As America works hard to bring down its budget deficit, it is important to support the critical role businesses play in creating jobs and contributing to workforce development. At this time of limited resources, Congress must take a hard look at workforce development programs, set guidelines to encourage true innovation and measurable results, and fund only those workforce programs that produce results.
Although we are experiencing high unemployment and joblessness, employers continue to have trouble finding qualified entrylevel and skilled employees. In too many cases, secondary and higher education have failed to provide a workforce necessary to propel 21st-century business growth. Workforce development initiatives that directly link business needs with untapped talent are essential to helping businesses pull the nation out of recession and toward ongoing prosperity.
Therefore, it is critical that Congress turn its attention to refinement and reauthorization of the Workforce Investment Act. It is time to incentivize private and public investment in programs that produce real results by directly linking the talent demands of employers with individuals who may become productive employees through quick and effective skills development.
We recommend the following improvements to the Workforce Investment Act:
- Encourage Enterprising Pathways. Partnerships between non-profits and private sector employers are often outside the traditional workforce training system, but are often more effective because they close the gap between business needs and potential employee skills—particularly among the growing population of unskilled but talented young adults. Such programs train untapped talent in workplace skills that match workforce needs—providing greater opportunity for employees and employers.
- Create Innovation Incentive Funds. It is time to apply business innovation to workforce training. Workforce development is a bottom-line expense for businesses still struggling to overcome the economic recession. Innovation Incentive Funds within the Workforce Investment Act should be used to encourage public, private, and non-profit sector implementation of workforce programs that have a proven record of meeting the needs of both employers and young people. Requirements for funding should include direct and measurable links between training, employment, and on-the-job retention.
- Focus on outcomes, not inputs. Make sure the correct metrics are in place to focus funding on program effectiveness. Metrics include matching training to local and regional business needs, direct input by business on skills to be trained, and the quality of training as evidenced by increased employment and on-the-job performance.
- Mean business by putting businesses at the table. At a time of rapid changes in the economy—and the related changes in skills needed to fill a job and propel a career—it is critical to insist that businesses have a leading role on state and local workforce boards.
- Make sure human capital contributes to reducing the deficit. Even in dire recessions, smart businesses continue to invest in workforce development initiatives that produce results. Congress must do the same. Indiscriminant cuts to workforce development are just as harmful to the economy as continuing investment in programs that fail to work. We urge you to incentivize and maintain funding for Enterprising Pathways, which offers efficient and results-oriented workforce programs that mean business. In our experience, Enterprising Pathways programs are the quickest way to employ more Americans today and achieve greater prosperity tomorrow.