By Shannon Holmes
February 6, 2006

Mayor’s Workforce Directors from cities across the country gathered in Washington (DC) for the Conference of Mayors Workforce Development Council (WDC) Annual Meeting held in conjunction with the 74th Annual Winter Conference of Mayors.

Ray Worden, Workforce Development Bureau Manager for Long Beach and President of the WDC, welcomed Board of Trustees and council members from cities across the country.

Primary issues at the meeting were looking at ways the workforce system was meeting the needs of the healthcare, and the need for real-time data within the workforce system. WDC members also joined mayors at the Standing Committee on Education, Jobs and the Workforce chaired by St. Louis Mayor Francis Slay. For further coverage see the article in this issue titled "Jobs, Education and the Workforce Committee Examines the Need to Redesign Education and Workforce Training for the Global Economy."

Over the past few years the local workforce system has stepped up to try address the growing need for nurses and other medically trained personnel by providing training. However, there is a lapse in time between training and filling the vacancies. Dr. James Bentley, Senior VP for Strategic Policy Planning and Director of AHA Workforce Commission for the American Hospital Association (AHA), addressed WDC three years ago and updated WDC members on the effective partnerships that now exist between the healthcare industry, specifically hospitals and workforce investment boards across the county. These relationships, for the most part, did not exist three years ago. Bentley said that there is still a need to work together to make more training available in order to close the on-going crisis facing the healthcare system.

There was also a panel of Best Practices in the healthcare industry by WDC members from Long Beach, Kansas City and Hartford. Byron Rogers, Workforce Development Officer for Long Beach and Judy Fix, (RN), Senior Vice President, Patient Care Services and Chief Nurse Officer for Long Beach Memorial Medical Center and Miller Children’s Hospital provided an overview of how they worked together to obtain federal funds form the U.S. Department of Labor to expand the training of medical technicians and nurses. By the year 2007, the shortage in Long Beach will be addressed and the capacity to continue with the need of the current training system that has successfully been established.

Clyde McQueen, President and CEO of the Full Employment Council in Kansas City, discussed his partnership with the hospital association to create information pamphlets about the opportunities available in the healthcare system and the training needed, which have been in high demand. Through the partnership, they also clarified terminology difference between the two systems and services provided in the workforce system. On the east coast, Tom Phillips, President and CEO of Capital Workforce Partnership, Inc. in Hartford, is in the beginning stages of creating a bridges program to help certified nursing associates (CNAs) move up career ladders through training through the Allied Health Academies. The focus for Hartford is to ensure that there will not be a gap in qualified personnel available to staff long term care facilities.

There is a growing need for real time and locally oriented data about the workforce system in order to provide effective results. Experts and WDC members shared ways to effectively collect data and get the message to Capitol Hill about the accomplishments of workforce programs. Panel members included Sigurd Nilsen, Director of Education, Workforce and Income Security at U.S. General Accountability Office; Colin Wellenkamp, Vice President of Government Relations for the Washington Linkage Group; Peace Bransberger, Research Associate for the Workforce Strategies Initiative at The Aspen Institute; Conny Doty, Director of Jobs and Community Services for Boston; and Russell Tomlin, Manager of IT and Youth for Houston Works USA.

Nilsen showed what state data systems are effective, but emphasized that more access is needed to unemployment insurance records to provide more real time data. Nilsen said that with the new regulations put in place by the U.S. Department of Labor, the common performance measures, there is a chance for very effective data reporting from the local level up to the federal level, but that it is going to take time. Wellenkamp offered ways to most effectively get the message across to Congressional members and emphasized that the issues need to be put in their “backyard”. Bransberger presented a business value assessment tool that was developed by the Aspen Institute for use by employers and job training providers to capture data. Doty and Tomlin demonstrated examples of their data systems to communicate strategically with workforce investment boards, businesses and elected officials.

With the economy and workforce becoming global, Kris Stadelman, CEO of the Workforce Development Council of Seattle-King County and WDC First Vice President, and Sharon Parry, Executive Director of the Employment Source in Canton, (OH), traveled to Ireland and India to get a first hand look at the workforce systems and local economies. During Stadelman’s visit to Ireland, she found that when the country was facing the disappearance of the textile industry they made a commitment to educating the population and creating a niche for the growing bio-technology field. As a result, Ireland has gone from an unemployment rate of 18 percent in the late 1970’s to 4.2 percent with 125 percent of the European Union GDP and over 1,000 American companies doing business in the country.

In India, Parry visited several plants and schools in different provinces. She found that there is one job training center in each province where a total of 5 million people went through for 200,000 jobs. In a population of 1 billion people there are over 400 million people in the workforce. Despite this, there is a poverty rate of over 29 percent, where an established cast system is still in place. Even though there has been a growth of outside investment in areas like Bangalore by Toyota and Microsoft, where a middle class is emerging, there are not enough jobs for the people who need them and thus poverty prevails.

Over the past few years, the reauthorization of the Workforce Investment Act (WIA) of 1998 has been the main focus of the WDC. The Administration’s original proposal in early 2003, would have taken away local control of the workforce system and put it under the control of governors. This proposal was not included in either version of WIA reauthorization bills in the House or Senate in the first session of the 109th Congress. Despite the fact that the House bill passed, the Senate was not able to get the bi-partisan bill to the floor for a vote due to a hold put on the bill.

Jane Oates, Minority Education Policy Advisor for the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, said that there are only a total of 73 legislative days in the legislative calendar prior the target adjournment in October for the mid-term elections in November. Therefore, Oates said that if the Senate is not able to vote on passage of WIA and complete the conference process by the beginning of April, the reauthorization of WIA will be pushed into the 110th Congress. The same is true for the reauthorization of the Higher Education Act and the Carl Perkins Vocational Education Act because the focus of Congress is expected to shift to tax and immigration reform and other issues that will top the election agendas.

Gay Gilbert, Administrator of the Office of Workforce Investment in the Employment and Training Administration at the U.S. Department of Labor, reported on the future availability of grant opportunities that will be provided by the Department in areas of the President’s High Growth Jobs Initiative and the Community-Based Job Training Grants. DOL will be focusing on youth solutions in the high growth arena, especially within those aging out of foster care. Additionally, she gave a brief overview of Workforce One, a website for local areas to share best practices, and In Demand magazine focusing on each one of the High Growth Job Initiative areas to distribute to high schools to illustrate the basic career pathways and the career ladders possible.

Other presenters at the meeting included Dr. Paul Harrington from the Center of Labor Market Studies at Northeastern University, who said that the top two issues facing the country are education and immigration. He stressed that in order to have success in the workforce development system there needs to be the creation of wage and salary jobs which requires education and skills attainment for both US citizens and immigrants. Steve D’Antonio, from the Job Reverse Commute Program at the Southern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority, updated WDC on the recent legislation pertaining to the Job Access and Reverse Commute Program, the impact that it has on cities across the country, and effective ways to implement it, citing Philadelphia.

Cities represented included Akron (OH), Arlington (TX), Baltimore, Boston, Bridgeport, Canton, Chattanooga, Chicago, Clarksville, Columbus (GA), Detroit, Denver, Elkhart (IN), Fort Wayne, Gary, Hammond (IN), Hartford (CT), Houston, Indianapolis, Kansas City (MO), Long Beach, Los Angeles, Louisville, Lubbock (TX), Macon (GA), Miami, Nashville, New Haven, New York City, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Portland (OR), Providence, San Diego, Scranton (PA), Seattle, and St. Louis.