Located in:
- 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 to support economic growth. Unless otherwise noted, all Strategic Planning Elements apply to Combined State Plan partner programs included in the plan as well as to core programs.
II. c. State Strategy
The Unified or Combined State Plan must include the State's strategies to achieve its strategic vision and goals. These strategies must take into account the State’s economic, workforce, and workforce development, education and training activities and analysis provided in Section (a) above. Include discussion of specific strategies to address the needs of populations provided in Section (a).
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)
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)
Current Narrative:
c. State Strategy
ARIZONA@WORK developed strategies based on the goals and strengths and weaknesses identified from a cross-functional team, including representatives from the Council, core programs, and the LWDBs. Arizona’s goals are interdependent, with many strategies affecting more than one goal to create and promote a holistic system to benefit ARIZONA@WORK customers.
The strategies are also based on the systemwide workforce development activities noted in section (a). Rather than identify strategies that were unique to the activities of one ARIZONA@WORK partner, this plan focuses on strategies that will engage multiple partners and teams to implement changes benefiting the system as a whole. This Plan intends for partners to directly or indirectly provide input across strategies, reflecting their role as part of a larger ARIZONA@WORK system.
Strategies included:
1. Promote industry sector partnerships/projects
2. Develop and implement a communication and outreach plan to promote awareness and utilization of the ARIZONA@WORK system
3. Increase and improve coordination between workforce, education, and economic development efforts at the state and local level
4. Ensure training provided to job seekers and workers has a focus on transferable skills
5. Create a comprehensive business engagement plan to support consistency and availability of services
6. Implement framework for supporting a statewide model for career pathways based on the identified In-Demand industries and occupations, connecting the education and incorporating appropriate flexibility for regional variation
7. Improve processes for co-enrollment across partners to share costs and case management to better serve customers
8. Enhance initiatives supporting populations with barriers to employment to ensure customers are receiving needed services efficiently including populations identified in section (a)
9. Create a consistent system for continuous improvement
10. Identify data system solutions to enhance the interoperability and quality of data for use across ARIZONA@WORK programs
1. Describe the Strategies the State will Implement
ARIZONA@WORK identified the following strategies to support industry partnerships in In-Demand industries and career pathways:
- Promote industry sector partnerships/projects in In-Demand Industries.
- Strategy implementation will focus support and project development for the State In-Demand Industry Sectors including: Construction, Health & Social Services, Professional, Finance & Insurance, Manufacturing, Transportation & Warehousing, and Information Technology.
- Implement a framework for supporting a statewide model for career pathways based on the identified In-Demand industries and occupations, incorporating appropriate flexibility for regional variation.
Areas for improvement in the current implementation of these strategies include expanding coordination across the ARIZONA@WORK system to develop career pathways and sector partnerships. Through the cross-partner engagement in the development and identification of capacity for the strategies in this plan, Arizona intends to identify best practices at the national, state, and local level to increase sector partnerships and implement a career pathway framework and also improve the quality by improving communication and coordination of services across ARIZONA@WORK partners. As a part of the overall strategy for developing a career pathway framework, Arizona intends to develop methods for connecting all core Title partner participants to diverse career pathway opportunities including CTE, Registered Apprenticeship programs, etc.
2. Describe the Strategies the State will Use to Align the Core Programs
ARIZONA@WORK identified the following strategies to align core programs, required and optional one-stop partner programs, and other State resources:
- Increase and improve coordination between workforce and economic development efforts at the state and local level.
- Create a comprehensive business engagement plan to support consistency and availability of services.
- Implement a framework for supporting a statewide model for career pathways based on the identified In-Demand industries and occupations, incorporating appropriate flexibility for regional variation.
- Improve processes for co-enrollment across partners to share costs and case management to better serve customers.
- Identify data system solutions to enhance the interoperability and quality of data for use across ARIZONA@WORK programs.
The strategies developed to strengthen system weaknesses include strategies 2, 3, 5, 6,7,8, and 10 seen in section c above.