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  • II. Strategic Elements

    The Unified or Combined State Plan must include a Strategic Planning Elements section that analyzes the State’s current economic environment and identifies the State’s overall vision for its workforce development system. The required elements in this section allow the State to develop data-driven goals for preparing an educated and skilled workforce and to identify successful strategies for aligning workforce development programs. Unless otherwise noted, all Strategic Planning Elements apply to Combined State Plan partner programs included in the plan as well as to core programs.

    • a. Economic, Workforce, and Workforce Development Activities Analysis

      The Unified or Combined State Plan must include an analysis of the economic conditions, economic development strategies, and labor market in which the State’s workforce system and programs will operate.

      • 2. Workforce Development, Education and Training Activities Analysis
        The Unified or Combined State Plan must include an analysis of the workforce development activities, including education and training in the State, to address the education and skill needs of the workforce, as identified in Education and Skill Levels of the Workforce above, and the employment needs of employers, as identified in Employers' Employment Needs above. This must include an analysis of –

II. a. 2. B. The Strengths and Weaknesses of Workforce Development Activities

Provide an analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of the workforce development activities identified in (A) above.

Current Narrative:

The strengths of the workforce development activities identified in (A) above are:

  • Three of the four core programs (Titles I, II and III) and five of the required one-stop partners (post-secondary Career and Technical Education (Perkins), Local Veterans’ Employment Representatives and Disabled Veterans’ Outreach Program, Senior Community Service Employment program, Trade Adjustment Assistance programs, and Unemployment Compensation programs) are located within one state agency (DWD), increasing the ease of coordination.
  • The state is infusing employer demand into all workforce development programs and activities in a more coordinated and precise way;
  • Jobs for American Graduates (JAG) remains a strong in school youth program and have even grown despite WIOA changes reducing the amount of WIOA funding for in school youth programs;
  • Some adult education programs are already co-located in WorkOne centers and/or community spaces;
  • Wagner Peyser staff and labor exchange services are co-located in WorkOne centers, thus Title I and III programs are already completely coordinated.
  • Indiana has had tremendous outcomes for both the WorkINdiana and HIRE programs.
  • VR staff are community based, sharing office space with TANF and WorkONE, but also meeting their clients in the community to ensure accessibility of services.
  • The state is braiding TANF funding with other state and federal dollars to assist with funding the JAG, HIRE, WorkINdiana and Serve Indiana programs.
  • The lead agencies of the WIOA Core Programs partner with the Office of Community and Rural Affairs (OCRA) by sitting on the scoring committee for the Workforce Development Program grant (a HUD Employment and Training Program). This ensures coordinate and consistency amongst workforce development programming.
  • Job Corps is involved with two local workforce boards.

The weaknesses of the workforce development activities identified in (A) above are:

  • WorkINdiana needs to be strengthened in certain areas of the state through better coordination between the Adult Education provider and the WorkOne system.
  • While the JAG program has received an increase in State funds, there continues to be a lack of sustainability funding for the proposed expansion.
  • Not all mandatory one-stop partners are coordinated and/or have a highly functioning referral system with the WIOA core partners.
  • TANF employment and training services are being provided outside the workforce system.
  • There is not currently a single sign on or intake system for the WIOA core and/or mandatory partners’ clients.