
workforce investment boards to develop policy and oversee service delivery for local
areas within a State and required that local business representatives constitute the
majority membership on these boards.3 Today, about 600 local workforce boards
oversee the service delivery efforts of about 1,800 one-stop centers that provide access to all required programs.4
1 Pub.
L. No. 105220, 112 Stat. 936 (codified at 29 U.S.C. 2801 ET seq.).

U.S.C. 2841(b). Although WIA required 17 programs to participate in the one-stop system, the Welfare-to-Work program no longer exists, reducing the total to 16 mandatory programs.
3 29 U.S.C. 2832(a) and (b)(4).
4 In addition to the one-stop centers that provide access to all programs, over 1,000 other onestop centers, known as affiliate centers, provide limited employment and training-related services to jobseekers and employers.
2 29
6
Despite the vision of collaboration between local employers and the workforce investment system, we and others have found that collaboration can be challenging.
For example, in previous reports, we found that some employers have limited interaction with or knowledge of this system and that employers who do use the onestop centers mainly do so to fill their needs for low-skilled workers.5 My remarks
today are based on our report, which was released yesterday, entitled Workforce Investment Act: Innovative Collaborations between Workforce Boards and Employers
Helped Meet Local Needs.6 We examined promising practices for collaboration between workforce investment boards, employers, education providers, and others that
have demonstrated positive results. Specifically, we examined (1) the factors that facilitated innovative collaborations among workforce boards, employers, and others;
(2) the major challenges to collaboration; and (3) what actions the Department of
Labor has taken to support local workforce boards in their collaborative efforts.
To answer these questions, we asked officials from five Federal agencies 7 and national workforce and economic development experts from 20 organizations to nominate what they viewed as the most promising or innovative initiatives in which local
workforce boards collaborated effectively with employers and other partners to
achieve positive results. From over 89 nominations, covering 28 States, we selected
14 initiatives in 13 local areas for in-depth review. The criteria for our selection included the number of nominations for each initiative, diversity of Federal funding
sources, variety of local unemployment rates, evidence of replicability, and geographical diversity, among others. We interviewed State and local workforce officials, representatives of educational institutions, training providers, economic development officials, employers, and others. We also interviewed officials from the Departments of Labor and Commerce, as well as representatives of workforce associations. We also reviewed relevant Federal laws, regulations, and other documents
pertaining to the key Federal programs. We conducted our work between November
2010 and January 2012 in accordance with generally accepted government auditing
standards. Those standards require that we plan and perform the audit to obtain
sufficient, appropriate evidence to provide a reasonable basis for our findings and
conclusions based on our audit objectives. We believe that the evidence obtained provides a reasonable basis for our findings and conclusions based on our audit objectives.
In summary, workforce board officials and their partners in the 14 initiatives
cited a range of factors that facilitated building innovative collaborations. Almost all
of the collaborations grew out of efforts to address urgent workforce needs of multiple employers in a specific sector, rather than focusing on individual employers.
The partners in these initiatives made extra effort to engage employers so they
could tailor services such as jobseeker assessment, screening, and training to address specific employer needs. In all the initiatives, partners remained engaged in
these collaborations because they continued to produce a wide range of reported results, such as an increased supply of skilled labor, job placements, reduced employer
recruitment and turnover costs, and averted layoffs. While these boards were successful in their efforts, they cited some challenges to collaboration that they needed
to overcome. Some boards were challenged to develop comprehensive strategies to
address diverse employer needs with WIA funds. For example, some boards staff
said that while their initiatives sought to meet employer needs for higher skilled
workers through skill upgrades, WIA funds can be used to train current workers
only in limited circumstances, and the boards used other funding sources to do so.
Staff from most, but not all, boards also said that WIA performance measures do
not reflect their efforts to engage employers, and many boards used their own measures to assess their services to employers. Labor has taken various steps to support
local collaborations, such as conducting webinars and issuing guidance on pertinent
topics, and contributing to a new Federal grant program to facilitate innovative regional collaborations. Yet, while many boards cited leveraging resources as a key to
5 See GAO, Workforce Investment Act: Employers Are Aware of, Using, and Satisfied with OneStop Services, but More Data Could Help Labor Better Address Employers Needs, GAO05529R
(Washington, DC: Feb. 18, 2005). This report found that about half of the employers were not
aware of their local one-stops, and that this was more common among smaller companies. Also,
see GAO, Workforce Investment Act: Employers Found One-Stop Centers Useful in Hiring LowSkilled Workers; Performance Information Could Help Gauge Employer Involvement, GAO07
167 (Washington, DC: Dec. 22, 2006).
6 GAO, Workforce Investment Act: Innovative Collaborations between Workforce Boards and
Employers Helped Meet Local Needs, GAO1297 (Washington, DC: Jan. 19, 2012).
7 In addition to the Departments of Labor, Education, Health and Human Services, and Housing and Urban Development, which administer one-stop programs, we also requested nominations from the Department of Commerce, which administers key economic development programs.
7
facilitating collaboration, Labor has not compiled pertinent information on effective
practices for leveraging resources and made it easy to access.
SEVERAL KEY FACTORS SUPPORTED INITIAL COLLABORATION AND SUSTAINED
IT OVER TIME
While the 14 selected initiatives varied in terms of their purpose, sector, and partners involved, the boards and their partners cited common factors that facilitated
and sustained collaboration. These were (1) a focus on urgent, common needs; (2)
leadership; (3) the use of leveraged resources; (4) employer-responsive services; (5)
minimizing administrative burden; and (6) results that motivated the partners to
continue their collaboration.
With regards to focusing on urgent, common needs, almost all of the collaborations grew out of efforts to address urgent workforce needs of multiple employers
in a specific sector, such as health care, manufacturing, or agriculture, rather than
focusing on individual employers (see table 1). The urgent needs ranged from a
shortage of critical skills in health care and manufacturing to the threat of layoffs
and business closures. In San Bernardino, CA, for example, some companies were
at risk of layoffs and closures because of declining sales and other conditions, unless
they received services that included retraining for their workers.8 In one case, employers in Gainesville, FL, joined with the board and others to tackle the need to
create additional jobs by embarking on an initiative to develop entrepreneurial
skills.
Table 1.Fourteen Initiatives Addressed a Range of Urgent Employer Needs

Initiative name
Workforce board 1
Sector focus
1. ManufacturingWorks .................
2. Health Careers Collaborative of
Greater Cincinnati.
3. Entrepreneurship Quests ..........
4. Advanced Manufacturing Training Initiative.
5. Piedmont Triad Global Logistics
Workforce Initiative.
6. Center of Excellence in Production Agriculture.
7. Career Pathways .......................
8. Pre-employment Healthcare
Academy.
9. Technical Employment Training
10. Manufacturing Sector Layoff
Aversion and Business Assistance Initiative.
11. Health Care Sector Panel .......
12. Michigan Academy for Green
Mobility Alliance.
Chicago, IL .........................
Cincinnati, OH ...................
Manufacturing ...................
Health care ........................
Gainesville, FL ...................
Golden, CO .........................
No single sector .................

Manufacturing ...................
Greensboro, NC ..................
Transportation, distribution, and logistics.

Agriculture .........................
13. NoVaHealthForce .....................

14. Composites Kansas WIRED
Initiative.
Lancaster, PA .....................
Madison, WI .......................
Rochester, MN ....................
Needs addressed 2
Critical skill needs.

Critical skill needs, turnover.
Need for additional jobs.3
Soft skills.4
Multiple ..............................
Health care (long-term
care).
Manufacturing ...................
Manufacturing ...................

Turnover, soft skills.4
Seattle, WA ........................
Taylor, MI (southeast
Michigan).
Health care ........................

Manufacturing ...................
Vienna, VA (northern Virginia).

Wichita, KS ........................
Health care ........................

Need for upgraded skills to
keep pace with technological change.
San Bernardino, CA 5 .........

San Bernardino, CA 5 .........
Manufacturing (aviation) ...

Imminent threat of layoffs.
Need for upgraded skills to

keep pace with technological change.
Source: GAO.
1 The boards are identified by the city in which they are located. For the initiatives that involved multiple workforce boards, the city shown
is the location of the lead workforce board. For the boards complete names, see our report.
2 A single initiative could address more than one common need. The needs shown represent the main needs identified by the partners.
3 This initiative addressed the areas need for new employment opportunities through a strategy of promoting self-employment.
4 Soft skills are the nontechnical skills that workers need to function in a job, and include competencies related to problem-solving, oral
communication, personal qualities, work ethic, and teamwork skills.
5 Two initiatives of this board, both in manufacturing, were selected.
8 According to Labor, averting layoffs is one of the functions of the workforce investment system, and worker training, such as training for workers in new processes or technologies, is one
of several services that can help employers avoid layoffs. Labor has encouraged States to establish criteria to identify the employers and workers for whom layoff aversion services may be appropriate. States that seek to use WIA funds to avert layoffs must obtain waivers from Labor.
See Department of Labor, Training and Employment Guidance Letter No. 3009.
8
According to those we interviewed, by focusing on common employer needs across
a sector, the boards and their partners produced innovative labor force solutions
that, in several cases, had evaded employers who were trying to address their needs
individually. In several cases, employers cited the recruitment costs they incurred
by competing against each other for the same workers. By working together to develop the local labor pool they needed, the employers were able to reduce recruitment costs in some cases.
Boards also facilitated collaboration by securing leaders who had the authority or
the ability, or both, to persuade others of the merits of a particular initiative, as
well as leaders whose perceived neutrality could help build trust. Officials from
many initiatives emphasized the importance of having the right leadership to
launch and sustain the initiative. For example, in northern Virginia, a community
college president personally marshaled support from area hospital chief executive officers and local leaders to address common needs for health care workers.
Another factor that facilitated collaboration was the use of leveraged resources.
All of the boards and their partners we spoke with launched or sustained their initiatives by leveraging resources in addition to or in lieu of WIA funds. In some
cases, partners were able to use initial support, such as discretionary grants, to attract additional resources. For example, in Golden, CO, the board leveraged a Labor
discretionary grant of slightly more than $285,000 to generate an additional
$441,000 from other partners. In addition to public funds, in all cases that we reviewed, employers demonstrated their support by contributing cash or in-kind contributions.
In all cases, boards and their partners provided employer-responsive services to
actively involve employers and keep them engaged in the collaborative process.
Some boards and their partners employed staff with industry-specific knowledge to
better understand and communicate with employers. In other initiatives, boards and
partners gained employers confidence in the collaboration by tailoring services such
as jobseeker assessment and screening services to address specific employers needs.
For example, a sector-based center in Chicago, IL, worked closely with employers
to review and validate employers own assessment tools, or develop new ones, and
administer them on behalf of the employers, which saved employers time in the hiring process. Boards and their partners also strengthened collaborative ties with employers by making training services more relevant and useful to them. In some
cases, employers provided direct input into training curricula. For example, in Wichita, KS, employers from the aviation industry worked closely with education partners to develop a training curriculum that met industry needs and integrated new
research findings on composite materials. Another way that some initiatives met
employers training needs was to provide instruction that led to industry-recognized
credentials. For example, in San Bernardino, a training provider integrated an industry-recognized credential in metalworking into its training program to make it
more relevant for employers.
Boards also made efforts to minimize administrative burden for employers and
other partners. In some cases, boards and their partners streamlined data collection
or developed shared data systems to enhance efficiency. For example, in Cincinnati,
OH, the partners developed a shared data system to more efficiently track participants, services received, and outcomes achieved across multiple workforce providers
in the region.
Finally, partners remained engaged in these collaborative efforts because they
continued to produce a range of results for employers, jobseekers and workers, and
the workforce system and other partners, such as education and training providers.
For employers, the partnerships produced diverse results that generally addressed
their need for critical skills in various ways. In some cases, employers said the initiatives helped reduce their recruitment and retention costs. For example, in Cincinnati, according to an independent study, employers who participated in the
health care initiative realized about $4,900 in cost savings per worker hired. For
jobseekers and workers, the partnerships produced results that mainly reflected job
placement and skill attainment. For example, in Wichita, of the 1,195 workers who
were trained in the use of composite materials in aircraft manufacturing, 1,008 had
found jobs in this field. For the workforce system, the partnerships led to various
results, such as increased participation by employers in the workforce system, greater efficiencies, and models of collaboration that could be replicated. Specifically, officials with several initiatives said they had generated repeat employer business or
that the number and quality of employers job listings had increased, allowing the
workforce system to better serve jobseekers.
9
WORKFORCE BOARDS OVERCAME SOME CHALLENGES TO ADDRESS DIVERSE EMPLOYER
NEEDS AND DEVELOPED THEIR OWN MEASURES TO TRACK EMPLOYER ENGAGEMENT
While these boards were successful in their efforts, they cited some challenges to
collaboration that they needed to overcome. Some boards were challenged to develop
comprehensive strategies to address diverse employer needs with WIA funds. WIA
prioritizes funding for intensive services and training for low-income individuals
when funding for adult employment and training activities is limited.9 The director
of one board said that pursuing comprehensive strategies for an entire economic sector can be challenging, because WIA funds are typically used for lower skilled workers, and employers in the region wanted to attract a mix of lower and higher skilled
workers. To address this challenge, the director noted that the board used a combination of WIA and other funds to address employers needs for a range of workers.
Additionally, some boards staff said that while their initiatives sought to meet employer needs for skill upgrades among their existing workers, WIA funds can be
used to train current workers only in limited circumstances, and the boards used
other funding sources to do so. Among the initiatives that served such workers, the
most common funding sources were employer contributions and State funds.
In addition, staff from most, but not all, boards also said that WIA performance
measures do not directly reflect their efforts to engage employers. Many of these
boards used their own measures to assess their services to employers, such as the
number of new employers served each year, the hiring rate for jobseekers they refer
to employers, the interview-to-hire ratio from initiative jobseeker referrals, the retention rate of initiative-referred hires, the number of businesses returning for services, and employer satisfaction.10
LABOR HAS TAKEN STEPS TO SUPPORT LOCAL COLLABORATIVE EFFORTS AND ADDRESS
SOME CHALLENGES BUT HAS NOT MADE INFORMATION ON LEVERAGING RESOURCES
READILY AVAILABLE
In order to support local collaborations like these, Labor has conducted webinars
and issued guidance on pertinent topics, and has also collaborated with other Federal agencies in efforts that could help support local collaboration. For example,
Labor is working with the Department of Education and other Federal agencies to
identify existing industry-recognized credentials and relevant research projects,11
and has issued guidance to help boards increase credential attainment among workforce program participants.12 In addition, Labor has recently worked with Commerce and the Small Business Administration to fund a new discretionary $37 million grant program called the Jobs and Innovation Accelerator Challenge to encourage collaboration and leveraging funds. Specifically, this program encourages the development of industry clusters, which are networks of interconnected firms and supporting institutions that can help a region create jobs. A total of 16 Federal agencies
will provide technical resources to help leverage existing agency funding, including
the three funding agencies listed above.13
While Labor has taken some steps to support local collaborations, it has not made
information it has collected on effective practices for leveraging resources easily accessible, even though many of the boards we reviewed cited leveraging resources as
a key to facilitating collaboration. For example, Labor maintains a Web site for
sharing innovative State and local workforce practices called Workforce3One, which
has some examples of leveraging funding at the local level.14 However, the Web site
does not group these examples together in an easy to find location, as it does for
other categories such as examples of innovative employer services or sector-based
9 29
U.S.C. 2864(d)(4)(E).
examples are consistent with prior GAO work. In a 2004 report, we found that about
70 percent of local areas nationwide reported that they required one-stop centers to track some
type of employer measure, such as the number of employers that use one-stop services, how
many hire one-stop customers, and the type of services that employers use. See GAO, Workforce
Investment Act: States and Local Areas Have Developed Strategies to Assess Performance, but
Labor Could Do More to Help, GAO04657 (Washington, DC: June 1, 2004).
11 According to the Department of Education, The National Center for Education Statistics has
convened a Federal interagency working group to develop better survey measures of the prevalence of industry-recognized certifications and licenses and educational certificates in the U.S.
adult population.
12 See Department of Labor, Training and Employment Guidance Letter No. 1510 (Washington, DC: 2010).
13 In September 2011, Labor announced the 20 regions that will receive grant funds. Labor
estimates the grants will result in the creation of 4,800 jobs.
14 See www.workforce3one.org.
10 These
10
strategies.15 Moreover, although certain evaluations and other research reports have
included information on leveraging resources,16 this information has not been compiled and disseminated in one location.
In conclusion, at a time when the Nation continues to face high unemployment,
it is particularly important to consider ways to better connect the workforce investment system with employers to meet local labor market needs. The 14 local initiatives that we reviewed illustrate how workforce boards collaborated with partners
to help employers meet their needs and yielded results: critical skill needs were met,
individuals obtained or upgraded their skills, and the local system of workforce programs was reinvigorated by increased employer participation. Labor has taken several important steps that support local initiatives like the ones we reviewed through
guidance and technical assistance, and through collaborative efforts with other Federal agencies. However, while Labor has also collected relevant information on effective strategies that local boards and partners have used to leverage resources, it has
not compiled this information or made it readily accessible. As the workforce system
and its partners face increasingly constrained resources, it will be important for
local boards to have at their disposal information on how boards have effectively leveraged funding sources. In our report, we recommended that Labor compile information on workforce boards that effectively leverage WIA funds with other funding
sources and disseminate this information in a readily accessible manner. In its comments on our draft report, Labor agreed with our recommendation and noted its
plans to implement it.
That concludes my prepared statement. I would be happy to answer any questions
that you or other members of the subcommittee may have.
Senator MURRAY. Well, Mr. Sherrill, thank you very much for
that.
Were here, actually, to focus on the report you just talked about.
But there has been a lot of discussion about another GAO report
on Federal job training programs. Some have repeatedly said that
the GAOs 2011 report found that programs were duplicative,
wasteful, and ineffective. And that report has been cited very often
as justification for proposals to cut funding or programs under the
Workforce Investment Act.
In that January 2011 report, what exactly did the GAO find?
Mr. SHERRILL. That was basically an inventory of Federal employment and training programs. Weve done these kind of reports
for the last two decades, the last time in 2003. For this report, we
identified 47 Federal employment and training programs in 2009
using $18 billion in spending, administered by nine Federal agencies. This was an increase of three programs and about $5 billion
since our 2003 report, mainly due to additional Recovery Act
spending, a one-time infusion of funds.
We found overall that not a lot is known about the effectiveness,
the extent to which programs are effective. Few have had impact
studies. We also found that almost all of the programs overlap with
at least one other program and that they provide similar services
to similar populations.
Now, this is a very high-level perspective. What we did was have
a list of 12 different kinds of employment and training services and
asked each program to identify which ones it provides and what its
target populations were. So theres a high-level overlap. But even
15 There are 14 super categories, on the site, such as apprenticeship, clusters, community
colleges, entrepreneurship, disability, nonprofit, and youth services.
16 For example, see The Urban Institute, Characteristics of the Community-Based Job Training Grant Program, prepared for the Department of Labor (Washington, DC: 2009). Also see
Public Policy Associates Incorporated, Nurturing Americas Growth in the Global Marketplace
through Talent Development: An Interim Report on the Evaluation of Generations II and III of
WIRED, prepared for the Department of Labor (Lansing, MI: 2009), and Social Policy Research
Associates, Literature Review: Business/Faith-Based and Community Organization Partnerships, prepared for the Department of Labor (Washington, DC: 2006).
11
in that case, there can be differences in eligibility, objectives, or
how the services are provided.
We did the high-level look, and then we drilled down to focus on
three specific programs that provide services to low-income populations, Temporary Assistance for Needy Families, the WIA Adult
Program, and the Employment Services. We tried to get a sense
offor exampleto what extent people were receiving the same
services from these different programs.
We werent able to get good data on that, but what we did conclude is that these programs maintain separate administrative
structures to provide some of the same or similar types of services.
And we identified opportunities for greater administrative efficiencies along two avenues. One was greater co-location of partners. For example, the TANF program is located in one-stop centers in about 30 States, typically, but not in others. And greater colocation of programs can have benefits such as sharing of information, cross-training of staff, things like that.
The other angle was that several States, Texas, Utah, and Florida, have consolidated their State administrative structures, basically taking their workforce and welfare programs at the State
level and consolidated them so that that achieved cost savings,
fewer buildings, fewer staff. But we werent able to identify or
quantify those.
So the bottom line is we found theres opportunities for greater
administrative efficiencies along these lines and recommended that
the Department of Labor and HHS work together to disseminate
information about these kinds of initiativeswhat are the strategies theyve used, the challenges, what are the resultsto better
inform other attempts to explore these kinds of avenues.
Senator MURRAY. OK. Well, one of those recommendations was
to the Department of Labor and Health and Human Services on
how they might collaborate and try to come up with the incentives
to get States, which are responsible for delivering these programs,
to provide them more efficiently. Could you talk a little bit about
those recommendations?
Mr. SHERRILL. Yes. Labor and HHS are taking steps to implement our recommendations. Let me just give you a couple of examples of the kinds of things theyre doing. Theyre doing something
called Workforce Innovation Fund Grants, where the focus is on innovative approaches to improving employment outcomes and also
the cost-effectiveness side.
Senator MURRAY. This is a result of your recommendation.
Mr. SHERRILL. Not necessarily a result, but something that will
address in part the kind of thing we recommended, because part
of what we suggested is that they look at incentives, providing
greater incentives for States and localities to do these kinds of initiatives. And one of the goals of this Workforce Innovation Fund is
to incentivize greater efficiencies in how we deliver services and
really evaluate these rigorously. So thats one step.
Theyre also doing a joint evaluation to focus on better alignment
of the WIA and the TANF programs, including looking at promising State and local practices, which is one of the areas that we
highlighted. Theres a laboratory of things happening. What can we
learn from these areas? There was not a lot of good information to
12
help others make informed decisions about whether they should be
doing initiatives similar to these.
Senator MURRAY. OK. Very good. I have questions about the new
report, but let me turn to Senator Isakson first.
Senator ISAKSON. Again, thank you for coming and thank you for
the report. A couple of questionsone is I noticed at the beginning
of the report you listedI think it was nine key factors in success
stories and leveraged resources. One of them noted moneys from
foundations.
Mr. SHERRILL. Yes.
Senator ISAKSON. How much of that do you see around the country, where foundations are making investment in workforce development projects?
Mr. SHERRILL. Well, I can tell you that one of the key things that
was distinctive about these initiatives was that they leveraged Federal funds, different kinds of Federal funds, with other nonFederal.
For example, for the foundation grants, 5 of the 14 initiatives, that
was one of the sources of funding that they used.
In addition, eight of the initiatives used State grants, six of them
used local funds, so there was quite a mix of different funds to
make the Federal funds go farther and bring these projects up to
a bigger scale. I think probably the panelists can tell you in more
detail about working with foundations and what that might have
involved, those kinds of issues, at the more basic level.
Senator ISAKSON. Well, one of the reasons I asked the question
in my experience is that a lot of times, there are resources that are
out of sight and out of mind, and agencies dont tend to think outside the box about seeking additional capital from somewhere other
than the government or a government program. And when you can
leverage government money with private money to accomplish a
goal like workforce improvement, its a magic combination.
There are a lot of foundations where their resources were developed from somebody who had a great success in business and in
employing people who wanted to continue that legacy along. So Im
glad that you focused on the private foundation money that is out
there, and, hopefully, some of the examples well hear today will
talk about that.
I also read the Kansas WIRED Initiative, the workforce alliance
in south central Kansas story that you cited toward the end of the
report, which I thought, Madam Chairman, demonstrated everything weve hoped for, where in this initiative, they applied for a
WIRED grant and got it from the Department of Labor in 2007.
Kansas has a tremendous aviation industry. In fact, there are probably more airplanes for private use built in Kansas than anywhere
in the United States.
But there was a mismatch of available workers for the jobs that
were in the industry. So they went to the industry. They got them
to help them with the curriculum and collaborate with them on
what they really needed from a standpoint of training. And then
they matched that up with jobseekers, including non-English
speaking jobseekers, and they developed a translation program and
a vocabulary program to help them better be able to communicate.
And it turned outIve got the number here. Let me see.
13
Anyway, out of almost 2,000 workers who came and went
through the program, almost all of them finished the program. And
with the exception of 14, all of them got jobs. Thats the kind of
success story that were really looking at. I appreciate your focusing on these real cases like the Kansas case and like the ones that
well hear today, and I look forward to their testimony.
Thank you, Madam Chair.
Senator MURRAY. Thank you. Following up on that, in your new
report, weve heard a lot about challenges in keeping employers engaged, as Senator Isakson just talked about in that example, and
making sure that were responsive to their needs in the local community. In your observations, what were the critical factors in
these local partnerships that enabled them to be demand-driven
and outcome-focused?
Mr. SHERRILL. I think one of the keys is that this involves a shift
from sort of a program centric focus to an employer demand-driven
focus, which can take you in a very different direction to target it.
Employer responsive services was one of the items we highlighted
as facilitating. And that manifested itself in a lot of different ways.
But it was things like really understanding having staff at the
one-stop center who know the specifics of the industries, what they
need, the trends in the industries. It involves really developing assessments and screening tools for the workers that are going to
really meet the employers needs. It involves thinking about credentials that are important to the workers.
One of the key things that we saw is that some of these initiatives had a broader focus, because some of the employers really
wanted sort of skill increases, higher skilled workers, and they
wanted to use some of their existing workers to upgrade their skills
to make room for new entry level employees. So developing a comprehensive package of how to address that takes you out of a program mode and into a very different kind of a perspective.
Its all fine to say we need more collaboration. But these initiatives really showed that can be very challenging, and this is very
instructive. How did they implement collaboration on these large
scales to do these? It was through strategies like these.
Senator MURRAY. Yes. OK. Im glad you used the words, upgrade their skills. Ive heard from a lot of people who have lost
their jobs. They dont want to be told theyre going to be retrained.
They want to build on the skills they already have, and I think we
should use the words, upgrade their skills, more rather than saying youre an outcast now. Were going to have you be a new person. I think that is reflected better in their willingness to really go
out and upgrade their skills.
You mentioned in your opening remarks about the importance of
sector strategies being an essential component. How did the programs identify which sectors or industries to focus their efforts on
that were successful?
Mr. SHERRILL. I think they had different mechanisms to do that.
For example, I know some of the States that had existingwhat
they called skills panels orlike Seattle, I know, had that kind of
an arrangement, where they had some mechanism for periodically
checking in with employers about their situation.
14
I know in northern Virginia in the health care industry, they did
a study that really helped galvanize, and the study predicted or
projected a coming shortage of about 17,000 workers in various
health care professions in about 23 occupations. Well, that kind of
work can really galvanize the employers.
Senator MURRAY. So were they using some kind of labor market
information or intelligence to make those decisions, or was it more
talking directly to the employers?
Mr. SHERRILL. I think it varied. In some cases, it was talking to
employers. I know one of the initiatives used a focus group to bring
in employers to do that.
Senator MURRAY. So its both.
Mr. SHERRILL. Its both. Right.
Senator MURRAY. OK. Some of the initiatives that you reviewed
seemed to change how the local workforce system operated at a
fundamental level as opposed to being a separate program within
the system. What characteristics set those initiatives apart?
Mr. SHERRILL. Yes. I think, once again, it was bringing a collaborative effort. How do they leverage and bring together different
players? One of the key things we found was that employer contributions, either cash or in-kind, were used by all of the initiatives, all 14 of the initiatives.
So part of the challenge was really how do you bring employers
to the table who are often competitors, and having good leadership
to do that, because one of the things that they told ussome of the
employersis We used to recruit workers away from other employers and overseas and things. But that was just increasing the
overall business costs. Now, under the different focus of these initiatives, theyre looking to grow the pool of workers from their local
areas and, in some cases, develop a pipeline of youth.
Senator MURRAY. To the benefit of an industry rather than
Mr. SHERRILL. Right. So its a different focus. A lot of the challenge was how do you bring employers to the table, and to have a
staying commitment, get them to help contribute resources as well,
and that was a key part of this.
Senator MURRAY. What about the administrative burden we hear
from a lot of businesses, that its just
Mr. SHERRILL. There were several strategies we found some of
the initiatives using to minimize administrative burden. One of the
key things some of them did was to have a central point of contact
at the one-stop for employers, someone who really could be the face
of the one-stop for the employers.
Senator MURRAY. Specifically for the employers.
Mr. SHERRILL. For the employers. In other cases, they helped the
employers to try to minimize some of the paperwork burden in
terms of information that had to be reported or documented by employers, to provide assistance with doing that. So those types
Senator MURRAY. So it seems to me the whole focus is rather
than just We want to get you a job. Youre out of work, its to the
employers We want to help you build the workforce, so that its
a
Mr. SHERRILL. Right. Its really the window
Senator MURRAY. Yes.
15
Mr. SHERRILL [continuing]. Through which theyre serving their
customers, the jobseekers.
Senator MURRAY. OK. Well, I appreciate very much you putting
this report together, and I know I look forward to hearing the
panel behind you and how they have implemented their workforce.
Senator Isakson, any other questions?
Senator ISAKSON. I just have a comment. And I may be wrong,
but from my days back in my State legislature and the company
that I ran back in Georgia, I think theres a general beliefor lack
of understanding of what is available from the Department of
Labor and the workforce boards by the private sector. And if the
private sector doesntif the boards dont reach out to the private
sector and make it comfortable and easy for them to come to the
department and find workers, theyre not going to do it, because
the perception is, like you said, its either too cumbersome, theres
too much paperwork, or its not the type of worker they really need
to hire.
But if you get them collaborating with each other, and you have
a one-stop shop for the potential worker as well as a one-stop contact for the company, it makes it a lot easier to do business. But
I think that its aits not a chicken or egg deal. What comes first
is the workforce board reaching out to the employers of the community, and thats what brings about the collaboration. Is that a correct statement?
Mr. SHERRILL. Yes, and I think thats manifested. One of the
things we saw is that in addition to employer contributions to help
fund these initiatives, a bunch of these initiatives were replicated
in other industries. For example, the Kansas WIRED Initiative you
cited that focused on composite manufacturing in the aircraft industry was subsequentlytheyre leveraging that to do composite
materials in medical devices, orthopedic devices.
And so the fact that employers are finding their needs met, staying with these initiatives over time, and the initiatives are growing
to other sectors or industries is a sign that employers are getting
integrated and using the one-stop vehicle.
Senator ISAKSON. Thank you for a great report.
Mr. SHERRILL. Thank you.
Senator MURRAY. I very much appreciate that. Senator Franken
has joined us.
Did you have a question for this panel, or do you want to wait
until the next panel?
STATEMENT
OF
SENATOR FRANKEN
Senator FRANKEN. I have a general question about the kind of

leadership in these workforce boards and coordination, because I
read the testimony of the second panel and of yours. It seems to
me that in addition to having the right resources, the key to all the
successes that were going to hear about today is creative leadership.
And in each of these cases, someone identified the skills gap and
brought all the stakeholders togetherbusinesses, workforce
boards, community collegesto start talking. And in the past year,
Ive started a kind of convening role in my State of bringing together stakeholders to encourage energy retrofitting.
16
Then that sort of got me into skills gap stuff and convening a
meeting of a community college that is doing exactly the right
thing, which is working with businesses, with manufacturers, to
create the skillsto create the curriculum for the skills, and
theyre working with a workforce board. And that seemed to be a
matter of great leadership among those folks. Hennepin Technical
College has started a program called M-Powered, and of about 93
percent of the people theyve done in this program, 200-plus people93 percent of them have permanent jobs now.
My question is twofold. One, what role does just leadership play?
And what role can we, as Senators, play in terms of going back to
our States and convening people and saying, This model seems to
work. Why dont you guys work with you guys? Im very eloquent,
as you can tell.
But what role does leadership play? And what role does legislation and money and funding play? What is the mix of this? From
your look at all of this, what do you believe is thejust on a
30,000-foot view of this, what is the mix that creates success?
Mr. SHERRILL. I think that was kind of bottom lined in the six
factors thatwe have a graphic in the report. Leadership was one
of them. Leveraging funding was another key factor. Sort of employer responsive services, addressing urgent common needsthese
were among the repeated themes we heard in these initiatives.
With regard to leadership, that was important, and we found
that it was sometimesit came from different places, sometimes
from the one-stop board, maybe a community college president, or
someone froma hospital executive. But one of the keys was youre
bringingsince you have an industry focus, a sector focus, youre
bringing employers to the table that are competitors with each
other.
So theres an issue of how do you get them to the table where
they can trust and start working together to help deal with their
common problems, because, obviously, if theyre recruiting from one
another, theres a concern about if they spend some money training
people and they lose staff. I think the idea is that by focusing on
their common needs and having good leadership and vision and
connection to what their needs are in different ways, you can really
make a difference.
Senator FRANKEN. The whole sectors gains, obviously.
Mr. SHERRILL. Yes.
Senator FRANKEN. So what comes first? I mean, there seems to
be chicken and egg here a little bit. What comes first? Does the
leadership come first?
Mr. SHERRILL. I think all these factors are important here. And
you canperhaps the second panel, those who are on the ground
and implementing these initiatives, might give you a richer perspective of how things actually evolved.
Senator FRANKEN. Right.
Mr. SHERRILL. But I think you need some leadership to get
things started. Whats the focus? Which partners do we start adding to the table to really do this well, to explore other sources of
funding
Senator FRANKEN. Because funding is important, but its important when its used absolutely strategically. I dont want to waste
17
funding, but I want to use it when its needed and when it can be
leveraged to the maximum effect. And thats what I want to learn
a little bit about today.
And I thank the Chair and Ranking Member for holding this
hearing.
Thank you, Mr. Sherrill.
Mr. SHERRILL. Thank you.
Senator MURRAY. Thank you very much, Senator Franken.
Mr. Sherrill, thank you for your testimony. We do have a number
of committee members who would like to submit questions for the
record, which we will allow them to do.
I really appreciate your work on this report. So thank you very
much.
Mr. SHERRILL. Thank you, Senator Murray.
Senator MURRAY. With that, Im going to introduce our second
panel. And while they are coming forward and taking their seats,
I will go ahead and begin introductions.
This panel is a little different than a lot of our usual panels. We
have the privilege of having witnesses from four of the best practices highlighted in the GAO report we just heard about. For each,
weve invited the director of the workforce board and one of their
key partners. In these cases we have an employer, two community
college representatives, and a manufacturing extension partnership
director.
The witnesses from each practice will have an opportunity to provide us with a joint opening statement of 5 minutes. Following, we
will do a round or two of questions.
First of all, from northern Virginia, Mr. David Hunn is the executive director of the Northern Virginia Workforce Investment
Board in Vienna, VA. Hes joined by Ms. Geraldine Hofler, who is
the project director for NoVaHealthFORCE at the Northern Virginia Community College in Springfield, VA.
Next we will have from San Bernardino, CAMs. Sandy
Harmsen is the director of the San Bernardino County Workforce
Investment Board, and Mr. James Watson is president and CEO of
CMTC, the California Manufacturing Technology Center in Torrance, CA.
Next were going to have from Madison, WI, Ms. Patricia
Schramm, the executive director of the Workforce Development
Board of south central Wisconsin, Inc., joined by Dr. Bettsey
Barhorst, president of Madison College.
Finally, we have two witnesses from Seattle, WA. Marlena Sessions is the CEO of the Seattle-King County Workforce Development Board, and Dr. Barbara Trehearne is the vice president of
Clinical Excellence Quality and Nursing Practice of Group Health
Cooperative in Seattle.
Welcome to all of you. We really appreciate your participation
today. And I would invite you to present us with up to 5 minutes
of testimony from each group, and we will then have some questions.
So we will begin with northern VirginiaDr. David Hunn and
Ms. Hofler.
18
STATEMENT OF DAVID HUNN, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, NORTHERN VIRGINIA WORKFORCE INVESTMENT BOARD, VIENNA,
VA; ACCOMPANIED BY GERALDINE HOFLER, PROJECT DIRECTOR, NORTHERN VIRGINIA COMMUNITY COLLEGE,
SPRINGFIELD, VA
Mr. HUNN. Chairwoman Murray, Ranking Member Isakson, Senator Franken, thank you for the opportunity to speak today. I am
David Hunn, executive director of the Northern Virginia Workforce
Investment Board.
Our workforce area is located roughly 10 miles west of this hearing room across the Potomac River in the heart of a dynamic business environment. The workforce area serves over 1.9 million residents and thousands of businesses and is 1 of 15 local workforce
areas in the Commonwealth of Virginia overseen by the Virginia
Community College System as the State fiscal agent for the Workforce Investment Act.
Our five one-stop centers, known as SkillSource Centers, had a
record number of adult jobseekers this past fiscal year, having over
100,000 visits for the year ending in June. The region has become
a major metropolitan job center with 1.5 million jobs widely distributed among multiple employment sectors, such as information technology, professional services, health care, hospitality, retail, and
government.
Unemployment in our area is relatively low at 4.5 percent, less
than the State of Virginia rate of 6.2 percent and a national rate
of 8.5 percent. But new job growth in northern Virginia is projected
to lead all local jurisdictions in greater Washington through 2020,
and already employers are reporting difficulties in finding skilled
workers.
A key role for the local workforce area, through its business leadership and local elected officials, is the facilitation of targeted partnerships that youre looking at today. The Workforce Investment
Act engages State officials, business and elected leaders to align
these partnerships efficiently and in a manner most effective at the
local level.
The projections for a regional health care workforce shortage
emerged in the past decade, and our workforce area targeted the
health care workforce as its primary focus. The premise of
NoVaHealthFORCE is that no one sector, either private health
care providers; Federal, State, or local governments; higher educational institutions; or the general public can deal with the multiple issues of the skilled health care workforce shortage by itself.
Rather, through collective action and regional leadership, solutions
can be carefully developed and implemented to best serve both public and private interests.
Im pleased to turn to my colleague, Geraldine Hofler, to highlight the NoVaHealthFORCE partnership.
Ms. HOFLER. Chairman Murray, Ranking Member Isakson,
thank you for this opportunity to speak. I am special assistant to
Northern Virginia Community College president Robert Templin
and the director of the NoVaHealthFORCE Project.
NoVaHealthFORCE is a consortium of health care providers,
higher education leaders, businesses, economic development authorities, and the Northern Virginia Workforce Investment Board.
19
It represents the first time the health care workforce shortage has
been addressed by a broad spectrum of involved constituents.
Founded in 2003, this well-established group is led by Robert
Templin, president of Northern Virginia Community College, better
known as NOVA. NOVA is the second largest community college in
the United States, and, as one of 23 colleges in the Virginia Community College System, its the largest higher education institution
in the Commonwealth.
In 2004, NOVA opened its sixth campus, which is solely dedicated to nursing and allied health education. And it is the only specialized community college campus in the Commonwealth.
NoVaHealthFORCE commissioned a study to examine the scope
and impact of the regional nursing and allied health care worker
shortage. The study, financed by five regional health care providers
and the Northern Virginia Workforce Investment Board, identified
critical shortages of health care workers in 24 job categories. The
study was accompanied by an agenda which detailed specific actions to be taken by the stakeholders and centered around the following three broad goals: increasing educational capacity, developing and sustaining a pipeline of persons interested in health care
careers, and nurturing innovation.
Through the efforts of our CEO Roundtable and the Northern
Virginia Workforce Investment Board, HealthFORCE was successful in leveraging the health care providers original investment to
obtain a grant from the Virginia General Assembly for the expansion of nursing education and nursing faculty. Matching funds were
provided by the regions health care providers, and we distributed
these funds to five college and university programs. Since 2006,
there has been a 33 percent increase in student nursing admissions
in the northern Virginia region, and about 80 percent of the graduates remain in the region to work.
HealthFORCE has also facilitated the development of new diagnostic imaging curricula in radiation oncology and ultrasonography. This effort was also supported by the regions health
care providers. NoVaHealthFORCEs interest in health information
management was the catalyst for NOVA to apply for and to receive
approximately $10 million in grants from the Department of
Health and Human Services, Kaiser Permanente of the Mid-Atlantic, and the Department of Education.
In summary, the NoVaHealthFORCE model has positively impacted the community by increasing the regions educational capacity, increasing access to higher education, and promoting career
ladders within the health care industry.
Thank you.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Hunn and Ms. Hofler follows:]
PREPARED JOINT STATEMENT
OF
DAVID HUNN
AND
GERALDINE HOFLER
Chairwoman Murray, Ranking Member Isakson and distinguished members of the

Employment and Workplace Safety Subcommittee, thank you for the opportunity to
speak today about an innovative partnership in northern Virginia that is addressing
a regional health care workforce challenge. We are David Hunn, executive director
of the Northern Virginia Workforce Investment Board and Gerry Hofler, special assistant to Northern Virginia Community College president, Dr. Robert G. Templin,
Jr. for workforce and the project director of NoVaHealthFORCE.
NoVaHealthFORCE, a consortium of health care providers, higher educational
leaders, businesses, economic development authorities, and the Northern Virginia
20
Workforce Investment Board, represents the first time the regional health care
workforce shortage has been addressed by a broad spectrum of involved constituents
in the Commonwealth of Virginia.
The Northern Virginia Workforce Investment Board (NVWIB) was established in
2000, with a commitment to providing quality workforce development services on behalf of northern Virginia residents. In 2002, the SkillSource Group, Inc.
(SkillSource) was created as the non-profit entity of the NVWIB with a mandate
for fiscal oversight and resource development in support of the programs and services of the NVWIB. SkillSources mission is to catalyze a world class, globally competitive business environment in northern Virginia with the goal to offer world-class
preparation to every northern Virginia resident at its five (5) One-Stop Employment
Centers, known as SkillSource Centers. The SkillSource Centers had a record
number of adult client visits in fiscal year 2011, recording over 100,000 jobseeker
visits. The SkillSource One-Stop Employment Centers serve over 1.9 million residents and thousands of businesses in Fairfax, Loudoun and Prince William counties
and the cities of Fairfax, Falls Church, Manassas and Manassas Park. The Northern Virginia Workforce Area is 1 of 15 local workforce areas in the Commonwealth
of Virginia, overseen by the Virginia Community College System (VCCS) as the
State Workforce Investment Act Fiscal Agent.
The northern Virginia region has grown rapidly during the past two decades to
become a major metropolitan job center, with 1.5 million total jobs widely distributed in multiple employment sectors such as information technology, professional
services, education/health care, leisure/hospitality, retail, construction, and financial
services, and government (Federal, State, and local). Unemployment in the Northern Virginia Workforce Area remains relatively low4.5 percent versus a Virginia
unemployment rate of 6.2 percent and a national rate of 8.5 percent (seasonally adjusted for December 2011). New job growth in northern Virginia is projected to lead
all local jurisdictions in the greater Washington region through 2020 and local employers in various industries have reported difficulties in identifying and hiring
skilled workers for their available positions.
Founded in 2003, NoVaHealthFORCE commissioned PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP
to empirically measure the scope and examine the impact of the regional nursing
and allied health care worker shortage in northern Virginia. The study, financed by
five regional healthcare institutions and the Northern Virginia Workforce Investment Board, identified critical shortages of health care workers in 24 job categories.
The original study was updated in 2008 and projected that northern Virginias estimated current 3,000 health care worker shortage is projected to explode to more
than 17,000 by 2020, without intervention.
To date, the NoVaHealthFORCE outcomes have included:
A 33 percent increase in educational capacity in the regions undergraduate
nursing programs from 200610;
A 25 percent increase in the number of nursing undergraduates from 200610,
with about 80 percent remaining in the greater Washington region to work;
A catalyst for development of new curricula in Radiation Oncology and UltraSonography by way of a U.S. Department of Labor grant in 2007;
A catalyst for approximately $10 million in grants from the U.S. Department
of Health and Human Services, Kaiser Permanente of the Mid-Atlantic, and the
U.S. Department of Education to increase capacity in Health Information Management curricula in 2010.
In 2005 NoVaHealthFORCE convened an inaugural meeting of the regions health
care CEOs and college and university presidents. Collectively, they pledged to cooperatively establish a long-term strategy to address the shortage. Now known as the
CEO Roundtable, this group meets twice each year to identify and discuss issues
and develop strategy. The group consists of the following health care providers:
Inova Health System, Dewitt Army Health Care Network, Virginia Hospital Center,
Prince William Health System, Sentara Potomac Hospital, Kaiser Permanente of
the Mid-Atlantic, and Reston Hospital Center. The regions colleges and universities
are George Mason University, Marymount University, Northern Virginia Community College, Old Dominion University, and Shenandoah University. The Northern
Virginia Workforce Investment Board serves as the fiscal agent for NoVaHealth
FORCE.
NoVaHealthFORCE advocates that the solution to the local healthcare worker
shortage must be the establishment of a long-term, business-driven, sustainable
strategy. The northern Virginia community must recognize that the healthcare
worker shortage is more than a hospital problem and it affects all aspects of economic and community life.
21
This well-established group is led by Dr. Robert G. Templin, Jr., president of
Northern Virginia Community College (NOVA). NOVA is the second largest community college in the United States, and, as one of the 23 colleges in the Virginia Community College System, it is the largest higher education institution in the Commonwealth of Virginia. NOVA opened its sixth campus, the Medical Education Campus, in 2004. It is solely dedicated to nursing and allied health education and is the
only specialized community college campus in the Commonwealth.
The release of the PricewaterhouseCoopers study was accompanied by an agenda
which detailed specific actions to be taken by the local public and private stakeholders. Eight work groups comprised of approximately 100 subject matter experts
from education, local government, and the health care community conceived a 14step action plan centered on the following three goals:
1. Increasing capacity within the healthcare education and training system.
2. Develop and sustain an ongoing supply of persons interested in health care careers.
3. Nurture Innovation.
In 2006, through the efforts of the original steering committee and the Northern
Virginia Workforce Investment Board, NoVaHealthFORCE was successful in
leveraging the health care providers original investment to obtain a $1.5 million
grant from the Virginia General Assembly for the expansion of nursing education
and nursing faculty. Matching funds were provided by the regions health care providers. NoVaHealthFORCE has distributed these funds from the regions health
care institutions to five college and university nursing programs since 2006.
This additional funding allowed each of the regions colleges and universities to
target their niche in nursing education without competitive overtones, resulting in
a 33 percent increase in nursing student admissions in the northern Virginia region
since 2006. This cooperative effort has spawned a variety of creative educational
ladders among the institutions, including study options such as accelerated traditional curriculums, accelerated inter-school pathways to advanced nursing degrees,
and on-line education which will increase the number of nursing graduates. For example, the creation of a program, Momentum 2+1 enables a nursing student to
enter NOVA and work toward two Associate Degrees, one in General Studies and
one in Nursing. Upon completion, this student is automatically accepted to George
Mason University to complete the Bachelors in Nursing in 1 additional year or a
Masters in Nursing in 2 additional years.
The nursing education expansion project has been funded by the Commonwealth
of Virginia every year since 2006 and the regions health care providers have more
than matched the General Assembly funding each year. To date, Virginia General
Assembly funding totals $2,359,825 and the regions health care providers have contributed $2,454,350. New this year has been the establishment of two graduate fellowships at George Mason University for Ph.D. nursing students. Upon award of
their degree, the fellows will become nursing faculty for one of the regions nursing
education programs. These new faculty will help to relieve the teaching shortage in
the nursing classroom, which is at least as critical as the shortage at the bedside.
Through the efforts of the CEO Roundtable, NoVAHealthFORCE has also facilitated the development of new diagnostic imaging curricula in Radiation Oncology
and Ultra-Sonography. NOVA received a $1.2 million grant from the U.S. Department of Labor in 2007 to expand the regions output of radiation technologists, radiation oncology therapists and sonographers. This effort was heavily supported by
the regions healthcare providers. Each health care provider contributed toward a
subsidy to better align faculty salaries with the market rate salaries. The healthcare
providers also recruited incumbent workers for these curricula and provided tuition
assistance. These new funds were instrumental in opening new educational and career ladders in accordance with HealthFORCEs pipeline goal, reflected in the training and career preparation of over 120 new skilled workers to date. These funds also
developed a high school bridge program allowing students to begin their preparation
for a career in Radiation Technology while still in high school.
NoVaHealthFORCEs interest in Health Information Management (HIM) and
Health Information Technology (HIT) was the catalyst for NOVA to apply for and
receive approximately $10 million in grants from the Office of the National Coordinator for HIT of HHS, Kaiser Permanente of the Mid-Atlantic, and the Department
of Education.
In summary, the NoVaHealthFORCE initiative has positively impacted the northern Virginia community by increasing the regions nursing and allied health educational capacity allowing for the filling of health care worker vacancies that will
maintain and improve patient care and outcomes in addition to yielding additional
tax revenues at the local, State, and Federal levels. It has helped to increase access
22
to higher education health care training and has promoted career ladders within the
health care industry.
The premise of NoVaHealthFORCE is that no one sector, either private health
care providers, Federal, State or local governments, higher educational institutions
or the general public can deal with the multiple issues of the skilled healthcare
workforce shortage by itself. Rather, through collective action and regional public
and private sector leadership, solutions can be carefully developed and implemented
to best serve both public and private interests.
More details on NoVAHealthForce can be found on www.novahealthforce.org and
Northern Virginia Community College at www.nvcc.edu. Additional information on
the Northern Virginia Workforce Investment Board can be reviewed at www.myskill
source.org.
Senator MURRAY. Thank you very much.
Ill go ahead and turn to Wisconsin, since youre next. Ms.

Schramm and Dr. Barhorst.
STATEMENT OF PATRICIA SCHRAMM, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR,
WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT BOARD OF SOUTH CENTRAL
WISCONSIN, INC., MADISON, WI; ACCOMPANIED BY BETTSEY
BARHORST, Ph.D., PRESIDENT, MADISON COLLEGE, MADISON, WI
Ms. SCHRAMM. Chairman Murray, Ranking Member Isakson, and

Senator Franken, thank you so much for the opportunity to be with
you. Im Pat Schramm. Im the executive director for the Workforce
Development Board of south central Wisconsin.
We are actually sitting in the second population center of WisconsinMadison. We go very urban to rural, so thats something
to really remember when were talking, is we have a very, dense
urban area, but then we become rural very quickly.
Im joined by Bettsey Barhorst. Dr. Barhorst is president of
Madison College, and its the largest college in our region. It has
45,000 studentsto give you a frame.
Our region has been working really hard on workforce innovation
for over 10 years. And when the GAO came to us, it was really a
good moment for us to do a timeout and say, Is what were doing
really worth looking at nationally? And the answer is yes, and the
reason is that weve been working at this since 1999. So a message
that I need to give you is this is not something that you do overnight. You need to have leadership that works at this for a very
long time.
Our background is that we actually had a very strong collaboration from the very beginning that was industry first, the educational people, the workforce system and its contractors, and the
economic development community. We really had to have all those
players in place to make this work.
Why we got into this in 1999 is that we were actually already
starting as a State into a skill shortage. We have low-birth rates
and an aging population, and industry is having a very hard time
getting a workforce. Does this soundthis was 1999same conversation were having right now.
In 19992000, to get to the foundation piece, the Joyce Foundation came to us and brought us experts from the Joyce Foundation
who were able to really help us think about our work and how
could we be more effective. The reason we asked the Joyce Foundation to help us is that we were primarily Workforce Investment Act
funded. We werent getting the results that we wanted. People
23
were going into training, but only about 65 percent of the people
who were completing training were actually being successful and
getting jobs. So we knew we had to do something very drastically
different.
What happened is with the help of the Joyce Foundation, experts
from primarily the DC area, CLASP, and workforce strategies
helped us really reframe our entire system and think about what
would actually work better. As a result of that, we started to make
a commitment to what youre calling now career pathway work. We
were some of the early pioneers in this.
What career pathway work meant for us is not just modular,
stackable credentialswhich we have been really effective in developingbut we also re-engineered the entire workforce system to
surround this. We redesigned the staffing on the ground of the
workforce system so that we could actually have career advisors on
the very front end. Then we would know that the investment we
were making was actually guided into career pathways.
One of the key things to our work is in the early days, we would
actually say we were prototyping, because we just didnt have substantial resources to take things to scale. So one of the things that
we did throughout our 10-year period is weve been very disciplined, and when we find extra money, we actually then build our
capacity.
What capacity has meant is weve done things like, under the
WIRED grant, brought whole new instructional platforms for patient simulation centers, robotics training for manufacturing. To
deal with our urban-rural makeup, we brought in interactive video
conferencing systems to our one-stop systems so that we could do
workshops in one locality that people 2 hours away could actually
participate in from a more rural community. We had some very,
very strategic things that weve done over 10 years.
Im going to actually have Dr. Barhorst talk about the substantial work that we actually did in the community college, because
weve pushed the envelope, seriously, on the community college system.
Ms. BARHORST. Thank you. This was so exciting for us because
we knew that we had to act from the point of view of the user, of
the dislocated worker, of the worker who is an incumbent worker
but needs enhanced skills, or even of our traditional college students who had to start looking at jobs instead of simply getting
some kind of degree.
We had this opportunity to do this pilot, and the best way I can
tell you about it is to give you an example of someone coming to
us. We put this at another campuseasy to park, to get to the
front door. As soon as one of our clients would come in the door,
they would be met by two people, by someone from workforce development and by one of our advisors. They would stay with them
until they were matriculated into this program.
The program had to be short, because adults do not have lots of
time. It had to be very creative in how it was given. So we worked
with the clusters where we knew there were jobs, and sometimes
we had to go to basic skills, and other times, it was simply icing
on the cake that was already there, meaning that was the person.
24
We found this to be very successful. I only wish that we could
do this kind of thing with all students, because the individualization is what made the difference, and constantly being in contact
with the stakeholders, the industries, to know what did they want
and who did they need and what kind of training did they need.
Ms. SCHRAMM. Also, just before we closeand, Senator Franken
asked thishow do we actually get there? Industry clusters, industry partnerships, were really key. What we do is we actually work
in six industries. We have tables of business people who meet with
us throughout the entire year, helping us understand their work.
This was absolutely critical during the recession, because labor
market information was great. We needed to know where they
were going to make their future investments. So their commitment
to usindustryis that they will have candid conversations with
us. The scale of this work over 10 yearswe actually have touched
more than 7,000 people. And in the job center system, just in the
past 2 years during the recession, they saw a 40 percent increase
in the number of people who went into jobs. So its had a major
impact.
The State of Wisconsin, now, with the Wisconsin Technical College System and the Department of Workforce Development, are
attempting to do this statewide with the help of the Joyce Foundation.
Thank you.
[The prepared statement of Ms. Schramm and Ms. Barhorst follows:]
PREPARED JOINT STATEMENT
OF
PATRICIA SCHRAMM
AND
BETTSEY BARHORST
Chairman, Murray, Ranking Member Isakson, and distinguished members of the

committee, thank you for the opportunity to speak today about regional workforce
system innovations. My name is Pat Schramm, I am the executive director of the
Workforce Development Board of south central Wisconsin; I am joined by Bettsey
Barhorst, president of Madison College, the primary technical college in south central Wisconsin with a 45,000-student population.
How to position our workforce with the skills needed by industry is a constant
focus of our regions leaders. Wisconsin is a State that has already moved into a
labor shortage environment due to aging populations and declining birth rates. We
know as a community that if we do not concentrate on maintaining the skills of our
current workers and preparing all of our available new workers, we will not stay
economically viable as a region and a State. We began working over 10 years ago
on a Career Pathway model with the goal to aggressively grow a skilled workforce
for our region.
BACKGROUNDWHY AND HOW
We began our work in 1999 as a collaborative of partners; Industry, Economic Development, Educators, the Workforce Development Board and contractors. These
Partners were and continue to be committed to improve access, retention and completion of low-skill, unemployed and dislocated workers to skill training and family
supporting wages. At the board level we had strong business leaders who understood that we needed to start doing something drastically different. We were working very hard but our training outcomes were not matching the financial investments that we were making. Workers were not successfully completing training and
industry was having a very difficult time finding skilled workers. Does this sound
familiarthis was 1999.
With the help of the Joyce Foundation we began to work with experts who were
pioneering Career Pathway work. The experts helped us analyze our systems and
understand our potential to innovate and most importantly, helped us to learn how
to talk about our work. In 2003, we were ready to present to our boards Career
Pathways as the framework for how we would do business. At this time we presented a concept and set of principles to the Madison College Board and the Work-
25
force Development Board. We asked both boards to agree to commit to working
within a Career Pathway framework. Both boards agreed to make organizational
commitments that included dedicating resources that each organization had in hand
and to aggressively seek additional resources to grow the work.
For us, a Career Pathway model was and is an organized modular training platform offered in a more accessible and manageable format. This training is supported
by a One Stop Delivery System where personnel are organized to support a workers
career pathway progress. The student/worker is also supported by other workforce
engagement strategies that can be used as needed, to assure a transition into employment such as apprenticeships, on the job training and transitional jobs. The system is designed so that the customer can enter the system at any point based on
skill need.
Our early work can best be described as proto-typing, small scale changes. The
small scale experiments kept reaping results that we could clearly see would
produce increased benefits to workers and industry. We just needed to grow the
scale. In order to grow the scale of our work; we maintain a discipline resource development strategy. What this means is, when an opportunity presented itself, we
would use the one time resources to build industry informed curriculums, integrate
new technologies such as patient care simulators, portable robotics training platforms for manufacturing, interactive video conferencing systems within the One
Stop System and other strategies that would help us increase the effectiveness of
our efforts and have a lasting impact of 3 to 5 years. Build capacity.
Examples of investment:
Timeline
Development
2000 ................
2004 ................
2008 ................
200710 ..........
200710 ..........
2009 ................
Department of Labor Industry Partnership Grant ...................................................

Workforce Development Board first investment in Career Pathway .......................
Community-Based Job Training GrantBiotech ....................................................
WIREDRegional12 Counties .............................................................................
DWD Sector GrantsBiotechnology and Health Care12 Counties ....................
DOE FIPSECenter for Adult Learning ...................................................................
Investment
$1,400,000
$325,000
$2,400,000
$5,000,000
$442,000
$700,000
People
trained
998
400
550
2,740
200
600
26
SUMMARY OF THE DESIGN
Key to our work has been our engagement with industry. We organize our work
into industry sectors.
Industry sectors are made up of groups of companies specific to each sector that
make a commitment to us, to engage in ongoing conversations that are up close and
personal. This industry engagement gives us insight into what the challenges are
to maintain a skilled workforce. These employers inform our work. They participate
in curriculum design; they serve as trainers for both One Stop System workshops
and technical college training. Most importantly, they help us understand how their
industries are changing so that we can be in front of the change.
There are five other very critical design pieces that have supported our Career
Pathway work.
1. At the college level, we re-organized and re-designed training strategies to provide a comprehensive approach to education and training for individuals that would
lead to job placement and career advancement.
This approach recognizes there are career pathways that require specific credentials to advance within that industry. The Career Pathway approach acknowledges
that people, whether they are displaced or incumbent workers, are severely limited
in the amount of time they have to obtain a credential leading to employment or
promotions.
The college and the board recognized that to address the needs of individuals for
skill development and advancement in jobs and pay, the college would need to develop a new means of combining education and training for different levels of employment in an industrial sector.
The development of industry-driven curriculum requires analyzing the job structure in a given industry sector, such as health care or manufacturing, and identifying the competencies that are expected of workers at each level in that industry.
The training programs are then structured to support an individual while they advance along the career path in that industryobtaining new skills, promotions and
increases in pay.
To implement career pathways the college had to break with the approach that
community colleges have used for years: a credential or a degree that requires 1 or
2 years of full-time study.
The career pathway model requires that curriculum design be focused on providing the education and training an individual would need to meet the work re-
27
quirements of a particular job in a career pathway. For the college this has become
the primary consideration in designing credentials.
The college has broken down a final credential, such as a degree, into intermediate credentials that can be obtained by an individual. The intermediate credential is developed in co-ordination with industry so that an employer knows when a
prospective employee with that credential applies for a job that he or she is qualified.
These intermediate credentials are stackablethat is each intermediate credential will build off one another until a student obtains a degree or diploma often after
they have entered the workforce.
This model better serves all of the colleges customers. For dislocated workers, it
provides them with short, practical training that will give them the skills to enter
a career pathway and begin receiving a paycheck once again. Incumbent workers
have the ability to efficiently obtain the necessary skills they need for a promotion.
Traditional students that find they need to enter the workforce before they can complete their degree will have accumulated industry recognized credentials that will
lead to initial employment.
2. Re-designed the One Stop System.
Instead of just using the career pathway approach exclusively for training programs, the Workforce Development Board worked to use the model for all services
provided by the workforce system. All workforce system staff is organized to support
a career pathway model.
One Stop System customers are provided service on the very front end of their
engagement by a career advisor (connected to the One Stop System) who helps the
customers assesses their skills and map a career pathway strategy. The Case management system and the job placement and retention staff are organized by industry. This enables the staff to become experts in their assigned industry. It also helps
the staff better organize resources to support each customers targeted career pathway. Within our prepared testimony we have provided you a graphic of what this
staff alignment looks like at the ground level.
3. Worked with the college to establish job center-based skill centers to support
adult learners. These services are co-funded by the college and the board using
Workforce Investment Act funds.
4. Build curriculums so that basic skills were weaved into and reinforce entrylevel technical skill training.
5. Organize as much training as possible in cohort deliverywhere you move a
group of similarly skilled students/workers through the training at the same time,
28
giving them an opportunity to build peer to peer support. This also enables us to
effectively organize resources around cohorts.
PARTNERS TO THE EFFORT
This work is not for the weak of heart. It takes a corps of partners to make it
happen starting first with dedicated industry partners. We have over 100 company
leaders who work with us throughout the year to understand their industries. This
understanding is augmented by a deep engagement with our economic development
partners at the State, regional and local level, our education partnerswe are gifted
with an organized technical college system. We have working access to not only the
local technical college leadership but also the Wisconsin Technical College System
staff. For the workforce system we have contractors that are willing to innovate
with us and a Workforce Development Board that seeks and supports innovation.
RESULTS
Over the past 10 yearswe have trained over 7,000 workers on the Career Pathway platform. This has included unemployed and low-skill adults and entry-level
incumbent workers. Over the past 3 years we have seen an improvement in our credential attainment rates of 20 percent plus, improving from a rate of 65 percent successful completion of training to 89 percent successful completion. In 2010 the One
Stop System staff increased by 40 percent the number of people who successfully
entered and retained employment.
Where we are now: The college has integrated the proven curriculums into the
standing programs of the college. Our entire One Stop System is organized to support career pathway success. The Career Pathway service and training framework
enables us to align our resources, build and deliver our services and training in a
way that supports our regions economic vitality. The Workforce Development Board
of south central dedicates 100 percent of its Workforce Investment Act resources to
the Career Pathway Service and Training framework.
The State of Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development and the Wisconsin
Technical College system with the support of their own resources and help from the
Joyce Foundation and other national experts such as CLASP are moving to implement Career Pathway strategies statewide.
Thank you for the opportunity to speak to you today.
Senator MURRAY. Very good. Thank you very much.
And with that, well turn to California.

STATEMENT
OF
SANDY
HARMSEN,
DIRECTOR,
SAN
BERNARDINO COUNTY WORKFORCE INVESTMENT BOARD,
SAN BERNARDINO, CA; ACCOMPANIED BY JAMES WATSON,
PRESIDENT AND CEO, CMTC, TORRANCE, CA
Ms. HARMSEN. Good morning, Chairman Murray, Ranking Senator Isakson, and Senator Franken. My name is Sandy Harmsen,
and Im the executive director of the Workforce Investment Board
for San Bernardino, CA. Thank you for allowing me the privilege
of testifying before you today.
In 2008, we had business closures and layoffs that were impacting thousands of county residents. By 2009, in San Bernardino
County, we had a 15 percent unemployment rate. Pam Houston of
Houston and Harris laid off 50 percent of her employees and was
faced with having to do further layoffs. Ryan Andrews of Products
Techniques was faced with closing his doors and laying off employees when 80 percent of his clients required an international standard certification that he did not have.
Bud Weisbart of A&R Tarpaulin was going to lay off employees
due to decline in sales, quality issues, and marketing issues. Ed
Boyd of Macro Air was finding it difficult to keep up with demand
which was forcing him to consider layoffs.
The San Bernardino County Workforce Investment Board knew
that it had to do something to assist struggling businesses. The
29
board decided to fund a Business Services Unit even during the recession as the established relationships with employers allowed for
better communication with the workforce system and to meet the
needs of business.
The WIB offered workshops through this team to address areas
in which businesses were struggling. It was through these workshops that we realized that more in-depth assistance for businesses
was needed to prevent layoffs and business closures.
A Request for Proposal was issued, and five companies that were
identified as specialists in their industries were hired to provide
layoff aversion services. CMTC was one of those companies. Because of the relationships that had been previously established
with our business services team, the industry specialists were
trusted by the businesses and they benefited greatly.
Mr. WATSON. Good morning. I, too, would like to thank the Chair
and the committee for inviting us to tell our story.
We are partnered with the San Bernardino Workforce Investment Board, and I wanted to comment on the strengths and some
of the best practices that resulted from the manufacturing sector
Layoff Aversion and Business Assistance Program. Working in the
program in conjunction with San Bernardino for over 2 years, our
staff and myself kind of came up with five major strengths.
First of all, this has been a proven model in southern California
of how the private and public sector can work together effectively.
We also found that we could leverage the Department of Commerce, of which the MEP program is a part of, and the Department
of Labor to retain and save jobs and actually create a few jobs
along the way. We definitely found that working together we could
accomplish a whole lot more than working independently.
The second strength of it is that the program was driven by a
systematic process. We spent a lot of time assessing at-risk companies in San Bernardino, looking for a committed, vulnerable, but
viable organization. And once we found them, we provided technical assistance directed at the key risk factors that that company
had that was driving them to reduce their workforce.
A third strength is the program has a system for documenting
and verifying results. And thats important when were in this
arena, that we need to really have companies that are committed
and who will work with us on committing to, retaining, and creating jobs, and then we can document the fact that it actually took
place. And so with confidence, we can report that the program
the partnership that we have retained 600 jobs and created 117
new jobs in the year in which we were doing our project work.
The program, for another strength, is scalable and repeatable.
We expanded this program to seven additional WIBs in southern
California, leading to 1,800 retained and 349 new jobs. And, last,
the program is a job saver, and it reduced government spending on
unemployment and social services for displaced workers.
Bottom line, while this aversion programwhile we did get some
creation from this program, it was really based on layoff aversion.
And we were working under the premise that it was more efficient
and less expensive to keep an employee on the job than having to
hire and upgrade the skills of a new employee that you would hire
30
later. So we are asking that the committee support an expansion
of this program.
Thank you very much.
[The prepared statement of Ms. Harmsen and Mr. Watson follows:]
PREPARED STATEMENT
OF
SANDY HARMSEN
Chair Patty Murray, Ranking Member Johnny Isakson, and distinguished members of the committee, thank you for the opportunity to speak today about Addressing Workforce Needs at the Regional Level: Innovative Public and Private Partnerships. My name is Sandy Harmsen, and I am the executive director of the San
Bernardino County Workforce Investment Board and director of the countys Workforce Development Department.
The San Bernardino County Workforce Investment Board has a dedicated and
comprehensive business support program that deploys Federal funds to assist local
employers with job creation and retention.
The WIB consists of a majority of business owners who helped establish the local
Manufacturing Industry Council and the Transportation and Logistics Council and
are active members of the Aviation Industry Council, the Healthcare Workforce Advisory Board, and the California Clean Energy Collaboration. Their connection to
the local business community and its workforce needs, coupled with a dedicated
business services unit, empowered the WIB to respond to the severe economic downturn.
The business services unit developed relationships with San Bernardino employers in high-demand industries that promise job growth and opportunities for county
residents. The business services unit members meet regularly with employers to
identify specific workforce needs, discover job openings and negotiate subsidized and
On-the-Job Training contracts. They also help employers avert layoffs through business efficiency training.
To assist employers, the business services unit provides:
Customized job fairs;
On-site recruitment resources;
Human resources hotline;
Business workshops at no-cost to participants;
Efficiency and process improvement;
Rapid response and layoff aversion;
Labor market research; and
Tax credits, incentives and more.
Business closures and lay-offs affected thousands of county residents in 2008.
Sixty percent of small businesses, which make 93 percent of all businesses in the
county, were delinquent in their bills and could not access credit. San Bernardino
County hit a historic unemployment rate high of nearly 15 percent and ranked third
in the Nation in home foreclosures by 2009.
Pam Houston, general manager of Houston and Harris, was forced to lay off 50
percent of her employees over an 8-month period and as business continued to
plummet, she faced the possibility of closing the doors of her family owned 23 yearold business.
Ed Boyd, CEO of MacroAir found it difficult to keep up with customer demand.
They lacked the systems to manage growth and quality was suffering, leading to
quality and customer satisfaction issues. Without the proper systems in place and
the structure to support their growth, Eds company which has been in his family
for three generations, was failing to meet customer needs that could force them to
lay off a significant number of employees.
Ryan Andrews, chief administrative officer of Products Techniques, Inc., which
makes coatings for the aerospace, aviation and defense industries, faced closing his
doors when 80 percent of his clients required his company to become International
Standard Organization (ISO) 9001 certified.
The WIB and its business services unit responded to the crisis among county employers. The WIB maintained employment through lay off aversion dollars, incumbent worker and On-the-Job training that allowed employers to keep their workers
and hire residents who had lost their jobs in other industries.
The WIB partnered with the local industry councils, chambers of commerce, educational providers and community organizations to provide information and resources that would aid struggling businesses. Twenty-nine partners offered free initial consultations to businesses in their respective areas of expertise. The business
31
services unit developed and implemented Business Survival Workshops throughout
the county. A total of five separate workshops were initially conducted to reach as
many businesses as possible due to the large geographic area of San Bernardino
county that consists of 20,000 square miles (the largest county in the contiguous
United States) with more than 62,000 businesses.
The initial business survival workshops received an overwhelming response by the
local business community. More than 400 businesses took advantage of a free assessment that identified their strengths and weaknesses in sales, business processes, customer service, and employee performance and productivity. The WIB continued to offer 70 additional weekly workshops that assisted more than 1,100 employers to keep their doors open and avoid staff reductions.
The business services unit surveyed businesses that participated in these workshops and learned that employers needed intensive business process improvement
services that would increase revenue and prevent layoffs.
The WIBs business services unit issued a Request for Proposal (RFP) in December 2009 to help employers prevent layoffs and closures. Five companies were selected to provide layoff aversion services. Local businesses that were struggling to
stay afloat were identified by the business services unit and received process improvement training.
GIVING
STRUGGLING COMPANIES A BOOST
The WIB partnered with a business process improvement specialist to help Pam
Houston streamline her companys operations, keep her employees and open up hiring. After changing many of their daily processes, Pam was able to hold onto her
staff and hire new staff with the WIBs On-the-Job Training funds that reimbursed
her for a portion of her training costs.
Ed Boyd, CEO of Macro Air, also participated in the WIBs process improvement
program. He reported a 30 percent increase in sales which created more positions
in his company. Their production line now has the capacity to do 50 percent more
without moving to a larger space.
The process improvement program helped Ryan and his staff at Products Techniques upgrade equipment and customer service capabilities. His customers were
impressed with his efforts and continued to bring him jobs. They are now ISO 9001
certified.
SAN BERNARDINO COUNTY WORKFORCE INVESTMENT BOARD PARTNERSHIP WITH
CALIFORNIA MANUFACTURING TECHNOLOGY CONSULTANTS (CMTC)
Manufacturing is one of the key industries to San Bernardinos economic recovery

that offers good paying jobs and long-term careers to skilled craftspeople. The WIB
partnered with CMTC to facilitate the Lay-off Aversion and Business Assistance
Program.
CMTC and the business services unit met jointly with 68 at-risk manufacturers
that suffered from declining revenues. They made a commitment to retain or hire
employees and worked with a dedicated specialist to reduce cost, improve quality
and productivity, address financial and succession planning issues and develop new
markets to increase sales.
Implementation services provided to each company were customized based on the
manufacturers risk factors or barriers to growth. The services CMTC provided included:
Process Improvement for streamlining the manufacturing process to reduce
production cost and increase productivity. These services also led to increasing the
capacity of the participating manufacturers to increase sales.
Strategic and Financial Planning for evaluating the manufacturers current
state and establishing long-term business and strategic goals based on sound financial planning. Referrals to other agencies like the SBA for loans were also made to
manufacturers who needed operating and investment capital.
Quality Management System implementation that improved product quality,
on-time delivery and met industry ISO 9001 and AS9100 certification requirements.
Many of the at-risk manufacturers lost customers because they lacked certifications
or could not enter new markets.
New product development and diversification of products to foster innovation and growth. Innovation is a key for small manufacturers to stay competitive
and gain market share.
Participating manufacturers were surveyed 6 months after implementation by an
independent survey from NIST/MEP and reported:
$8 million in increased sales;
$18 million in retained sales;
32
$2.6 million in cost savings;
$2.1 million of investment in equipment, IT and workforce skills development;
600 retained jobs; and
117 created jobs.
The result of the program speaks for itself and the standard processes developed
under the program has made it a model for seven other southern California workforce investment boards and CMTC demonstrating this is a best practice that should
be given further consideration. There is a need in the manufacturing sector to invest
early in the company and the workforce to avoid lay-offs and remove barriers to
growth. The fact that jobs were created under this lay-off aversion program demonstrates the positive outcome of this type of investment.
The total results of the process improvement program resulted in saving 1,106
jobs and hiring 204 residents in new jobs.
The WIBs business services unit is a necessary component to the workforce system. The decision to fund it during the recession made the difference to employers
and people who needed their jobs to keep their homes and support their families.
But even more so, the WIB gives opportunities to vulnerable populations who are
willing and ready to work.
When Malena Bell was laid off from her non-profit organization, she was in the
situation that every parent fearshaving come 1 month short of living on the
street. When I lost my job, I was forced to go apply for public assistance, she said.
I went from making $1,800 a month to $500 a month.
Malena wasted no time utilizing the work readiness program offered by staff at
the countys Employment Resource Centers, and immediately went to work on her
resume and interviewing skills. By attending jobseeker workshops offered through
the WIBs Employment Resource Centers, she had her ear to the ground when Patton Sales Corporation would be hiring through the On-the-Job Training program.
She hated being on government assistance and took it personally, said Jon
Novack, president of Patton. She said, Give me a chance and let me show you what
Im about.
Malena has now been with Patton for 2 years and is moving up to sales training.
She plans to stay with Patton until her retirement.
The WIBs relationships with the local business community, educational providers
and community organizations supported the business community and jobseekers like
Malena through the darkest days of the recession. The San Bernardino County WIB
learned valuable lessons and shared its innovative programs and strategies with
other workforce investment boards.
Senator MURRAY. Thank you. And with that, I will turn to Washington State.
Ms. HARMSEN. Oh, may I add in summary of thisI had named
some of the businesses that had been identified as needing assistance. After working with these specialists, Pam Houston did not
have to lay off any further employees and was actually able to hire
additional employees. Ryan Andrews experienced an upturn in
business after achieving his ISO certification and was able to keep
his business doors open. Ed Boyd experienced a 30 percent upturn
in his business, and Bud Weisbart was able to retain 31 jobs and
is looking forward to increasing his business.
Overall, the total results of this business improvement program
were fantastic. Businesses were assisted and layoffs were averted.
The program resulted in saving 1,106 jobs overall, and 204 new
jobs were created, and added $25 million back into San Bernardino
Countywas the estimated amount of assistance back in.
Thank you very much.
Senator MURRAY. Very good. Thank you very much.
And with that, we will turn to Washington State.
33
NA SESSIONS, CEO, WORKFORCE DESTATEMENT OF MARLE
VELOPMENT COUNCIL OF SEATTLE-KING COUNTY, SEATTLE,
WA; ACCOMPANIED BY BARBARA TREHEARNE, Ph.D., RN,
GROUP HEALTH COOPERATIVE, SEATTLE, WA
Ms. SESSIONS. Yes. Thank you, Chair Murray, Ranking Member

Isakson, and members of the subcommittee, Senator Franken. My
name is Marlena Sessions, and Im the chief executive officer of the
Workforce Development Council of Seattle-King County.
For more than a decade, our Workforce Investment Board has led
a public-private partnership in health care, an industry thats dedicated to human health and recognizes the importance of human
capital. In this productive regional partnership, we joined forces
with hospitals, employers, colleges, and unions to put people back
to work in careers with a solid future.
Weve expanded training capacity in nursing and other health
care fields, adding 557 training slots that would not have been
available otherwise. Weve provided 4,600 workers with career
guidance right at their workplaces, with 1,000 of those going on to
training to advance their careers.
Weve connected 65 disadvantaged young people to health care
careers through an intensive, award-winning initiative that lets
them complete college-level nursing courses even before they graduate from high school. This work has also led us to a new regional
health care job training project called Health Careers for All that
will train up to 920 adults and youth using all of the innovative
best practices weve learned over the past 10 years.
My message today focuses on the health care industry. But I
want you to know we also have high impact results, both locally
and regionally, in other sectors such as manufacturing, maritime,
green building, aerospace, and information technology. Our experience proves that when employers are engaged with partners in
workforce and education, the solutions we find together are always
more effective than what any of us can do separately.
Local Workforce Investment Boards across the country play a
critical role in bringing all of these partners together and, above
all, letting the voice and experience of industry guide our influence,
investment, and results. This ability to convene partners and listen
to industry is just one of the important roles of local workforce
boards. Local boards can take these partnerships further because
we also conduct labor market research, search out new funding to
invest in training, influence and develop training curricula, and
educate our community about lesser-known careers.
We also prepare jobseekers, not just with occupational skills, but
with interview and resume skills to be successful in gaining employment. But we couldnt do it without our employer partners, including Group Health Cooperative. Im so pleased to be here today
with an esteemed health care leader in the Seattle-King County
area, Dr. Barbara Trehearne.
Ms. TREHEARNE. Thank you.
Thank you, Chairman Murray, Ranking Member Isakson, and
Senator Franken. As Marlena noted, Im from Group Health Cooperative, which is a nonprofit, integrated health care system known
for many innovations, one of which is a medical home model.
34
We provide care to 630-some thousand residents in the State of
Washington. We have approximately 10,000 employees in Washington, about 5,000 of whom are clinical workers. Im proud to say
that weve been a partner with our local Workforce Investment
Board, the Workforce Development Council of Seattle-King County,
from the very beginning of its work in health care 10 years ago,
work thats had a definite impact on the industry and on our regions economy.
In 2002, Group Health and several other hospitals were brought
together by the WDC with local colleges, unions, and the public
workforce system to work together to solve critical staffing shortages. We looked at the causes of the shortage, especially in nursing, and made recommendations about how to expand the pipeline
of training and to help health care workers progress in their careers.
One exampleGroup Health and five other hospitals participated in a new project called Health Care Career Pathways. Employment specialists from the public workforce system now come to
our facilities, meet with our staff, and provide information and support about opportunities in health care. Some of these staff were
from nonclinical areas, such as food service, housekeeping, dietary,
who wanted to start a career in health care. Others were nurses
and technicians.
Lower wage, assistive level, frontline workers are the fastest
growing group in health care. Weve been able to support their development and must continue to be prepared to assure their success and opportunity for development. The career specialists that
come to our facilities help these people chart a path and connect
them to resources that can offer training and education to move up.
This is great for Group Health, because it allows us to invest in
our own employees, to support their ability to learn new skills to
become higher level workers in our system, and, most importantly,
to earn higher wages. Theyre more likely to stay with us to serve
as role models for other employees and to remain productive.
Weve also positively impacted our vacancy rates for licensed
practical nurses and medical assistants. Thats why we and other
participating hospitals are now covering half the cost of these
workforce staff through an annual financial contribution.
And this spring, we, Group Health, along with six other organizations, will partner with the WDC in a new training for lower
skilled workers. While still working, theyll earn more advanced
certificates and thus move into health care positions that they
would not otherwise have access to.
Were partnering in these efforts because they bring value to our
organization and to the health care workforce and the economy as
a whole. Because of the Workforce Development Council, we now
have a voice in training investments, curriculum design, and employee selection that we didnt have before, and were growing our
own future health care workers.
Thank you for calling attention to this important work. We believe it makes a difference in our community.
[The prepared statement of Ms. Sessions and Ms. Trehearne follows:]
35
PREPARED STATEMENT
OF
MARLE NA SESSIONS
AND
BARBARA TREHEARNE
Chairman Murray, Ranking Member Isakson, and Honorable subcommittee members, thank you for inviting us to participate in todays hearing. We are honored and
grateful for this opportunity to talk with you about collaborations between employers and the public workforce development system.
For more than a decade our Workforce Investment Board, the Workforce Development Council of Seattle-King County (WDC), has led a public-private partnership
in health carean industry that is dedicated to human health and also recognizes
the importance of human capital.
In this productive regional partnership, the WDC joined forces with hospitals, employers, colleges, and unions to put people back to work in careers with a solid future. From day one, our goal was to ensure that the investment we made in training
matched the demand for labor, and wasnt wasted on skills no longer needed. Hospitals and other healthcare employers guided the effort with this reality check at
every step of the way.
As a result, the WDC has expanded training capacity in nursing and other health
care fields, adding 557 training slots that wouldnt have been available otherwise.
Weve provided 3,800 workers with career guidanceright at their workplaces. We
connected 1,000 of them with training that gives them the skills for higher-demand
and higher-wage jobs in the growing healthcare field.
And weve connected 65 disadvantaged young people to health care careers
through an intensive, award-winning initiative called Health Careers for Youth that
lets them complete college-level nursing courses before they graduate from high
school.
This work has also led to an $11 million, 5-year regional health-care job training
project funded by the U.S. Health and Human Services called Health Careers for
All. This initiative will train up to 920 adults and youth using the innovative best
practices weve learned over the past 10 yearsincluding career and education navigators, wrap-around case management, integrated basic English and math skills,
and new college curricula to address specific needs.
While our message today focuses on the healthcare industry, the WDC also has
had positive results in other growing sectors such as manufacturing, maritime,
green building construction, aerospace and information technology.
Our experience proves that when employersin any industryare engaged with
partners in workforce and education, the solutions we find together are always more
effective than what any of us can do alone. Local workforce investment boards play
a critical role in bringing all these partners together, and above all, letting the voice
and experience of industry guide our investments and results.
The WDC is having a huge impact because we listen carefully to these partners,
including employers like Group Health Cooperative.
Group Health is a nonprofit health care system that serves more than 600,000
residents of Washington State. Group Health has approximately 9,500 employees in
Seattle and King County alone, 5,000 of whom are clinical workersdoctors, nurses,
radiologists, technicians and others with specific health care careers.
Group Health has been a partner with the WDC of Seattle-King County from the
very beginning of our work in health care 10 years agowork that has had a definite impact on the industry and our regions economy.
Our partnership began in 2002, when Group Health and several other hospitals
were brought together by the WDC with local colleges, unions, and the public workforce system to solve critical staffing shortages in health care, forming the SeattleKing County Health Care Sector Panel. Together, we examined the causes of the
skill shortagesespecially in nursingand published our recommendations in a report called In Critical Condition: Seattle-King Countys Hospital Staffing Crisis.
One problem we identified was that even though hospitals desperately needed
nurses and technicians, and people were very eager to get into these careers, community colleges and nursing schools could not offer enough classes to meet the demand, due to high costs and reduced State funding.
Another challenge was the lack of support for career progression in the health
care sector. Those who wish to upgrade their skillsespecially those at the lower
skill levelsfaced many barriers in their career path, including the high costs and
limited availability of training.
But the work didnt end with identifying the challenges. The WDC ensured that
the panels recommendations became realityand that the industry stayed involved.
To address the capacity issue, the WDC pursued Federal and State grants to invest more than $1 million to expand the capacity of 2- and 4-year nursing and
radiologic technology programs in King County. Community colleges were close partners in adding these dollars to State funding to make the best use of limited re-
36
sources. The hospitals themselves contributed $300,000. Finally, beginning in 2009,
the WDC targeted Recovery Act funding to open nine new cohorts in health care
training. These courses leading to a certificate trained 186 studentsmany of whom
had been on waiting lists to get into training programs.
A young man named Ron was one of these students. After 2 years of prerequisites, Ron was seeking to get into an LPN class. Because these classes are so
expensive for colleges to offer, waiting lists are long and only the best students
make it in. On top of that, Ron didnt know if he could afford school on his salary
as a dialysis technician.
The WDCs first training cohort purchase, a Licensed Practical Nurse (LPN) training which started in June 2009 at South Seattle Community College, was the answer. Before the new class was added, Ron was discouragedwondering if he would
ever be able to achieve his dream. Then he got the call that he was in. I said sign
me up! , he says.
On June 22, 2010, Ron received his nurses pin and later earned his LPN license.
From just barely making it on $15 an hour, Ron is earning $22 an hour as an
LPN and will soon start training to be an RN. This is pretty much a dream come
true, he says. It changed my life, and I mean that from my heart.
There are hundreds of students like Ron. As mentioned above, our work together
added 557 new training slots in key health-care training programs that would not
have been available to people in our local community who want and need to skill
up for health care careers.
To address the second challengecareer progression for health care employees
the WDC launched an initiative called Health Care Career Pathways. Employment
specialists from the public workforce system regularly visited six health care facilities, including Group Health Cooperative, to meet with staff and provide information and support about career opportunities and job training in health care.
Since 2003, more than 3,800 hospital employees have taken advantage of this career counseling. Some of these were staff in housekeeping or food service who wanted to start in health care careers; lower-wage frontline workers are the fastest growing group in health care. Others were nurses and technicians.
The career specialists help them chart a path and connect them to resources that
can offer training and education to move up. More than 1,000 of these employees
have enrolled in subsidized health care training as a result.
Group Health values this program because it allows us to invest in our own employees and to support their ability to learn new skills, to become a higher level
worker in our system, and to earn higher wages. They are more likely to stay with
us, serve as role models for other employees, and remain productive.
Career Pathways has also positively impacted Group Healths vacancy rate for
both licensed practice nurses and medical assistants.
Thats why Group Health and the other participating hospitals are now covering
half the cost of these public workforce system staff through an annual financial contribution, which totals more than $330,000 so far.
And this spring, Group Health and six other hospitals will partner with the WDC
in a new training for lower skilled health care employees. While still working, these
employees will earn more advanced certificates and thus move into health care positions they would not otherwise be able to access. Employers are partnering in these
efforts because they bring great value not only to their own organizations, but also
to the health care workforce and the economy as a whole.
Because of the efforts of the local Workforce Investment Board, our regions health
care employers now have a voice in training investments, curriculum design, and
employee selection that they didnt have before. They can also feel confident that
they are growing their own future health care workers to meet the need that is projected to continue increasing.
This ability to convene partners and listen to industry is just one of the important
roles of local workforce boards. Local boards can take these partnerships further because we also conduct labor-market research, search out new funding to invest in
training, influence and develop training curricula, and educate our community about
lesser-known careers. Through the one-stop system that we oversee, we also interface directly with jobseekers to prepare them with not just occupational skills, but
the interview and resume skills they need to be successful in gaining employment.
As the only entity examining the full spectrum of workforce development in our
area, the local workforce board is uniquely suited to ensure that public training dollars are invested for maximum results.
We hope that our testimony today has shown the tremendous impact of partnerships between employers and local workforce boards in communities not only in
Washington State, but across the United States. Once again, thank you for calling
attention to this important work.
37
Senator MURRAY. Well, thank you to all of you. It really seems
to me that weve got some really good success stories throughout
the country. And if we can build on that, we can really start to fill
up skills gaps that so many employers are telling us really, truly
exist out there and help get our economy going again.
Let me start with a general question, and Ill just work my way
downand if each one of you could answer it. It seems that all of
your programs required a significant amount of coordinationemployers, workforce systems, secondary, post-secondary schools, a lot
of stakeholders. Its a lot of work.
What was the catalyst for each of you to begin your initiative?
Ill start down here.
Mr. HUNN. Two quick points. In northern Virginia, it was the
strategic focus Senator Franken related to, the industry emphasis
on health care, I would say, as well as the local leadership of the
business community, particularly at the workforce board level and
the health care industry. And then third would be the entrepreneurial leadershipDr. Templin from the community college and
the alignment with the workforce board.
You want to add to that, Gerry?
Ms. HOFLER. I think it does have to do with creative leadership
and bringing the stakeholders to the table in such a way that they
realize that this is not just a health care issue or its for somebody
else, but its a community issue, and it affects the way we live and
thrive in our communities.
Senator MURRAY. And secondary to that, how did you decide who
was going to coordinate the program with that many groups involved?
Mr. HUNN. In our case, its joint leadership between the community college and the workforce board. The workforce board is the
fiscal agent for NoVaHealthFORCE. Were providing office space.
At the same time, the staff is devoted from the community college
and is on the community college payroll.
Senator MURRAY. OK. Very good. All right.
What was the catalyst for your initiative in Wisconsin?
Ms. SCHRAMM. The same concept. We actually physically live
near each other, too. Somebody on the staff Googled us, and were
across the street. That helps a lot. But for us, it was the leadership, and it was leadership at both the Workforce Development
Board and the college that really were interested in innovation, of
trying something different. And we were very deliberate in that innovation, because what we did is once we understood what career
pathway work would look like, we took principles and guidelines to
both boards in the midabout 2004. And both boards made a commitment to both adopt those principles and also dedicate their financial resources.
Senator MURRAY. How did you decide who was going to coordinate your program?
Ms. SCHRAMM. We actually coordinate totally together. So depending on whos positionedand sometimes its actually the economic development people. So we think of ourselves as actually
kind of a circle.
Senator MURRAY. OK. Very good.
38
Ms. BARHORST. Ditto all that. But you just have to have the right
people in the right place to address whats the need. And as soon
as we saw a need, then we
Senator MURRAY. Being creative.
Ms. BARHORST. Solving it.
Senator MURRAY. OK.
Ms. SCHRAMM. Part of that is building trust, too. And the trust
side, too, goes to industry, and I dont know if Senator Franken
saw that when he convened. But weve gotten to the point where
industry, by sector, is willing to play in what we call their pre-competitive space and actually have real conversations with each other
as competitors and be willing to be candid with us. And thats a
real breakthrough.
Senator MURRAY. All right. How about you all? What was the
catalyst for yours?
Ms. HARMSEN. The catalyst was absolutely the needs from business. We know in San Bernardino County that we have 63,000
small businesses, and that is theif youre going to grow jobs in
the county, we need to keep businesses strong. We didnt want to
lose any of our businesses. So coming together and really reaching
outwe also have very strong relationships with community colleges and with education and reaching out as a team together to
decide what to do. So everyone was really involved in this effort.
Mr. WATSON. We were reaching a large number of manufacturers, but the Workforce Investment Board was also reaching many
manufacturers as well that we were not. And there were a lot of
layoffs taking place, particularly in the San Bernardino area.
So that was the catalyst that had us sit down to say how can we
stop the carnage that was going on, with everybody being laid off.
Their offices were filling up with displaced workers, and our idea
was why dont we try and stop this before they become displaced
and not fill up the front of the office but fix the back of the office.
Then we sat down together and we actually defined tasks. They
were very complementary. We didnt even realize how complementary they were until we sat down and started talking to each other.
We developed a charter, and that charter was implemented, and
the results came.
Senator MURRAY. How did you decide who was going to coordinate?
Mr. WATSON. Well, we sat down and proposed a methodology to
the Workforce Investment Boards. The boards then took it under
advisement with their boards itself, and then they came back with
their own modifications towhat they would like to see. They were
intricately involved in the selection process. Any manufacturer that
was selected for this program was approved by the Workforce Investment Board, and we agreed to that early on.
We kind of defined ourselves as finding organizations that were
at risk along with the Workforce Investment Board, bringing those
people to the board for their approval, and then going out and providing the technical services, and then after the services were provided, putting together a program that documented all the results
and outcomes so we could feed it back to the board again to try and
drive a continuous program and not just a program that went on
for 1 year.
39
Senator MURRAY. OK. How about you? What was the catalyst for
yours?
Ms. SESSIONS. In Seattle, we really feel that the Workforce Investment Boards role is that of a neutral convenerone of their
roles. Back in 2002, it was a health care nursing shortage crisis
that was the catalyst. But since then, this platform of these partnerships with industry have allowed us to go back to industry
again and again to continue to meet various needs as theyve
emerged.
Ms. TREHEARNE. I think, very similar to what everybody else has
said, our first foray into this work was to up-skill folks into licensed practical nurse positions. But one of the big catalysts for us
was the ability to work with the community college system in a
flexible way, in other words, changing the offering of courses and
classes to weekends and evenings. And that allowed us to be able
to free up our employees in a way that we would not otherwise
have been able to.
Senator MURRAY. OK. And how did you decide who was going to
coordinate this at your level?
Ms. SESSIONS. I think the Workforce Investment Board just took
that upon ourselves to ask those industry leaders to come to the
table. They did very willingly, and its built from there.
Senator MURRAY. OK. Very good.
Senator Franken.
Senator FRANKEN. Thank you, Madam Chairman, again for convening this.
You are all heroes to me. You really are. You could all be Minnesotans as far as Im concerned.
[Laughter.]
Some of the great workforce boards do this in Minnesota. But Im
serious about this, because what you didlike in San Bernardino.
Part of this now is we have these skill gaps, and you had skill
gapseven while we were shedding jobs, there were skill gaps.
Now that were beginning to grow a little bit, were seeing more
and more manufacturers, ET cetera, and depending on the sector
like in northern Virginia, were talking about health care. And, you
know, I was struck byyou were talking about electronic health
records and the needs for people who can do that work, which is
going towe need to do in this country, because the faster we get
those electronic health records geared up, the more were going to
be able to use that to save money in our health care system and,
by the way, probably to find fraud and abuse in it, because once
you get those records, thats one of the purposes of those, where we
can see patterns in fraud and abuse.
I just want to thank you all. I almost think that we should have
a second panel of places that have failed, and we should say, What
did you do wrong? You talked about trust, Ms. Schramm. Yes,
well, we just didnt trust each other. Every story here is a story
about what everybody should be doing and what America is really
about.
The partnershipwhat I love about this is that this is so not
about partisanship. Its industry working together. Its unions
working together. Its the government working together. Its the
local government working together. Its education working together.
40
We just need to do that, and we need to get over everything else
and work like this in every part of our society. I just want to thank
you for being here.
As I look at you andI just feel so good about America. And I
think if we can scale this up and replicate it, and if you can help
us do that, I think well be a lot better off. I mean, you guys kept
people working while everyone was shedding jobs. Others of you
are getting people jobs that are filling gaps that we need.
Let me ask about one thing, because there was one thing brought
up by a couple of you, which is certification and stackable credentials and credentials. Anybody can speak to this. What role does it
play to have industry say, This is a credential that somebody
needs, and go to one of the learning institutions and say, Can you
put a course together just so that we can have this credential? Its
a nationwide credential thats recognized. Anybody?
Ms. HARMSEN. I can speak from San Bernardino County. What
we have done is broughtalso, having identified industry sectors
that were in demand prior to the recession that we fully expect
would be those sectors where people would find jobs and the sectors
that we needed to support, what they did was, the board brought
in businesses from those different sectors to identify what those
needs arewhat type of upgrades did the employees need; what
did they need to keep that business goingand then worked together with the community colleges and the educational institutions, sat down with those employersits a fantastic partnershipso that the employer is telling the colleges, the educators,
This is what we need. And they did put together classes. They
do put together classes specifically for those needs.
Ms. BARHORST. Id like to say
Mr. WATSON. Also, Im sorry, just one last comment. The news
of manufacturing right now is changing. And our relationship with
the Workforce Investment Board allows us to convert from cost reduction type, kind of, skills that the manufacturing community has
had in the past to more skills around innovation and growth, exporting, and things that can create jobs in the manufacturing community.
Were going to work closely with them to try and survey the
manufacturing community and figure out what those new jobs are
that they need, definitely to support global manufacturing for them
and global growth. And then well coordinate it with them to try
and get those curriculums offered, get it back into the community
again, and then we have the right people going into the right manufacturers doing the right things.
Ms. BARHORST. My answer goes back again to trust. The reason
that there is accreditation and that there is a lot of bureaucracy,
ET cetera, in higher education is so that that degree or that certificate counts, and that an employer knows that if you get someone
thats been through that program, theyre going to be good. Theyre
going to have all those skills.
But in a time when you need a fast turnaround, one cant always
go through all of that. So one of the things that was good here is
that this was a pilot program, and so then we could identifywhat
we did is identify certain certificates. So it had some credibility,
41
but it wasnt the same as a degree. Now, some of these people actually pathwayed up to degrees, and theyre on their way.
Senator FRANKEN. Sure.
Ms. BARHORST. Because we had to move fast. So its good to have
the accreditation, but when you have to moveto be able to do
thisit was a pilot, and so we could do things that we couldnt always do.
Ms. SCHRAMM. Senator, I want to jump in here. Since Im not the
technical college, Ill tell you its really hard work. In my formal
testimony, I said, This is not for the weak of heart, this kind of
work, because technical colleges, community colleges, in our part
of the countrythey are very large organizations. And in order to
do this work, they actually have to also get a faculty thats invested
in this idea of stackable credential.
So, internally, thats a real key to the success of thishaving
leadership within the community college thats willing to really
step back and say, This is what industrys telling us right now we
need. And during the recession, especially in manufacturing, when
that first level of jobs went away, this became a discovery process,
because we had to literally reinvent the curriculums. So we actually entered almost an experimental place with the community college, and thats really hard for colleges to do.
Senator FRANKEN. I saw that in Hennepin County. Thats exactlybut what I see, when it works
Ms. SCHRAMM. It works.
Senator FRANKEN [continuing]. It works. It is very hard, but
Woody Allen had a saying about comedy writing, which is that its
either easy or its impossible. And my sense is that if you have the
right people working together and problem-solving together, it actually is fun, and its satisfying, and it can happen, and it builds
an energy of its own. And then if that isnt happening, its impossible.
So you guys all did it. You all made it possible and did a great
service to your communities, and I thank you.
Ms. HOFLER. I just wanted to make one comment. Even though
we had done an empirical study to quantify the health care worker
shortage, it wasnt until the health care providers at the CEO
Roundtable actually identified the fact that they all had one common thing missingradiation oncologists and ultra-sonographers.
And theyre identifying that, and theyre usually radiation technologists who are trained at a higher level. So they provided not
only the tuition assistance for this, but also the incumbent workers
that they wanted to train.
Additionally, while we were developing the curriculums for this,
they offered up the faculty subsidies for the faculty, because we, as
a State institution, couldnt pay the faculty at market rates for
those jobs. And so it wasnt until we actually had the CEOthe
providers at the CEO Roundtable get togetherthey identified the
common need, which they had never done before.
Senator FRANKEN. Right.
Senator MURRAY. All right. Well, thank you.
Senator FRANKEN. Thank you.
Senator MURRAY. Thank you very much. I just want to throw out
a general question to any of you who would answerwhether your
42
experience in the initiative that you undertook at your level impacted the way your local workforce board does business?
Ms. SESSIONS. I can jump in there, Senator Murray. Absolutely,
and in terms of always listen to industry first. Let industry lead.
Convene industry, and its amazing how quickly things can happen
once you determine those needs. Its a very simple concept. We just
needed to turn it right around to industry.
Ms. SCHRAMM. This is how different our business is. One hundred percent of our Workforce Investment Act funds are organized
on the career pathway platform. So the entire board just embraced
this because they could see the results.
Mr. HUNN. In northern Virginia, it certainly opened up the use
of different fundings and the need for different funds. We did not
use WIA dollars for this NoVaHealthFORCE effort. We used seed
money, of course, the private money and the State funds, and then
other dollars that we were able to help get to get the process started. And I think thats really where we need to be in the years
ahead, as
Senator MURRAY. So its changed how you looked at where youre
going to get funding to start with?
Mr. HUNN. It really has to be, in terms of how weit gives us
flexibility as well.
Ms. HARMSEN. And for San Bernardino County, absolutely. The
focus on business and the needs of business and now the layoff
aversionseeing how important and how successful these programs were was great.
Mr. WATSON. Id like to say that its changed dramatically, because when we started working on this program 2 years ago, layoff
aversion was a very small portion of the budget that was being
spent on Workforce Investment Boards. And through good leadership and through some risk takingbecause it was not exactly a
popular thing to do because they did have offices full of displaced
peopleSandy and some of the other WIBs in southern California
changed the way in which they looked at the community and
changed the way in which they were strategically looking at the
workforce and decided to save jobs to a higher rate than they were
before.
They could still handle the displaced worker, but we were able
to handle both. And I think that came from a change in their attitude, simply about how they were looking at the workforce and the
community itself.
Senator MURRAY. Interesting. Let me go back and ask Mr. Hunn
and Ms. Hoflerin looking at your program, it seems like you have
undertaken quite a systemic, broad group of people. Youve got
partnerships and contributions from education partners and the
Commonwealth and industry partners and local workforce leadership. Thats a large group of people with a lot of different interests.
How do you sustain a focused partnership and resources across
so many different interests and levels?
Ms. HOFLER. Were actually fairly well established. We have a
CEO Roundtable. We started out with a steering committee, and
then it morphed into what we call the CEO Roundtable thats com-
43
prised of the presidents of the colleges and universities in the region as well as the CEOs of the health care, acute care providers
in the region as well.
We get together and we meet twice a year to discuss these
issues, and it does sustain it, and they make decisions about what
were going to continue to do and how were going to continue to
do it. And thats been a very important part of this.
Senator MURRAY. Anything?
Mr. HUNN. I would say the consistencyand this has been now
going on 8 years, and the consistency has been consistent funding,
consistent commitment. And, of course, the workforce board, as
mentioned earlier, is the fiscal agent, and weve been able to sustain confidence of the private sector that this can be done efficiently and to everyones best interest.
Senator MURRAY. OK. I want to go to Ms. Schramm and Dr.
Barhorst because what you talked about in terms of the inflexibility sometimes at higher education institutionsyoure dealing
with a whole political institution in and of itself. I know that. I
wanted you to talk a little bit about how we can get institutions,
educational institutions, to think more this way. What were some
of the things you dealt with?
Ms. BARHORST. Definitely, as Ive said before, the need is there,
and all of a sudden, you realize that the traditional ways of doing
things dont work, particularly with the population that you are
serving. Second, the competition has been out there. The better
part of what the nonprofits do is that theyve realized what their
customer needs. And by seeing that, I believe that that helps, too.
They say, Wait a minute. Theyre doing classes in the middle of
the night.
Senator MURRAY. Did you run into any problems in terms of student aid, in changing it?
Ms. BARHORST. Yes. For example, these students would not be
available for PELL Grants, but they had other aid through workforce development.
Ms. SCHRAMM. So what weve actually been prototyping is the
stackable credential. This is the sustainability platform. Weve now
moved that inside of the main programs of the college so that now
they are financially aidable, and that was moving us off of the prototype stage.
Now what weve done with Madison Colleges faculty is gone into
the full associate degrees and had industry tell us what the skill
sets are, and then build those credentials so that people actually
declare programs. This is still something that we could use your
help with, with the Department of Education, to really say that career pathway work is financially aidable.
Senator MURRAY. OK. Excellent. In California, youve focused a
lot on this layoff aversion, which I found really important and interesting. How did you identify those businesses that you picked,
that you named to us? Did they come to you, or did you look out
there, or how did you find them?
Ms. HARMSEN. In San Bernardino County, we have had for many
years a business services team. So we have individuals who go out
into the community and knock on the doors of business. Again, understanding that we have 63,000 small businesses and with limited
44
funds, we are able to reach approximately 7,000 businesses per
year, and that was how those businesses were identified.
Especially during that recessionary time, when the recession first
hit, seeing the needs and businesses just crying outthey were
going to shut their doors, laying people offis when the board decided to hold workshops. And what we did was advertised and put
it out there that we were holding these workshops for business,
and businesses came, and we had resources there for them from
financial assistance. CMTC participated in some of those workshops as welland just had a number of resources there available
so that businesses could connect.
But even out of those workshops, we found that was not enough.
And as the needs were identified even more, down to the specifics,
thats when the board took the lead to say, OK. We need to hire
these industry specialists to provide these direct services to businesses.
Senator MURRAY. OK.
Mr. WATSON. I think the most important part of this collaborative was the outreach, the ability for us to get together and identify those at-risk businesses in San Bernardino. They dont stand
in the corner saying, I need help. They really do have to be found,
and manufacturers, traditionally, are not joiners. So you really
have to go out and find them.
I think through the good services of her outreach group and our
outreach group, we shared companies, we shared histories, and we
shared where the companies were. And that led us to those committed companies that we felt that we could work with that were
vulnerable but still had a viable business.
Senator MURRAY. OK. Dr. Trehearne, I wanted to ask youclearly, this has helped you in your recruitment needs, and the health
care workforce is one we know where theres a real need to get
skilled workers. Have you been able to quantify any way the return
on investment that you have actually made in this?
Ms. TREHEARNE. We quantified it by looking at turnover, vacancy
rates, and retention. When we look at turnover, and we use the industry benchmark that the cost of turnover is approximately one
and a half times the salary of that particular wage worker, we can
quantify then in terms of the number of workers that we bring into
a particular role when weve done the up-skilling.
And then the retention, the length of timewe look at some
numbers like retention at a 12-month mark, because, usually, your
return on investment is around 12 months, depending upon the positionsdifferent for different positions. So we look at those two
numbers, in particular.
Vacancy, we can quantify to some degree, but its easier to quantify the turnover and the length of time in the role from an ROI
perspective.
Senator MURRAY. Ms. Sessions, have you seen this across the
health care industrythat kind of return on the investment?
Ms. SESSIONS. Absolutely. I think what we found, interestingly,
because its a mature partnership, that different health care occupations have emerged over this time. So were able to continue to
go back and plug-and-play with new emerging health care careers
and move people up to get that return.
45
Ms. TREHEARNE. I think the other part of the formulawhich
these formulas are not worked out, so were kind of having to figure them out as we go. And somebody referenced it earlier. Its this
issue of fast-pacing things. So when you have your own cohort
group in the community college system, youre able to fast-pace in
terms of sequence, in terms of hours, of students in the program.
An 8-hour day is very different from learningthan I go to one
class 5 days a week for an hour. So theres some ROI there as well,
because you can get people through
Senator MURRAY. Through the pipeline faster.
Ms. TREHEARNE [continuing]. Through the pipeline faster without
really shortchanging them on the quality of the education. I think
thats important.
Ms. SESSIONS. And just to add to that, the retention in those cohorts has been incrediblycompletion rates has been incredibly
higher than, say, traditional
Senator MURRAY. Because they get through it faster and they see
the realization
Ms. SESSIONS. They get through it faster andexcuse meand,
in fact, they have a support system amongst themselves and with
these career navigators that we bring in to help.
Senator MURRAY. Yes. Interesting. Weve been joined by Senator
Whitehouse.
Well turn to you.
STATEMENT
OF
SENATOR WHITEHOUSE
Senator WHITEHOUSE. Thank you, Chairman.

I just wanted to ask two questions kind of across the board, because you all touch on our workforce and job training network in
a variety of different ways. And the two questions are: First, the
GAO report suggested that there were significant disabilities with
the Department of Labor being able to get itssort of circulate best
practices and get information around, that collaboration could be
challenging. I think that was the word that they used.
Im wondering, on that point, how much you feel that at your
levelor whether theres such a good, kind of, network of back and
forth between different agencies that you feelthat best practices
propagate pretty effectively, virally and through other means.
The second is: I think weve had testimony that there have been
47 different workforce and job training programs in the Federal
Government, and that suggests that thats an awful lot of touch
points, and that suggests that that can be very complicated, bureaucratic, and administratively difficult for you. And Im wondering if, in your actual experience, that is the way it bears out,
or if they are brought together at the local level in ways that you,
working with them, dont see as a significant disability.
Those are the two questions. How well do you do best practices?
And do we need to do more on that, or, actually, does it propagate
pretty well just through the network? And these 47 different programsis that a bureaucratic or administrative burden for you, or
do you work through that pretty effectively, and does it sort itself
out?
Ms. SCHRAMM. Do you want to go first, or do you want me to go
first? I cango ahead.
46
Ms. SESSIONS. Ill jump in. Thank you, Senator. To your first
question, yes, best practices are shared well at ground levels across
various networks nationally, regionally, locally, statewide. And I
would also give the Department of Labor credit for continually improving ways and methodology across the country to get those best
practices out.
We see some definite responsiveness there and improvement in
using various methods of technology. An example would be just
this last Monday, the Department of Labor did a web chat for 2
hours to give examples and illuminate things that are happening
in the local world, and 2,800 of us across the country listened in
and were able to ask real-time questions. So were seeing some
good things there.
To your second question, we find that those 47 programsthat
number continues to be a little bit of a mystery to us. We see the
list. We know the programs well, of course, at the local level. But
we do coordinate so well that to a job-seeking customer, its supposed to be seamless. To many of us in the field, its very seamless
as well, because theres a lot of transparency and working well together, again, leveraging resources across the board.
Senator WHITEHOUSE. Does anyone have a contrary view or an
additional view?
Ms. Schramm.
Ms. SCHRAMM. Just an additional view. Were in the Great Lakes
area, and the Joyce Foundation, in addition and in partnership
with the Department of Labor, has really played a strong role in
seeding the collaborations and the best practices. They actually,
twice a year, bring together all the workforce collaborators in our
region to look at best practices, and they also bring experts to us.
So thats a real key, that they will on their own dime bring people
to help us do career pathway work or sector work, whatever were
needing to do.
Senator WHITEHOUSE. So you feel very supported in your desire
to find out what the best practices are out there and to pursue
them?
Ms. SCHRAMM. Yes.
Senator WHITEHOUSE. Yes. Mr. Hunn.
Mr. HUNN. Senator, I believe a local workforce area or a community college must be motivated enough to want to be able to collaborate. So it really depends on how our State colleagues can really encouragecan be a catalyst to encourage the type of innovations that youve heard about this morning.
To your second question, I really think it depends, at the local
workforce area, how the State has organized itself as far as those
47 programs. Some of those are national programs that really
might not be impacted locally. But a number of those are locally
implemented, but there might be multiple partners.
It really is a challenge in many cases to integrate efforts to make
it seamless to the business community and seamless to the jobseeker to the best extent possible. In some cases, there might be
State impediments that really would not allow a local board to take
the action that it might want to.
47
Senator WHITEHOUSE. Well, thank you very much, Madam Chair,
for this hearing. And I thank the witnesses for their testimony and
their work in this important area.
Senator MURRAY. I, too, want to thank all of our witnesses for
sharing your experiences and all the work that youre doing. I
think theres some really important lessons that we see from all of
your collaborative testimony today. So I really want to thank all of
you for taking time out to be here.
I want you all to know that all the members of the subcommittee
couldnt be here today. And for our members who want to submit
a statement or questions, the hearing record will be open for 10
working days for statements and questions.
And with that, this hearing is adjourned.
[Whereupon, at 11:35 a.m., the hearing was adjourned.]

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Senate Hearing, 112TH Congress - Addressing Workforce Needs at The Regional Level: Innovative Public and Private Partnerships

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S. HRG.

ADDRESSING WORKFORCE NEEDS AT THE

SUBCOMMITTEE ON EMPLOYMENT AND WORKPLACE

COMMITTEE ON HEALTH, EDUCATION,

EXAMINING ADDRESSING WORKFORCE NEEDS AT THE REGIONAL

FEBRUARY 16, 2012

For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office

COMMITTEE ON HEALTH, EDUCATION, LABOR, AND PENSIONS

PATTY MURRAY, Washington, Chairman

ADDRESSING WORKFORCE NEEDS AT THE

Senator MURRAY. Good morning. This subcommittee will come to

Senator ISAKSON. Thank you, Madam Chairman. Id like to ask

Thank you Chairwoman Murray and Ranking Member Isakson

Mr. SHERRILL. Chairwoman Murray, Ranking Member Isakson,

L. No. 105220, 112 Stat. 936 (codified at 29 U.S.C. 2801 ET seq.).

Table 1.Fourteen Initiatives Addressed a Range of Urgent Employer Needs

No single sector .................

Transportation, distribution, and logistics.

13. NoVaHealthForce .....................

Critical skill needs.

Critical skill needs.

Health care ........................

Vienna, VA (northern Virginia).

Health care ........................

Critical skill needs.

San Bernardino, CA 5 .........

Manufacturing (aviation) ...

Critical skill needs.

Need for upgraded skills to

Senator FRANKEN. I have a general question about the kind of

Chairwoman Murray, Ranking Member Isakson and distinguished members of the

Ill go ahead and turn to Wisconsin, since youre next. Ms.

Ms. SCHRAMM. Chairman Murray, Ranking Member Isakson, and

Chairman, Murray, Ranking Member Isakson, and distinguished members of the

Department of Labor Industry Partnership Grant ...................................................

And with that, well turn to California.

STRUGGLING COMPANIES A BOOST

Manufacturing is one of the key industries to San Bernardinos economic recovery

Ms. SESSIONS. Yes. Thank you, Chair Murray, Ranking Member

Senator WHITEHOUSE. Thank you, Chairman.

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