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Workforce Development
The term "workforce development system" refers to
a broad range of employment and training services and programs
whose purpose is to enable job seekers and students to access
a wide range of services and information about jobs, the labor
market, careers, job placement, education and skills training,
financing options, skills standards or certification requirements,
and supportive services. The system also serves employers
by posting job listings for employers and facilitating contacts
with job seekers. While there is variation across states,
there are several programs and agencies most likely to be
part of the workforce development system. The Job Training
Partnership Act (JTPA) authorized the provision of employment
and training services, through Private Industry Councils (PICs)
in designated local service delivery areas (SDAs)(1), to economically
disadvantaged adults and youths, dislocated workers, and special
populations such as veterans, Native Americans, and migrant
and seasonal farmworkers. The Employment Service (ES), authorized
by the Wagner-Peyser Act, provides general labor exchange
services to members of the labor force in need of jobs and
employers seeking workers. The ES is operated through state
employment security agencies, and is sometimes called the
"Job Service." At the state and local levels, employment
security agencies also develop and disseminate labor market
information (LMI) and administer the Unemployment Insurance
(UI) program. In many, but not all states, both the ES and
the JTPA administering agency are the same agency at the state
level; and in several localities, the ES is the local administrator
of JTPA (Martinson 1999).
In most states, much attention in the workforce development
system is now focused on creating user-friendly one-stop career
centers that provide job seekers and employers with access
to a broad range of employment and training services at particular
locations or through electronic linkages. As of April 1998,
46 states had received grants from the U.S. Department of
Labor (DOL) to establish one-stop centers. In many states
these centers have become the focal point of the workforce
development system, a trend reinforced by the recent enactment
of the Workforce Investment Act (WIA) of 1998, which mandates
the creation of one-stop career centers in all states by July
2000. The WIA was enacted to restructure and streamline multiple
workforce development funding streams and ensure that employment
and training services would be available to the public in
the most efficient manner possible."
Source: Pinus, Koralek, Martinson, &
Trutko (2000). " COORDINATION AND INTEGRATION OF WELFARE
AND WORKFORCE DEVELOPMENT SYSTEMS". This report was prepared
for the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, Office
of the Assistant Secretary for Planning and Evaluation, under
Contract No. HHS-100-95-0021, Delivery Order 29.
Click for more information on the
Coordination
and Integration of Welfare and Workforce Development Systems
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