The document summarizes key aspects of local job creation strategies discussed at a 2014 OECD workshop. It describes how some Workforce Investment Boards (WIBs) in the US have leveraged the flexibility under the Workforce Investment Act to better align workforce programs with economic development, integrate services across organizations, target services to specific groups, and make data-driven decisions. Examples are provided of WIB partnerships in California and Michigan that have boosted skills training, business services, and coordination across education and economic development organizations to stimulate local job growth.

1. Session I: Effective Local Strategies to
Boost Quality Job Creation, Employment
and Participation
Randall W. Eberts
W. E. Upjohn Institute for Employment Research
U.S. Department of Labor-OECD LEED
Workshop on Workforce Development and Local Job Creation:
An International Perspective
18-19 November, 2014

2. Local Job Creation Strategies
• OECD multi-country project goes beyond the traditional supply-side
view of a publicly provided workforce development system
• The project’s innovation is to recognize that the public workforce
system can be a more powerful and effective force in helping to
create jobs by:
– Aligning labor supply-oriented workforce programs with labor demand
– Better coordinating programs and services
– Partnering with key stakeholders to leverage public resources
• For some countries, these concepts may be revolutionary
• For the United States, they have been practiced for some time
– WIA created a governance structure and service-delivery system that
offered the opportunity for the U.S. workforce system to integrate
workforce development and economic development activities and
partner with key stakeholders in local labor markets
• However, practices may be uneven across the decentralized
workforce development system
2

3. U.S. Study
• The U.S. study illustrates how LWIAs can create
opportunities within the structure of WIA to align,
coordinate, and leverage resources
• The study is by no means an evaluation
• Rather, the common thematic structure of the study and
the 100-item questionnaire provides a objective and
consistent framework with which to compare the
workforce development programs across countries
• The lessons drawn from the study and the
recommendations offered may be useful in understanding
how various factors and circumstances contribute to the
ability of some LWIBs to pursue the concepts of integration,
alignment, and partnerships more than others
3

4. 4
Four Study Sites

5. 5
California Michigan
NorTECH
Sacramento Employment
and Training Agency
Great Lakes Bay
Michigan Works!
SEMCA

6. 6
OECD’s four pillars of local job creation strategies
Job
Creation
Boosting skills
that meet
demand
Stimulating
demand by
better skill
utilization
Aligning
programs and
policies
Supporting
inclusion
Not simply supply-side concepts, but all require the active engagement of businesses,
economic development entities, and educational institutions with workforce agencies.

7. • Decentralization
• Local decision making
• Alignment with higher-level government agencies
Flexibility and
Alignment
•Employers
• Job seekers
• Local providers and intermediaries
Integration and
Engagement
• Individualized re-employment programs
• Customized services
• Specialized training
Targeted
Services
• Local labor market conditions
• Performance monitoring
• Longitudinal data
Data and
Evidence-based
Decisions
7
Four Attributes of the U.S. Workforce System
that Help Promote Local Job Creation

8. 8
Flexibility and Alignment
• Local workforce investment boards (WIBs) are arguably the heart of the
WIA system
– They administer federal and state labor exchange and job training programs
• WIA is a partnership among the federal, state and local governments
– Local WIBs are not agencies of the federal or state governments but are
extensions of a local government unit—typically a county government
– Local non-profit organizations are often the administrative entity for the WIB
– A fixed-term renewable master contract governs the relationship between the
WIB and the county government
• WIBs are governed by their own board, which by law is comprised
predominantly of business leaders who help design local workforce
strategy and oversee its implementation and administration
• Most federal and state funding flows through WIBs, which subcontract
with other local government agencies and non-government organizations
to provide services
– Most services are delivered through one-stop career centers
– WIA does not allow WIBs to provide services
• This structure allows WIBs to be a catalyst for local collaboration
– Partnerships are the focal point for both vertical and horizontal relationships
among the various partners within the workforce development system

9. 9
WIBs can Serve as Catalysts for Local Partnerships
Federal
State
County
Government
WIB
WIA
Local organizations:
Under contract
Sub-contracts
WIBs serve as conveners and
facilitators of informal
relationships among
organizations within their
jurisdictions
Other service
organizations
Businesses
Horizontal relationships
extend from the WIBs
to their workforce
intermediary partners
and local social service
organizations
Memoranda of
Understanding

10. Flexibility and Alignment: Examples
10
• In Southeast Michigan LWIBs partner with WIN (Workforce
Intelligence Network), a 9-county consortium that includes 7 LWIBs,
8 community colleges, and numerous economic development
organizations
– Six LWIBs have formed a formal partnership through an MOU that establishes
joint processes that enable the LWIBs to support regional initiatives
• In Sacramento, four LWIBs developed integrated plans for the
broader metro region
– WIB directors meet regularly among themselves and with key leaders from
partnering organizations, such as SACTO (economic development) Valley
Vision (community organizing and minority inclusion) and Los Rios College
District
– Informal partnerships are critical in that region, and strong personal
relationships and trust among partner leaders have held the partnerships
together

11. Integration and Engagement
• Services are integrated through the one-stop service
centers
– Services from 16 mandated programs are delivered through the
centers
– Job search assistance, training, employer services
• Collaboration among providers and coordination of services
• Catalyst for collaboration and formation of partnerships
among economic development organizations and education
institutions
• Engage businesses through
– Participation on Workforce Investment Boards
– As customers of the system
– Through partnerships with economic development and
education institutions
11

12. Business Engagement: Examples
• State of California created a state-wide information system (CalJOBS) and
made it available to all one-stop service center partners so that they can
record contacts made with employers as a method of co-ordinating those
contacts
• NoRTECH employs six full-time staff to continuously call on businesses and
maintains a “business first” system that assists businesses with retention
and expansion efforts
• The Sacramento Training and Response (START) is a partnership of regional
economic development entities, business, education, labor, and
government and provides businesses with a one-stop services.
– To attract a large firm to the Sacramento area, it recruited and trained nearly
4,000 workers within eight months
• Los Rios College District’s Next Skills Institute addresses the soft and
employability skills deficiencies among individuals in the area by providing
certification in employability skills
• Delta College in Michigan is set up to offer “just-in-time” training within
four weeks by hiring qualified trainers from outside the college and
working with business to design the curricula.
12

13. Targeted Services
• Tailor services to meet the specific and varied needs of
individual customers
• Job seekers
– Individualized reemployment plans
– Career pathways
– Sector partnerships to increase employment in in-demand
industries and occupations
– Individual Training Accounts
• Employers
– Match employers with qualified workers
– Customized incumbent worker training
13

14. Targeted Services: Examples
14
• A principle problem affecting people living in poverty in Michigan was a
lack of transportation (with city bus routes under threat and difficulties
obtaining insurance for car ownership), but this was less of a problem in
California which is better served by public transport.
• The Sacremento board in California had a strong focus on helping local
disadvantaged neighbourhoods, with a recent strategy to tackle youth
gang membership: the Sacramento Works CalGRIP Program.
• There were one-stop services embedded in local communities dominated
by particular immigrant and ethnic groups. These are often delivered
through not-for-profit agencies targeted at these communities, which may
lead to problems in terms of isolation from broader networks.
• There appeared to be a general lack of services to help immigrants to
convert their skills to new labour markets, partly because many recent
immigrants are required to already have jobs secured in order to receive
visas.

15. Data and Evidence-Based Decisions
• Accountability of WIA programs based on labor market outcomes of
participants, not on process
• Performance measures use objective administrative data
• Individual outcome and transaction data
– Workforce Investment Act Standardized Record Database (WIASRD)
– Workforce Data Quality Initiative
– Increased use of internet job postings
• Performance goals set at national and state levels
• WIA legislation requires local economic conditions and participant’s
personal characteristics to be considered in negotiating goals
• Regression-adjusted performance goals used on a voluntary basis by states
in recent years
• ETA requires states to include analysis of local labor market conditions in
strategic plans
• WIBs must determine what occupations are in demand for training
referrals
15

16. Data: Examples
• WIN in Michigan delivers real-time, actionable marketplace intelligence to
support better and more efficient solutions for employers by compiling
and analyzing internet job postings
• NoRTECH developed a set of indicators to track their progress, including
developing a ROI procedure
• They also developed a model that estimates the impact of filling job openings
for the region
• SETA depends upon the strong analytical capabilities of SACTO and Los
Rios College’s Centers of Excellence to provide detailed information about
jobs in demand and sectors with future job growth potential
• Updated the occupational content of regional critical occupational clusters
lists, which guides job seekers
– Michigan is developing the Workforce Quality Initiatives, with financial
assistance from the federal government
16

17. Recommendations
1. Reinforce the multi-level and flexible approach to workforce
development, encouraging policy coordination and integration
2. Consider what mechanisms exist to provide staff with training to
build their local labor market capacity to serve clients
3. Performance measures could take into account the variation in
personal characteristics and labor market conditions more
rigorously
4. Continue to collect and share information and data locally about
what works
5. Ensure community colleges are able to achieve the right balance
between responding to businesses and offering diverse curricula
6. Build capacities at the local level with employers on maximizing
effective work organization to better utilize skills
7. Ensure efforts take to serve employers do not displace resources
for the most vulnerable groups
17

18. What’s Next: WIOA
• Emphasizes federal-state-local partnerships
• Places WIBs at the center of the design and delivery of
services
• Places an even greater emphasis on the local WIB as a
catalyst for fostering partnerships with education,
economic development, workforce development entities
and businesses
• Requires educational institutions to provide information on
job prospects of their graduates
• Establishes outcome-based performance measures and
targets, and
• Embeds evidence-based decision making into the
management of the system.
18