Future of Work Task Force Policy Recommendations
The Future of Work Task Force recommended the following policies to the Legislature and governor to help “futurize” the state’s workforce and businesses. It’s part of a first-in-the-nation Future of Work project funded by the Legislature in 2018. The recommendations are included in a larger report published in December of 2019. View the full report.
Comprehensive Worker Upskilling and Lifelong Learning
| 1. | (a) Support the Workforce Board’s request for additional funding for incumbent worker training. (b) Extend the State Board for Community and Technical Colleges (SBCTC) Customized Training Program. (c) Establish a requirement for a worker-management oversight body for each awardee of state incumbent worker training funds. (d) Add and evaluate new outcome metrics on the Job Skills and Customized Training programs. |
| 2. | Remove the six-credit eligibility requirement from the Washington College Grant program for students co-enrolled in High School+ and I-BEST who do not have a high school diploma or equivalent. |
| 3. | (a) Fund the Lifelong Learning Accounts (LiLA) program, where employers and employees jointly fund an employee-owned educational savings account, as written in state statute (RCW 28C.18.180) (b) Provide funds to establish a career and education counseling network to support LiLA account holders and other workers who are planning for professional development and economic opportunity. |
Use and Adoption of Technology in the Workplace
| 1. | Perform a worker-impact audit on the selection and adoption of Artificial Intelligence (AI) and other advanced technologies within Washington State government. |
| 2. | Develop a methodology for assessing and evaluating advanced technology within state government. |
Improved Labor Market Data and Credentialing Transparency
| 1. | Extend and utilize the Workforce Board’s Career Bridge-Credential Engine project on credential transparency and competency-based credentialing as a learning laboratory among the higher education community. |
| 2. | Add a new occupation data field to Unemployment Insurance Wage Reports, provided by employers for each W-2 employee. |
Modernized Worker Support System
| 1. | Analyze the impact of existing worker benefit and protection structures, and provide recommendations to better support workers as the nature of work changes. |
Equal Access to Economic Development Resources Across Washington
| 1. | Prioritize the use of state-funded economic, workforce and community development resources to support and generate family-wage jobs, with a focus on rural vitality. |
| 2. | Continue funding rural broadband efforts and seek out similar initiatives that may constitute best practices in other areas of the nation. |
| 3. | Enlist libraries to become greater hubs for community training, credentialing, and entrepreneurship/small business development. |
| 4. | Fund the development of accessible collaborative applied research (CAR) models that will bring two- and four-year college faculty and students together with small and midsize businesses and their workers to invent or adopt new technology or processes. |
| 5. | Reinstate a state office of employee ownership. |