The MASSCAP Education, Training, Employment, and Economic Development Committee is pleased to share this final report on our 1999 Workforce Development Initiative with you.
The Education, Training, Employment, and Economic Development Committee has been working for 10 years to increase the community action agencies' (CAAs’) knowledge and capacity in the area of workforce development. The Committee’s work is based on an awareness that job skills and access to employment are core issues in the struggle for self-sufficiency among low-income people, and we are committed to assuring that CAAs in Massachusetts have the information, resources, and commitment necessary for effectively providing, and advocating for, job skills and employment access everywhere in the state. To that end the Committee has met regularly in order to stay abreast of, and inform the CAAs about, new developments in the area of workforce development. We have also organized conferences, seminars, and other activities promoting greater awareness of, and commitment to, workforce development issues among the CAAs.
Recognizing that the last MASSCAP study on workforce development issues was done in the mid-1990s (and on a much smaller scale), the Education, Training, Employment, and Economic Development Committee proposed to MASSCAP in early 1999 that a comprehensive initiative be undertaken during the latter part of the year. The Committee’s thinking in developing this initiative was based in our belief that we are in a time of significant change, as well as substantial opportunity, in the area of workforce development. Therefore the CAAs need to deepen their understanding of what workforce development is, including the reality that workforce development involves much more than job skills training. In particular:
along with skills training, workforce development involves many kinds of services (often called "wrap-around services") that make it possible for people to go to work;
CAAs are already key providers of wrap-around services in Massachusetts, particularly in the areas of child care, and economic advocacy;
the need for comprehensive workforce development programs—those that include wrap-around services along with skills training and job placement/employer referrals—is growing as the labor market continues to exapnd and many people enter the workforce for the first time due both to a labor shortage and the impact of welfare reform and other federal legislation; and
the transition from the Job Training Partnership Act (JTPA) to the Workforce Investment Act (WIA), will continue to have substantial impact on the structure of workforce development services in Massachusetts. It is in the CAAs’ best interest to fully understand, and be able to respond to, WIA requirements.
Along with increasing CAA awareness and understanding regarding the challenges and opportunities associated with workforce development programming at the present time, a second major focus of the Workforce Development Initiative was to begin developing a strategic agenda for CAAs around workforce development issues. The work done toward generating this agenda is particularly reflected in the Recommendations section of this report.
It was pleasure to work directly with representatives of many of the CAAs in workshops and meetings during this process, and we also thank everyone who took the time to respond to our survey. We also want to commend Mr. Geoff Beane of Amory Street Associates for his work in leading the Committee through a series of workshops and discussions that have resulted in this report. We are hopeful that this report will have the effect of catapulting the CAAs into ever more significant roles in the workforce development system locally and statewide.
Phillip Bronder-Giroux, Chair
MASSCAP Education, Training, Employment, and Economic Development Committee