Previous Initiatives

Washington was one of the first states in the country to initiate a LiLA pilot program in 2009, preceded by Maine in 2005. In both states, the accounts were able to be used not just for paying tuition, but for a range of related expenses including, but not limited to, child care, books, and admission test fees. The Council for Adult and Experiential Learning (CAEL), with funding and support from the Lumina Foundation, had also developed and championed LiLA demonstration programs in a handful of states and cities, including Maine, along with Washington, Chicago, Kansas City, San Francisco, and New York City.

In the Washington LiLA pilot, and those in a number of other states, the vast majority of workers chose to take courses that would help them advance their career with their current employer. Even so, the accounts have no restrictions on what can be studied or employee selection of career goals. This flexibility means employees can train for areas that interest them. Employers reported greater morale and lower turnover rates after they implemented LiLAs.

The 2019 Future of Work Report includes a policy recommendation to fund the LiLA program and support LiLA account holders. Read more about the LiLA program.

The Task Force was a public-private partnership to accelerate career connected learning. It culminated an 18-month National Governors Association Policy Academy on Work-Based Learning co-led by the Office of the Governor and the Workforce Board.

Task Force responsibilities:

1. Create policies and incentives to bring career connected learning to scale.
2. Recommend investment goals, priorities.
3. Participate in a high-level delegation to Switzerland in November 2017 to learn more about youth apprenticeship and employer-engagement models.

What is Career Connected Learning?

Career connected learning can be as simple as a business person visiting a classroom, talking about what they do. Or a job shadow where a young person learns more about an occupation or business.Or in some cases it can be an internship, or a registered apprenticeship, where youth are paid while they learn hands-on skills.

Why Career Connected Learning is Important

Washington’s young adults, ages 18-24, experience the highest unemployment and the greatest difficulty of any age group in getting a job, and keeping it. Unemployment routinely runs twice as great for this age group, than for others.

Unfilled Job Opportunities

Meanwhile, as Washington’s youth scramble for employment, thousands of Washington employers report leaving positions unfilled for lack of qualified candidates who have needed education or skills.

Lack of Work Experience

Lack of work experience, or simply exposure to the work world, is a key reason why young people lack these employability skills. Internships, job shadows, and other forms of work experience can help young people gain these unwritten but critical skills.

Goal: Connect 100,000 Washington youth during the next five years with career-connected learning opportunities that prepare them for high-demand, high wage jobs.

Resources

• Career Connect Washington recommendations (PDF)
• Governor’s Summit news release (PDF)

The Workforce Board managed two ARRA grants.

Washington’s Energy Sector Partnership Grant (PDF)
The U.S. Department of Labor awarded the Workforce Training and Education Coordinating Board (Workforce Board) a $5,973,635 American Recovery and Reinvestment Act grant to train Washington state workers in high demand occupations needed for energy efficiency in commercial and public buildings.

Health Career Pathways from Long-Term to Acute Care (Washington Health Care Worker Training Coalition) PDF
The U.S. Department of Labor awarded the Workforce Training and Education Coordinating Board (Workforce Board) a $5 million American Recovery and Reinvestment Act grant to train 550 low-wage Washington Health care workers, helping move them into higher-paying, high-demand health care professions with established career pathways.

How Workforce Investment Act (Now WIOA) Money Works
Job training dollars flow through local Workforce Development Councils which are comprised of leaders from business, government and labor. These councils operate one-stop employment centers, called WorkSource centers which provides advice to unemployed workers and others needing assistance about their options for education and training.

The federal Workforce Investment Act provides training dollars to eligible participants through this WorkSource system. In general, training providers must be on the state’s Eligible Training Provider list and meet minimum performance results for earnings and employment to help ensure these federal dollars are well spent.

Recovery Act Goes a Step Beyond Traditional WIA (Now WIOA) Money
The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act workforce funds dollars flow through three existing funding streams:

1. WIA Adult, for low-income residents in general ($9,694,268 for Washington).
2. WIA Dislocated Worker, for people who have been laid off ( $22,142,010 for Washington).
3. WIA Youth, for at-risk young people ages 16-24 ($23,445,432 for Washington).

These funds come with the same eligibility requirements and restrictions as regular WIA funds, but expand their flexibility or reinforce their focus in several key areas:

• Funds can be used to purchase classes at local community and technical colleges or other training providers, instead of being restricted to training vouchers that recipients take to the training provider of their choice. This helps build in additional capacity in the training system, boosting the number of students that can be served at one time.
• The Recovery Act requires summer 2009 employment opportunities for young people.
• Age guidelines have been adjusted upward so that youth are eligible through age 24 instead of age 21.

The Governor’s Best Practices Awards for Workforce and Economic Development are the only awards in the nation that recognize programs and projects that demonstrate excellence and achievement in both workforce development and economic development.

This award program is the result of a partnership between the Office of the Governor, the Workforce Training & Education Coordinating Board and the Department of Commerce.

On March 27, 2017, the Workforce Board hosted the CTE Showcase of Skills on Olympia’s capitol campus. Twenty teams of students from high schools and colleges across the state came together to participate in this one-day competition to use their technical skills to build portable, energy efficient homeless shelters. 

The students worked on their shelters previously and shipped their nearly completed shelters to Olympia to participate in the competition. After the competition was completed, all of the shelters were sent to Seattle to provide transitional temporary homeless housing.

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The Workforce Board was tasked with leading a task force looking at what the future of employment looked like in Washington. Read more about their work.

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The Workforce Board managed a $2.7 million federal grant helping manufacturing businesses across Washington pay for worker training and nearly no cost. This grant provided funding for training to small and mid-sized manufacturers in rural areas to boost staff productivity. The grant also provided business assessments to plan for improvement and growth through Impact Washington.

The Make it in Washington program ended in September, 2017. No grants are currently available.

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The Workforce Board was awarded an $80,000, one-year grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture to survey agricultural-related firms in 10 rural Washington counties.  Agricultural firms were asked whether they had access to sufficient educational resources for their employees, and what types of skills training and classes they would like to see offered in their area.

The grant also provided funding to Highline College’s Center of Excellence for Global Trade and Supply Chain Management. Highline staff worked with Walla Walla Community College’s Center of Excellence for Agriculture to identify available courses in each of the 10 counties, including online options. The colleges compiled areas where courses are not available and created online courses to fill the need. 

The grant also provides funding to Impact Washington, a nonprofit that works with Washington manufacturers through supply chain consulting and lean training. Impact Washington will continue a project begun under another federal grant to build an asset map of existing Washington manufacturers.

The Rural Enterprise Development Grant program ended in September, 2017. There are no grants currently available.

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