WIOA State Plan Common Elements

1. Vision

Governor Doug Ducey’s vision for Arizona is to build a pro–growth economy that provides opportunity for all and creates prosperous communities.  This means ensuring that all Arizonans eligible to work, regardless of their circumstance, background, social status or zip code, have access to the best economic opportunity, educational options, healthcare services, safety system and overall quality of life as possible.

State Priorities Established by Governor Ducey:

• Government working at the speed of business
• Equal access to education
• Opportunity for all
• Pro-growth economy

The ARIZONA@WORK system, led by the Council, plays a key role in building the skills and abilities of people to meet the workforce needs of employers. This includes creating meaningful linkages between the education and workforce systems, aligning data so that metrics can be better defined and more easily measured, and helping people of all backgrounds gain employment and prosper in a rapidly changing economy.

Through the required coordination of core programs and the inclusion of industry, WIOA presents an extraordinary opportunity to improve the efficiency, relevance and productivity of the workforce system. Uniting under this state plan and a common identifier, the system players will engage in strategic partnerships that strengthen the State’s ability to encourage economic growth by leveraging its qualified workforce. With the Governor and Council providing leadership and direction, DES, ADE, ACA, and additional ARIZONA@WORK partners will work together to provide services that ultimately meet the needs of job creators needing skilled workers in growing and In-Demand industries and individuals in need of fulfilling employment.

Ensuring the quality and ease of services provided by the workforce system requires integrated service delivery that includes high-quality professional staff to deliver work readiness skills for job seekers that will complement occupational skills training and business services. The system will strive to create career pathways, aligned to industry needs, which combine education and training opportunities in a way that supports individuals gaining buildable knowledge, skills, and abilities throughout their careers. Connecting programs, services and systems will require collaboration around building a strong data infrastructure and metric measuring tools.

By leveraging improved data and the perspective and input of industry in the decisions made at the state and local levels, ARIZONA@WORK will ensure it is fulfilling its value as an economic development asset. The strategies within this plan will set the State on the path to implementing key activities that will drive this vision of an integrated, efficient and productive workforce system.

2. Goals

The four goals identified for the ARIZONA@WORK system (listed below) were developed to ensure a customer centric workforce system. Each goal focuses on a primary target customer of workforce services. To achieve each goal, regular consideration of the current economic trends and workforce patterns will be required. The latest economic and workforce analysis available during the writing of this plan can be found in section I.(a).

• Goal 1: Promote a Strong Arizona Economy - Build Arizona’s capacity to attract, retain and grow thriving businesses.
• Goal 2: Serve Business Needs - Serve Arizona job creators by understanding, anticipating and helping them meet workforce needs (including meeting the skilled workforce needs of employers).
• Goal 3: Prepare Job Seekers; Defend Against Poverty - Prepare and match job seekers to a job creator for a successful career that provides amply (preparing an educated and skilled workforce, including youth and individuals with barriers to employment and other populations).
  • Some specific populations Arizona is striving to make significant improvement for include those mentioned as key populations within the economic and workforce analysis section of this plan:
    • Individuals with Disabilities : 
      • Increase competitive integrated employment opportunities for individuals with disabilities.    
        • Improve  access to services for people with disabilities in the job centers across Arizona.
        • Increase knowledge of local workforce partners about the Governor’s Executive Order on  Employment First to improve employment outcomes for individuals with disabilities.
    • Veterans:   
      • Increase access to ARIZONA@WORK services
      • Facilitate the provision of services to veterans. 
    • Previously Incarcerated Individuals:   
      • Increase access to ARIZONA@WORK services
      • Increase employment outcomes for individuals releasing from incarceration.
    • Low Academic Individuals and English Language Learners:  
      • Increase the number of individuals who improve academic or english language skills.
      • Increase the number of individuals who obtain industry recognized credentials. 
      • Increase the number of individuals receiving a secondary diploma and transitioning to post-secondary education or employment in Arizona. 
• Goal 4: Protect Taxpayers by Providing Efficient, Accountable Government Service - Accelerate measurable impact and performance for less cost.

3. Performance Goals

The Performance Goals for Core Programs are written in their respective sections of this document.

4. Assessment

Through Governor Ducey, and endorsed by the Council, Arizona is deploying a professional, results-driven management system, the Arizona Management System (AMS), to transform the way government thinks and does business. AMS is built on lean principles and focuses on people through transformation processes while striving to improve the outcomes for customers. Through training and coaching, staff will be empowered to make data-driven decisions, use a common problem-solving process, and track progress through visual controls. This affords staff greater creativity and control while expanding capacity to do more good for all ARIZONA@WORK customers.

At the State level, the Council, ADE, and DES will assess the overall health of the ARIZONA@WORK system through a check and adjust process, using lead measures for the State’s strategies and other critical measures to improve the overall system and meet or exceed the federal performance measures. Using a dashboard on the ARIZONA@WORK website, agency scorecards, and tiered measures throughout the system, teams at all levels will be able to quickly identify progress and slippage, problem solve to identify root causes, and implement countermeasures to course-correct and/or improve the measures. Regular reviews with the Council and/or the appropriate committee will ensure ongoing input and assessment of the ARIZONA@WORK system.

Throughout the ARIZONA@WORK system, the evaluation of improvements will be continuous, with the goal of ARIZONA@WORK staff at all levels creating teams to solve problems, improving processes using standard problem-solving techniques while measuring progress to make those processes better, faster, and more cost efficient.