WIOA State Plan Common Elements

(1a.) Competency-Based Career Pathways into the Middle Class: A New Social Compact for Alabama Predicated on Human Capital Development
People in distressed rural areas, people who have been perpetually marginalized socially and economically, and people in cities that have been economically displaced due to structural changes in the economy are not lazy and are not malingering from the workforce. Often, faced with the option of piece work, the on-demand economy, or low-wage temporary work arrangement with no benefits, a braided package of transfer payments often provides more reliable economic security than the labor market. Currently, many Alabamians face a dollar-for-dollar reduction in benefits when entering the workforce. Making work pay for all Alabamians will provide the economic mobility needed to overcome decades of economic stagnation for our most distressed citizens. Ensuring the state and federal workforce and education programs are delivered at the most local level to support the establishment of a wage premium for work and individualized plans to overcome barriers will provide the basis for a revitalization of civil society. Economic mobility and revitalization of civil society, taken together, will provide an opportunity to reestablish the natural equilibrium between individuals and the state, as state and federal support will begin to supplement rather than supplant local associational activity and mediating institutions between the individual and the state as primary vehicles for human capital development. 

(1b.) The Financial Incentives for Pursuing Paid Employment 
With a December 2019 unemployment rate of 2.7 percent and a labor force participation rate of 58.6 percent, Alabama must pursue an workforce development strategy designed to engage those Alabamians who remain on the sidelines of the labor force. The touchstone of Governor Ivey’s workforce development strategic plan is the Success Plus postsecondary education attainment goal of adding 500,000 credentialed workers to the workforce by 2025. With labor market conditions nearing full employment, meeting the Success Plus postsecondary education attainment goal will require mitigating the factors that result in individuals not entering the labor market and shifting federal resources so that more funding is directly available to Alabamians in need of workforce training.  The labor force participation rate includes all persons between 16 and 64 who are employed or who are seeking employment. Furthermore, Governor Ivey’s workforce development strategic plan includes an equity-based imperative to close attainment gaps among the special populations Governor Ivey has identified in the 2020 WIOA Combined Plan, including veterans, justice-involved individuals, people recovering from substance abuse and addiction, single parents with dependent children, individuals with a disability, the long-term unemployed, individuals who are basic skills deficient, individuals with significant cultural barriers, and others. Many of the 41.2 percent of Alabamians who are not in the labor force belong to one or more of the aforementioned special populations. 

Based on stakeholder feedback from a myriad of Alabamians during the 14 public WIOA state planning engagement meetings that have been held between July and October 2019, Governor Ivey has identified that one of the greatest barriers to education and workforce training are benefit cliffs. A benefit cliff occurs when means-tested benefits and other forms of public assistance taper off when a household’s income from paid employment increases. Due to the benefits cliff, paid employment does not pay for some Alabamians in certain rural and economically-depressed regions. Therefore, the effect of the benefits cliff is to make a low-income individual just entering the workforce (just the demographic Alabama needs to ensure enters the workforce to meet the Success Plus goal) worse-off when getting an earnings increase. This may seem counterintuitive at first glance; however, it must be described and contemplated in terms of the marginal tax rate for low-income individuals. An effective marginal tax rate specifies the proportion of new earnings owed in taxes, or needed to offset reductions in program benefits, and quantifies the share of new earnings not available to families.

Generally, government-financed, public-assistance programs are designed to phase-out as the recipient’s earning increase. In practical terms, however, this often has the effect of causing the loss of benefits to exceed the income gained through the earning increase. This phenomenon, thus, has the simultaneous effects of increasing the effective tax rate for low-income individuals and creating a negative incentive for entering the workforce for some Alabamians. Many other barriers—such as a lack of transportation, child-care, or basic skills—were reported in each region. However, the benefits cliff is the most nefarious, since it impedes access to the other needs identified by stakeholders, such as transportation and childcare. The objective of the public workforce system is to identify the barriers to entry into the workforce and providing the skills training and education needed to overcome those barriers.  Alabama will focus its available federal resources over the next four years directly on providing job training to those who most need it, increasing the number of Alabamians who successfully enter and remain in the workforce system. Aligning the benefits provided by the plethora of federally-funded, means-tested and categorical workforce, human services, and education programs administered in Alabama around a continuum of services that assist an individual in overcoming the benefits cliff will enable more Alabamians who are currently not in the labor force to persist in a career pathway and ultimately attain employment in an occupation that pays a family-sustaining wage. 

Governor Ivey’s focus on aligning competency-based career pathways with work-based learning and academic course work has resulted in an intentional development of apprenticeship, credentials of value, empirically-driven sequences of workplace competencies and career lattices. These advancements have provided the foundation for economic upward mobility by permitting an individual to progress from an entry-level position, to a middle-skills job, to an advanced-level career through the mastery of increasingly rigorous levels of competencies (the mastery of which are denoted by credentials of value.)   Competency-based career pathways and credentials of value provide the basis for multiple points of entry and exit into and out of the workforce and education and workforce training to permit an individual to earn progressive wage increases by signaling the mastery of new skills to employers through earning stackable credentials linked to traditional academic coursework while on the pathway to earning a degree or terminal credential. Furthermore, individuals who are reticent to enter the workforce will recognize a positive incentive to enter the workforce through the security of competency-based career pathways linked to credentials of value that provides portability and transferability between and within firms and industries. To achieve Governor Ivey’s human capital development strategy of ensuring that all Alabamians are self-sufficient, the work to develop competency-based career pathways must be coupled with a continuum of services approach to provide wrap-around services that generate a negative marginal tax rate for Alabamians who are struggling to overcome the benefits cliff and to persist in a career pathway. 

(1c.) The Success Plus Postsecondary Education Attainment Goal
The State of Alabama is undergoing an economic and workforce transformation, which will result in fewer low-skill jobs that require less a high school diploma or less. Labor market projections indicate a growing gap in the supply of qualified employees for middle-skills jobs—those that require training beyond high school but less than a four-year degree. Thirty-four of Alabama’s 40 Hot Demand Occupations require secondary and postsecondary Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) education. Between 2017 and 2027, STEM jobs will grow by 9 percent in Alabama, while non-STEM jobs will only grow by 5 percent. The educational and training requirements of high-demand, fast-growing, and high-earning occupations show the significance of education in developing the workforce of the future. Alabama’s educational attainment is low compared to the nation as a whole. About 84 percent of Alabamians age 25 and over have graduated from high school, compared to 87 percent for the United States. Of that total population over age 25, about 24 percent in Alabama have a bachelor’s or higher degree, which is lower than the nation’s 30 percent. Skill and education requirements for jobs keep rising, which highlights a strong need to raise educational attainment in the state.

Governor Ivey wishes to offer a skills- and competency-based framework for developing career pathways for members of the on-demand workforce that will develop their human capital and potentially serve as the foundation for a new social compact for the 21st Century. Governor Ivey has set a postsecondary education attainment goal of adding 500,000 credential holders to Alabama’s workforce by 2025. Alabama developed goals by career cluster for each of the seven workforce regions, which will also include projection information for each career pathway along with the average wage for each pathway. In addition, Alabama has created a list of occupations in each cluster that are most in demand. The Regional Workforce Councils will use the ATLAS on Career Pathways to determine each region’s share of the 500,000 additional degrees, certificates, and credentials required to meet Alabama’s workforce demands by 2025. Annual goals have been established regionally to determine how many degrees, certificates, and credentials must be earned in each career sector to meet the attainment goal. Regional and statewide goals were also set for each special population, aggregately and annually. 

In an effort to meet these goals and increase performance in Alabama’s seven workforce regions, Governor Ivey will refocus federal workforce funds over the next four years to more directly benefit those region’s citizens who are in need of job training. Governor Ivey will ask each workforce region in the state to incrementally increase the percentage of WIOA funds used directly on job training over a four-year period, beginning with at least 45 percent in year one, 50 percent in year two, 55 percent in year three, and 60 percent in year four. This shift to place additional federal resources directly into job training opportunities for Alabamians will help increase performance for workforce regions and decrease the state’s growing workforce shortage. 

(1d.) Individuals with Barriers to Employment 
Across all titles, WIOA focuses on serving “individuals with barriers to employment,” defined in WIOA Section 3(24) and seeks to ensure access to quality services for these populations. Each category of individuals with barriers to employment listed in Perkins V and WIOA overlap except two, which have been included by the Governor. The populations included in the “individuals with barriers to employment” in WIOA sec. 3(24) include: 
(a) Displaced homemakers (as defined in WIOA sec. 3(16));
(b) Low-income individuals (as defined in WIOA sec. 3(36)) also in Perkins;
(c) Indians, Alaska Natives, and Native Hawaiians (as defined in WIOA sec. 166(b)); 
(d) Individuals with disabilities, including youth who are individuals with disabilities (as defined in WIOA sec. 3(25) (includes individuals who are in receipt of Social Security Disability Insurance) also in Perkins;
(e) Older individuals (age 55 and older) (as defined in WIOA sec. 3(39));
(f) Ex-offenders (“offender” as defined in WIOA sec. 3(38));
(g) Homeless individuals or homeless children and youths (also in Perkins); 
(h) Youth who are in or have aged out of the foster care system (also in Perkins); 
(i) Individuals who are: 
(1)  English language learners (WIOA sec. 203(7)) also in Perkins, 
(2)  Individuals who have low levels of literacy (an individual is unable to compute or   
       solve programs, or read, write, or speak English at a level necessary to function on the job, or in the individual’s family, or in society); and 
(3)  Individuals facing substantial cultural barriers; 
(j)  Eligible migrant and seasonal farmworkers (as defined in WIOA sec. 167(i)(1-3);
(k) Individuals within two years of exhausting lifetime TANF eligibility;
(l) Single parents, including single pregnant women (also in Perkins);
(m) Long-term unemployed individuals (unemployed for 27 or more consecutive weeks) also in Perkins; and
(n) Such other groups as the Governor involved determines to have barriers to employment.
Perkins Specific
(1) individuals preparing for non-traditional fields; 
(2)  youth with parents on active duty in the armed forces.

2. Goals

(2a.) Setting Bold Goals: Workforce Development Strategic Plan
Governor Ivey has established a strategic vision for aligning Alabama’s education and workforce programs from pre-k to the workforce to provide for a seamless education-to-workforce continuum for all Alabamians. Governor Ivey’s vision begins with aligning federal and state education and workforce funding streams with state funding streams to establish quantifiable goals along the continuum. The goals include pre-k readiness by age four, school readiness by age five, being literate and numerate before the fourth grade, exploring each college and career pathway before ninth grade, and diverging into a rigorous college or career pathway leading to a career or matriculation into a postsecondary education program at the time of high school graduation. Governor Ivey has set a postsecondary education attainment goal of adding 500,000 credential holders to Alabama’s workforce by 2025 and a goal to increase Alabama’s labor force participation rate to the national average by 2025. Governor Ivey’s plan to shift more WIOA federal funding to direct job training will help accomplish those goals. Governor Ivey established the Governor’s Office of Education and Workforce Transformation (GOEWT) to ensure that the attainment and labor force participation goals are met through an equity-based framework. The GOEWT will work to braid Alabama’s federal CTE and WIOA funding streams through the combined 2020 state WIOA plan to develop career pathways based on work-based learning and credential attainment. The GOEWT will use data from the Alabama Terminal on Linking and Analyzing Statistics (ATLAS) on Career Pathways, Alabama’s P20-W system, to assist the Alabama Committee on Credentialing and Career Pathways (ACCCP) in establishing competency-based career pathways and stackable sequences.

(2b.) State Plan Development 
an DevelopmentBy braiding federal and state workforce and education funding streams to produce an education-to-workforce pipeline that begins with literacy and numeracy, career exploration and discovery among all 16 clusters, seamless transition from secondary to postsecondary education, multiple entry and exits points for special and disconnected populations, and alignment between secondary and postsecondary CTE and co-enrollment between adult education and postsecondary CTE, Alabama’s workforce development system will permit entry into an in-demand career pathway for Alabamians in all seasons of life. The Governor’s Office, the Alabama State Department of Education (ALSDE), ACCS, the state workforce development board, and the partner agencies to the WIOA plan participated in a joint state planning meeting beginning in June 2019. The Governor’s Office worked to achieve consensus on needs assessments, plans to reach special and disconnected populations, stakeholder input, local and state performance targets, program quality and performance indicators, and alignment of programs in the 2020 Combined Plan to achieve a unified workforce development system for the State of Alabama. The WIOA and CTE needs assessments are aligned. The process for collecting stakeholder input and stakeholder review between CTE and WIOA is aligned through the combined state plan. The 14 WIOA and CTE public hearings held between July and October 2019 were aligned. The combined state plan takes advantage of aligned definitions in WIOA and CTE, including “career pathways,” “sector strategies,” and “programs of study” to develop fully articulated career pathways in all 16 career clusters that begin with career exploration, transition to pre-apprenticeship, then culminate in a registered or industry-recognized apprenticeship, which will allow secondary CTE concentrators to earn a high school diploma, an associate’s degree mapped to industry-recognized credentials, and work-based learning experience in an aligned occupation. The combined state planning process helped explain how career coaches, dual enrollment, and work-based learning, and simulated workplaces will be the lynchpins of ensuring that secondary and postsecondary CTE students have access to align career pathways and placement opportunities. In addition, the process helped make clear the potential benefit of focusing federal WIOA funds directly on job training as a method to increase performance across workforce regions. The state planning process included robust discussions on how the ATLAS on Career Pathways will enable alignment of WIOA and CTE programs around in-demand career pathways and credentials. 

(2c.) 2020 Combined Plan: Local Stakeholder Input Meetings
i. Overview
As part of its development of a 2020 Combined Plan for the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act (2020 Combined Plan), Alabama engaged local stakeholders in a series of 14 local stakeholder input meetings. Two meeting was held in each of the state’s seven workforce council regions from July to October 2019. Meetings served as listening sessions during which participants provided qualitative data in forms of verbal feedback and written response representing the needs and perspective of their community. Stakeholder participation recruitment consisted of individuals and organizations representing: local workforce boards, businesses, labor organizations, economic development, community-based organizations, adult and youth education, higher education, disability services, youth-serving programs, veterans’ service organizations, juvenile justice, the general public, and other stakeholders with an interest in core programs. The data collected through local stakeholder input meetings was utilized to gain knowledge and inform plan development for the 2020 Combined Plan.

ii. Methodology   
Qualitative data was collected through meetings with community stakeholders of the seven-regional workforce councils. Approximately 215 stakeholders participated in these meetings providing 193 written feedback forms. Stakeholders participated in identifying needs, barriers, and opportunities for developing Alabama’s workforce. Clarus Consulting Group facilitated the local stakeholder input meetings. Each local stakeholder input meeting included introductions of participants and a presentation that informed participants about the background of the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act and the 2020 Combined Plan. Stakeholders were informed of the importance of providing input to the development of the plan. Lead facilitators then provided an overview of the meeting structure:
⦁    Discussion Topics: Two non-directive, open-ended questions prompted discussion and encouraged dynamic and open conversation.
⦁    Discussion Groups: Participants were asked to provide a written individual reflection, discuss in pairs, and then break into small groups of four to six for further discussion of each question. Each small group then reported a key idea to the full group. Participants were encouraged to move to new pairings or groups for each question so they could benefit from listening to a mix of perspectives.
⦁    Facilitation: Facilitators led each meeting, introduced each discussion question, guided discussion to ensure it stayed on topic, and facilitated the whole group sharing and recording of key ideas.   

The following questions were asked during each local stakeholder input meeting:
⦁    What services and support do you need to be successful in a strong regional economy and workforce?
⦁    What are the top barriers to accessing services and support you need to be successful in a strong regional economy and workforce? 

Each input meeting closed with facilitators providing brief summaries of the highlights and key points covered in the discussion groups, an overview of next steps in the planning process, and opportunities to provide further input into the planning process.  

iii. Stakeholder Participation
Stakeholders engaged through local input meetings represented each of the seven workforce council regions and a range of organizations, industries, and sectors. An overview of stakeholder participants is below. 

Regions represented in stakeholder input meetings, including locations of meetings.

Organizations, industries, and sectors represented in stakeholder input meetings by self-report.

iv. Stakeholder Insights
Stakeholders identified a number of challenges, barriers, and opportunities Alabama must address as it strives to improve the state’s workforce. The themes below emerged as top priorities at each of the local stakeholder input meetings. 

(1) Transportation
Key Finding: Stakeholders reported the lack of transportation access directly impedes the public’s engagement in employment, vocational training, and educational opportunities. Transportation access is particularly difficult in rural areas.

(2)  Childcare
Key Finding: Stakeholders reported limited access to affordable, quality childcare programs during varied work hours prohibits the public’s engagement in employment and training opportunities.   Childcare programs need to be available and appropriately funded to promote access to quality childcare at affordable rates for Alabama’s workforce.

(3)  ADA Compliance and Disability Accommodations 
Key Finding: Stakeholders reported accessibility for disabled populations must be a priority to develop an inclusive plan for Alabama’s workforce. Employees and employers need direct training and support on work sites in order to ensure all current and potential employees are able to meaningfully participate and remain in the workforce. Service providers, employers, educational programs, transportation, websites, and application processes must all adhere to and sometimes go beyond ADA standards to promote inclusivity and accessibility.

(4)  Internet and Technology 
Key Finding: Stakeholders reported the lack of access to broadband and up-to-date computer skills training is a barrier to Alabama’s workforce and employers. Limited broadband access, particularly in rural areas, was noted as a substantial barrier for workforce of all ages and abilities to access educational, training, and employment opportunities.

(5)   Education and Training
Key Finding: Stakeholders reported direct access to quality and equitable education and training must exist in every community to strengthen Alabama’s future workforce. Entry-level jobs need adaptable education requirements as an alternative to the GED. Education programs should include life skills or soft skills training as well as vocation specific training for all ages and abilities.  

(6) Communication and Accessibility
Key Finding: Stakeholders reported that a unified, common message about all available services and supports is necessary. As part of this unification, Alabama needs a solidified system of access for providers, employers, and the general public to easily access and engage with available information and resources in one place. Communication systems and strategies should promote communication among potential employees, employers, and providers, as well as within the community of providers at the state and local levels.

(7) Service Providers
Key Finding: Stakeholders reported that service providers need a shared system of accountability for reaching measurable goals.  Services providers need updated processes to streamline access and information distribution as well as greater connection to community resources outside of their own organization. Alignment and accountability to shared goals and simplified processes will help services providers work together with greater ease.

(8)  Health, Healthcare, and Benefits
Key Findings: Stakeholders reported that Alabama’s workforce needs a system to ensure housing and food security stability while working to obtain employment. This system must provide an interim or gap coverage for those on Social Security Disability Insurance (SSDI)/SNAP benefits who are indirectly discouraged from entering the workforce due to the risk of losing benefits.  Alabama’s workforce needs increased access to health care and healthy living resources including physical health, mental health, and substance abuse services. 

(9)  Employer Support
Key Findings: Stakeholders reported difficulty engaging local employers. Employers need a streamlined process to access information and engage with local service providers. Continuing to increase employer incentives would recruit new businesses to Alabama and result in the growth of employer engagement with workforce development processes.

(10)  Equitable Access and Success
Key Findings: To ensure every Alabama resident possesses the skills and knowledge to succeed, the state should focus on populations with significant barriers to career attainment opportunities. This includes disabled and special needs individuals, English Language Learners (ELL), GED students, first-generation college students, low-income individuals, minorities, rural residents, and single parent heads of household.  

(2d.) State Plan Indicators of Performance and Program Quality and Accountability Metrics
The combined state plan also aligns the core indicators of performance for the six core WIOA programs, the four secondary CTE indicators of program performance, and the postsecondary CTE indicators of program performance. Under section 113, accountability for the core secondary CTE indicators of performance, for the fourth indicator (program quality), Alabama selected recognized postsecondary credential attainment. The ACCS and ALSDE will use the ATLAS on Career Pathways to align CTE programs to in-demand career pathways. Perkins V made amendments to the Wagner-Peyser Act (WIOA Title III), which establishes the labor market information and employment service. Thus, Alabama will be using consistent data to evaluate, align, and adjust all programs in the combined workforce system.

(2e.) State Plan Goals
The Alabama Workforce Development Board has adopted the following goals for Alabama’s public workforce system:
⦁    The State of Alabama will align the public workforce system to the Governor’s Economic Development Strategic Plan (Accelerate Alabama 2.0) and the Success Plus postsecondary education attainment goal.
⦁    Develop a longitudinal data system to adjust workforce programs based on data-driven decisions.
⦁    Develop a network of Regional Workforce Councils (RWCs) that match business needs with talent.
⦁    Implement a streamlined funding system that enables each program to meet the needs of business and the needs of citizens in, or preparing for, the workforce.

Goals for preparing an educated and skilled workforce in Alabama include the following:
⦁    Align and the programs and activities of the ACCS and RWCs with the state’s vision and goals.
⦁    Align the activities and programs of colleges, universities, and training agencies with the Accelerate Alabama 2.0 plan and the Success Plus postsecondary education goal. 
⦁    Serve individuals with barriers to employment by increasing awareness of solutions for individuals with barreirs to employment by vertically integrating all workforce programs to meet individual needs.)

Goals for meeting the skilled workforce needs of employers in Alabama include the following:
⦁    Implement a RWC system that provides feedback to education programs (community colleges and K-12 CTE programs) and to WIOA training providers.
⦁    Align the activities and programs of local Workforce Investment Boards with the activities and programs of the state RWC system.
⦁    To develop public/private partnerships that provide direct engagement between public and private entities to increase the capacity for meeting employers’ workforce needs.

Alabama’s core workforce development programs and WIOA partner programs are gathering and analyzing data on performance indicators to report for the current reporting period. All programs will reach an agreement with the Secretary of Labor in conjunction with the Secretary of Education on state adjusted levels of performance for the indicators for Program Years 2018 and 2019. To affect an orderly transition to the performance accountability system in Section 116 of the WIOA, the Departments will continue to use the transition authority under WIOA Section 503(a) to designate certain primary indicators of performance as “baseline” indicators. Alabama is committed to collecting and reporting on all indicators as required by WIOA for current and future years using the reporting system prescribed.

3. Performance Goals
(See Performance Goals for Adult, Youth, Dislocated Worker, Adult Education, and Vocational Rehabilitation)

4. Assessment
Assessment goals and goals for using assessment feedback to make improvements in programs and activities are as follows: 1) The ATLAS (Alabama’s Terminal on Linking and Analyzing Statistics) on Career Pathways, the state longitudinal data system us being developed and will be used to provide workforce and educational attainment reports to the State Workforce Development Board; 2) the State Workforce Development Board will make recommendations to the Governor to meet business needs and improve training/education activities and programs; 3) local workforce investment boards are implementing the Success Plus plan based on the numbers being served in the target populations with barriers to employment in each area; 4) each local workforce investment board is responsible for ensuring the local area and each career center is serving those most in need through data from the new integrated workforce system.