1.Describe the strategies the State will implement, including industry or sector partnerships related to in-demand industry sectors and occupations and career pathways, as required by WIOA section 101(d)(3)(B), (D). “Career pathway” is defined at WIOA section 3(7) and includes registered apprenticeship. “In-demand industry sector or occupation” is defined at WIOA section 3(23)
As described in previous sections, the Kentucky Workforce Innovation Board (KWIB) sets the strategic vision and has done so through the four goals as the pillars of strategy: employer engagement, education attainment, workforce participation, and resource alignment. The Education and Workforce Collaborative takes the strategies and implements them into the greater workforce development ecosystem through alignment and partnership. Department of Workforce Development (DWD), housing Title I-IV programs, provides the actionable steps in serving the customers of WIOA programming with an emphasis on in-demand sectors, sector partnerships, and equitable career pathways to assist individuals in reaching their potential.
One proven strategy for creating career pathways into in-demand industries is through Registered Apprenticeship Programs (sometimes referred to as RAPs). Apprenticeships are a win-win for individuals and employers as they open pathways to high-paying careers and help employers attract and retain skilled workers in hard-to-fill jobs. Choices range from traditional skilled trades and construction pathways to opportunities in healthcare, business, technology, educational services, advanced manufacturing, and many others.
The number of active apprentices continued to increase in the commonwealth between fiscal year 2022 and fiscal year 2023, according to the Education and Labor Cabinet’s Office of Employer and Apprenticeship Services (OEAS). The office recorded 5,029 active apprentices during Fiscal Year 2023, a 12.2% increase over the 4,481 active apprentices logged the previous year. Kentucky also recorded 2,513 new registered apprentices in fiscal year 2023, compared to 2,180 in fiscal year 2022.
A new website from OEAS offers a Job Finder component that makes it easier for individuals seeking registered apprenticeship opportunities to link with employers in a wide range of professions, including construction, advanced manufacturing, skilled trades, healthcare, energy, and much more. The office is also working to increase outreach to underrepresented communities through partnerships with youth programs, high school and college counselors, veteran organizations, women and minority-owned businesses, churches, and many other groups to increase female and ethnic diversity in apprenticeships.
OEAS, as a partner agency with Title I-IV programs, JVSG, TAA, and UI, which are all housed within DWD, provides an increased opportunity for collaboration and alignment among the programs providing services to individuals and employers. Organizational structure plays a pivotal role in assuring fluid connections to work-based learning opportunities such as Registered Apprenticeship.
The strategy strengthens the work of programs and initiatives of the Office of Vocational Rehabilitation (OVR). Career pathways are of particular importance in assuring the delivery of services to individuals facing significant barriers to employment. Individuals with disabilities seeking to enter the workforce can face additional or compounding barriers to their disability, such as outdated skill sets, being a single parent, lacking financial resources, having minimal or no previous work experience, and not completing secondary education. Using a career pathways model is a “best practice” for providing vocational rehabilitation services. It is further strengthened by Title IV of WIOA, which goes beyond solely placing an individual in an entry-level job and promotes assisting an individual to “advance in” a career. OVR provides opportunities to program participants to obtain industry-recognized credentials in multiple career pathways at the Carl D. Perkins Center. Work experiences, internships, and other employer-facing experiences are provided at the Perkins Center, the McDowell Center for the Blind, and throughout the state through OVR’s community rehabilitation providers and Supported Employment programs. OVR provides individualized vocational counseling to prepare individuals with disabilities for employment through using labor market information and understanding the variety of post-secondary training options suited to their interests and abilities.
As a result of Rehabilitation Services Administration federal grant funding, OVR was able to create and host a Career Pathways Toolkit on its website. This toolkit is a resource for OVR staff development in providing services through a Career Pathways lens. https://kcc.ky.gov/Vocational-Rehabilitation/seeking-services/projectcase/Pages/default.aspx.
Furthermore, as part of the Quality Jobs, Equity, Strategy and Training (QUEST) grant Kentucky received, DWD is also preparing to roll out the Ready for Industry platform, which is a resource that includes five self-paced courses that create a bridge between standard education and the knowledge needed to succeed in the following industries: healthcare, manufacturing, construction, information technology, and logistics. For each of the industries, Ready for Industry provides self-paced online instructions on:
- Introduction to the industry
- What it is like to work in the industry
- Industry terminology and common practices
- Workplace expectations in the industry
- Career opportunities and descriptions
- Current issues and trends in the industry
- Career pathways, education, and certification in the industry
Given DWD’s organizational structure, all core partners, Combined State Plan partners, and the greater workforce ecosystem partners will be able to access Ready for Industry, which will provide greater opportunities for workforce system customers to learn about these career pathways. This resource will be a useful tool for individuals with disabilities served under Project CASE, individuals exploring apprenticeships and those in the industry, and all other individuals going through various career pathways programming or exploring opportunities in new careers. The rollout timeline for Ready for Industry is Summer 2024.
All core programs and Combined State Plan partners align for fully integrated customer service through various mechanisms, including two platforms with an emphasis on collaboration and alignment of services for the benefit of the customers: the Statewide Workforce and Talent Team (SWATT) and the Education and Workforce Collaborative.
Strategic Workforce and Talent Team (SWATT)
SWATT is a public-private partnership centered around a unified business services strategy. SWATT was launched with the founding members comprising of the core WIOA programs and Combined State Plan partners represented by the DWD leadership along with top leaders from the following entities:
- Secretary, Education, and Labor Cabinet
- Secretary, Kentucky Cabinet for Economic Development
- President/CEO, Kentucky Chamber of Commerce
- President, Kentucky Community and Technical College System (KCTCS)
- Associate Commissioner, Kentucky Department of Education’s Office of Career and Technical Education
- Executive Director, Kentucky Center for Statistics
- Associate Vice President, Kentucky Council on Postsecondary Education
- President/CEO, Kentucky Association of Manufacturers
- Chair, Kentucky Workforce Innovation Board
- Associate Vice President, Kentucky Hospital Association
SWATT is not a new program but rather a commonsense way to work more efficiently and effectively to serve employers and build rewarding career pathways for individual customers. SWATT was launched in 2023 as an idea that is now in the operationalization phase at the state level, with the development of the process for regional rollout and support. The key is to streamline business services for Kentucky employers, develop and deliver state-level and regional-level business services training, participate in simplifying processes in business services work across the partners, enhance business services engagement, and maximize the return on investment for the Commonwealth. This work is essential as Kentucky strives to meet the talent needs of employers as well as maintain the competitive edge among states in this space.
Education and Workforce Collaborative
One of the key platforms that allow for alignment and collaboration on critical workforce priorities is the Education and Workforce Collaborative Board, which was initiated through a Governor’s Executive Order to bring education and workforce development system partners together in one group so that all available resources may be efficiently and effectively aligned and measured to enhance and improve Kentucky’s workforce development system. This 19-member Collaborative is made up of executive Cabinet leadership, education leaders from K-12, community and post-secondary level, the state chamber of commerce, federal workforce training providers such as Jobs Corps, a local workforce board director, elected officials, and the state workforce board chair.
The Collaborative is chaired by the Governor or their designee, who is currently the Deputy Secretary of the Education and Labor Cabinet and the Acting Commissioner of the Department of Workforce Development (DWD); all core programs and Combined State Plan partners are under the DWD and ELC organizational umbrella.
Over the calendar year 2023, this body has found great synergy in addressing critical workforce components that the state workforce board, the KWIB, has brought forward through the Strategic Plan. The quarterly Collaborative meetings are divided into two meetings focused on alignment in serving specific untapped talent pools and two meetings focused on alignment of system-level workforce development priorities. In 2023, the untapped pool gatherings focused on justice-involved and veterans in the commonwealth; through these meetings, Jobs on Day One was launched to address the former, and a veteran’s task force was formed to address the latter. From the system priorities side, the Collaborative addressed work-based learning and provided their priorities as they relate to building the WIOA State Plan. The future of the Collaborative is going to continue focusing on alignment, collaboration, and addressing the workforce development system through the wide lens of it being a true ecosystem of services that encompasses core programs, Combined State Plan partners, and many other state programs that can be leveraged for a fully integrated customer service experience.
Through representation on the SWATT and the Education and Workforce Collaborative, the state workforce development board, the Kentucky Workforce Innovation Board (KWIB), plays an important strategic role in the statewide alignment of career pathways, specifically in identifying in-demand industries. Understanding Kentucky’s most in-demand industries is the foundation that career pathways can build on to ensure long-term customer success across the workforce ecosystem.
The identification of in-demand industries impacts not only core programs and combined State Plan partners but also the greater workforce ecosystem in Kentucky. The impact within the core programs touches the investment of time and resources in providing on-the-job training, incumbent workers training, work experience/internships, and individual training account use through the Eligible Training Provider List (ETPL). Furthermore, workforce ecosystem partners such as the Kentucky Higher Education Assistance Authority’s (KHEAA) administration of the Work Ready Scholarship hinges on providing scholarships to Kentucky residents to earn a certification at no cost in the top five sectors in Kentucky. Similarly, the Cabinet for Economic Development’s Bluegrass State Skills Corp. (BSSC) is a training investment program that provides qualified companies grants and tax incentives to train their workforce; this investment tool is also informed by the top identified sectors.
Due to the importance of building career pathways into in-demand sectors, the KWIB initiated a diverse workgroup comprised of business, government, education, nonprofit, and labor leaders to review the current labor market information to identify and recommend key sectors. The workgroup collectively agreed to focus on individual occupations with noteworthy metrics that include occupational demand, occupational growth rate, and family-sustaining entry annual wages. These metrics provide a list of good jobs that have various career pathways, and these occupations were cross-walked into sectors, leading to a list of recommended sectors with career pathways as the foundation. The work continues with the quantitative analysis provided by the workgroup, which will receive a qualitative review from the statewide leaders in the education and training space.
Certain sector partnerships described earlier in the strengths section are highlighted again below as they relate to creating career pathways in in-demand industries:
The Federation for Advanced Manufacturing Education (FAME) was founded in Kentucky by the manufacturing leadership of Toyota and its partners to create a talent pipeline to fill the critical jobs associated with industrial maintenance. Maintenance technicians play a vital role in modern manufacturing by maintaining and ensuring the machines and robotics operate efficiently. They use complex problem-solving skills combined with technical knowledge to service and repair the machines quickly and effectively. As manufacturing continues to advance and the use of advanced manufacturing technology increases, the need for skilled maintenance technicians continues to increase.
Kentucky is a host to 12 FAME Chapters that are made up of an anchor local Kentucky Community and Technical College System (KCTCS) school that serves manufacturers in the region. FAME students attend classes at their local community college two days a week and work 24 hours a week for a local manufacturer – all while being paid a competitive wage. Upon completion, students earn an associate degree in Applied Science in Industrial Maintenance Technology-Advanced Manufacturing Technician Track, two years of work experience, and the AMT certification.
FAME has spread beyond Kentucky and is now active in 14 states across the US.
Further, in partnership with leadership from the Kentucky Chamber Foundation, Kentucky was selected as one of the three states in the nation to pilot a statewide implementation of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce Foundation’s program, Talent Pipeline Management (TPM). TPM is an employer-led and demand-driven approach for businesses to create and manage talent ‘supply chains’ by projecting talent needs and aligning those with education and workforce development systems. The success of TPM in Kentucky is based on the strength of sector strategies that have existed in the Commonwealth. For example, the strength of the KentuckianaWorks’ healthcare group (the Health Careers Collaborative of Greater Louisville) facilitated the establishment, and contributed to the success, of the TPM pilot in Kentucky. Regarding manufacturing, discussions among the members of the KentuckianaWorks’ Kentucky Manufacturing Career Center Advisory Group kickstarted what would become the FAME chapter in Louisville.
Since TPM is heavily focused on the needs of the business, the lead organization is the Kentucky Chamber Workforce Center as it can utilize its position in the market to engage employers in the TPM process and build a stronger workforce aligned with the needs of Kentucky’s key economic sectors. The TPM process does the following:
- Convenes businesses into employer-led industry collaboratives throughout Kentucky
- Provides personalized talent solutions to ensure Kentuckians are trained, developed, and upskilled into in-demand career pathways
- Improves collaboration with education, government, and workforce partners by utilizing the collaborative’s real-time data
The current TPM industry collaboratives include:
- Healthcare
- Manufacturing
- Construction
- Education
- Distilling
- Logistics/Aviation
- Energy
- Agriculture/Equine
- IT/Business Services
2.Describe the strategies the State will use to align the core programs, any Combined State Plan partner programs included in this Plan, required and optional one-stop partner programs, and any other resources available to the State to achieve fully integrated customer services consistent with the strategic vision and goals described above. Also describe strategies to strengthen workforce development activities in regard to weaknesses identified in section II(a)(2)
The Department of Workforce Development has identified opportunities to align core workforce programs through several different improvements in the system.
The first opportunity is to update the One-Stop Certification process to ensure that customers of WIOA can locate the services that are consistent across each of the career center locations. Currently, the One-Stop Certification process involves recognizing Kentucky Career Centers (KCC) across a three-tier approach: a Comprehensive Career Center, an Affiliate Career Center, and a KCC Access Point. The requirements are as follows:
- Each Local Workforce Development Area (LWDA) must have at least one Comprehensive Career Center with Title I staff present and access to each partner program that provides the required career services, training services and business services.
- Affiliate Career Centers are designed to make the programs, services, and activities from one or more KCC partners, but not all partners, available to job seekers and employers. The Affiliate Career Center can be a Specialized Career Center that addresses the specific needs of certain groups of job seekers and /or employers, like those of dislocated workers, youth or of key industry sectors or clusters. Affiliate Career Centers may also be used for a network of affiliates or a network of partners with linked access to affiliates.
- KCC Access Points can be mobile or permanent locations with one designated point of contact. A KCC Access Point will, at a minimum, have qualified individual(s) cross-educated in all six Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (WIOA) core programs and will refer job seekers and employers to partner staff at Comprehensive and/or Affiliate KCCs.
Since the inception of these guidelines, the Department of Workforce Development has grown to encompass all the core WIOA programs, and an environmental scan proved that some core program partners that offer services to job-seekers, workers, and employers at physical locations are not encompassed in the three-tier One-Stop system. The updated One-Stop Certification process would expand to ensure the consistency, availability, and accessibility for consumers to reach workforce services is deployed. Furthermore, the hybrid service delivery model will be explored in greater detail during the update to the One-Stop Certification process.
The second opportunity is to align the core programs to integrate customer services consistent with the vision and goals fully to evaluate the performance of service delivery, customer satisfaction of the various programs, and continuous improvement . One way to do this is to explore high-performing Workforce Innovation Boards (WIB) initiatives that would focus on board efficiency, effectiveness, and continuous improvement across the Commonwealth’s ten local WIBs, with the purpose of encouraging local WIBs to act strategically, think beyond the scope of WIOA.
The third opportunity, and one that addresses some of the weaknesses mentioned in the previous section on lack of childcare, transportation, and affordable housing, is fully embracing the regional approach to Work Ready Communities. The goal of the Work Ready Communities-Next Generation model is to allow the local and regional community leaders to strategically think about addressing these barriers to employment. The stakeholders would involve core program partners as the services offered through WIOA and the workforce ecosystem provide complementary solutions to these highly regional barriers to employment.
The final opportunity to address one of the weaknesses mentioned earlier is to implement a workforce academy model that would provide training and continuous improvement to the workforce development statewide staff to ensure ongoing professional development that would ultimately result in better service delivery to the jobseekers, workers, and employers engaging with the workforce development ecosystem.
Furthermore, all core programs and Combined State Plan partners align for fully integrated customer service through various mechanisms, including two platforms that emphasize collaboration and service alignment for the benefit of customers: the Statewide Workforce and Talent Team (SWATT) and the Education and Workforce Collaborative.
Strategic Workforce and Talent Team (SWATT)
SWATT is a public-private partnership centered around a unified business services strategy. SWATT was launched with the founding members comprising of the core WIOA programs and Combined State Plan partners represented by the DWD leadership along with top leaders from the following entities:
- Secretary, Education, and Labor Cabinet
- Secretary, Kentucky Cabinet for Economic Development
- President/CEO, Kentucky Chamber of Commerce
- President, Kentucky Community and Technical College System (KCTCS)
- Associate Commissioner, Kentucky Department of Education’s Office of Career and Technical Education
- Executive Director, Kentucky Center for Statistics
- Associate Vice President, Kentucky Council on Postsecondary Education
- President/CEO, Kentucky Association of Manufacturers
- Chair, Kentucky Workforce Innovation Board
- Associate Vice President, Kentucky Hospital Association
SWATT is not a new program but rather a commonsense way to work more efficiently and effectively to serve employers and build rewarding career pathways for individual customers. SWATT was launched in 2023 as an idea that is now in the operationalization phase at the state level, with the development of the process for regional rollout and support. The key is to streamline business services for Kentucky employers, develop and deliver state-level and regional-level business services training, participate in simplifying processes in business services work across the partners, enhance business services engagement, and maximize the return on investment for the Commonwealth. This work is essential as Kentucky strives to meet the talent needs of employers as well as maintain the competitive edge among states in this space.
Education and Workforce Collaborative
One of the key platforms that allow for alignment and collaboration on critical workforce priorities is the Education and Workforce Collaborative Board, which was initiated through a Governor’s Executive Order to bring education and workforce development system partners together in one group so that all available resources may be efficiently and effectively aligned and measured to enhance and improve Kentucky’s workforce development system. This 19-member Collaborative is made up of executive Cabinet leadership, education leaders from K-12, community and post-secondary level, the state chamber of commerce, federal workforce training providers such as Jobs Corps, a local workforce board director, elected officials, and the state workforce board chair.
The Collaborative is chaired by the Governor or their designee, who is currently the Deputy Secretary of the Education and Labor Cabinet and the Acting Commissioner of the Department of Workforce Development (DWD); all core programs and Combined State Plan partners are under the DWD and ELC organizational umbrella.
Over the calendar year 2023, this body has found great synergy in addressing critical workforce components that the state workforce board, the KWIB, has brought forward through the Strategic Plan. The quarterly Collaborative meetings are divided into two meetings focused on alignment in serving specific untapped talent pools and two meetings focused on alignment of system-level workforce development priorities. In 2023, the untapped pool gatherings focused on justice-involved and veterans in the commonwealth; through these meetings, Jobs on Day One was launched to address the former, and a veteran’s task force was formed to address the latter. From the system priorities side, the Collaborative addressed work-based learning and provided their priorities as they relate to building the WIOA State Plan. The future of the Collaborative is going to continue focusing on alignment, collaboration, and addressing the workforce development system through the wide lens of it being a true ecosystem of services that encompasses core programs, Combined State Plan partners, and many other state programs that can be leveraged for a fully integrated customer service experience.
