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  • III. Operational Planning Elements

    The Unified or Combined State Plan must include an Operational Planning Elements section that supports the State’s strategy and the system-wide vision described in Section II(c) above.  Unless otherwise noted, all Operational Planning Elements apply to Combined State Plan partner programs included in the plan as well as to core programs.  This section must include—

    • b. State Operating Systems and Policies

      The Unified or Combined State Plan must include a description of the State operating systems and policies that will support the implementation of the State strategy described in section II Strategic Elements.  This includes—

      • 6. Program Data
        • A. Data Alignment and Integration

          Describe the plans of the lead State agencies with responsibility for the administration of the core programs, along with the State Board, to align and integrate available workforce and education data systems for the core programs, unemployment insurance programs, and education through postsecondary education, and to the extent possible, the Combined State Plan partner programs included in this plan.  The description of the State’s plan for integrating data systems should include the State’s goals for achieving integration and any progress to date. 

III. b. 6. A. ii. Describe the State’s plans to integrate data systems to facilitate streamlined intake and service delivery to track participation across all programs included in this plan

Current Narrative:

Upon passage of the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act, the Idaho Department of Labor implemented a new MIS for its WIOA Title IB, Wagner-Peyser, Trade Adjustment Assistance, and discretionary grant programs. Provided by America’s Job Link Alliance, this system integrates labor exchange, case management, and reporting functions. The system also provides a common exit for individuals in the WIOA Title I-B and III programs.

The core and partner programs have invested considerable funds, time, training, and other resources into each of their existing programmatic management information systems, consistent with WIOA reporting elements. Core partners are currently working together to create a secure web-based portal for existing agency datasets to collect common WIOA joint performance report data elements, aggregate them and assist in generating required federal reports for Idaho agencies receiving WIOA funds under Title I, II, III, IV and Trade. The following Idaho state agencies and entities are working collaboratively to fulfill these goals:

IDOL, IDVR, ICTE, ICBVI, OSBE and the Workforce Development Council. Current inter-agency policies and procedures will be reviewed, modified and/or developed to reflect this data exchange platform, as it differs from Idaho’s Data Management Council’s (DMC) policies and procedures intended for research. The web-based platform will be designed to accommodate additional WIOA-required partners as they engage in Idaho’s One-Stop Network. Secondary outcomes of these activities include:

  • Identification and reporting of WIOA co-enrollments, leveraging opportunities for savings
  • Integration of datasets to facilitate evaluation, research and decision-making
  • Access to merged public/private education and wage data for automated ETP reporting
  • Predictive analysis to better determine potential outcomes and expose risk
  • Individual and combined outcomes of project partners for:
  • dashboard development
  • JobScape data inputs for consumer choice

This plan has allowed programs to update their data collection processes and individual MIS systems to become WIOA-compliant as soon as possible, while taking steps toward fuller integration over the long term. Each program continues collecting data via different systems, using an ad-hoc data sharing process for exporting, sharing, matching, and importing data. This revised data sharing process, however, along with several other agreements allow core programs to report required elements under WIOA.

In an effort to update data collection processes, the state’s core program partners conducted an analysis of each programs’ MISs as well as the data collection and reporting needs of individual programs and the workforce system as a whole. This has led core programs to continue to fine tune their individual data systems to ensure alignment with WIOA requirements.

The WIOA Advisory Group, applicable optional partners, and other affected stakeholders will convene a working group for data integration. This group will consist of program staff, IT staff, and vendors for existing systems. Their plan going forward is to conduct an analysis of applicable intake processes across the system and identify areas of duplication, or opportunities for integration and work towards creating a framework for how a system will connect individual MISs and what that might look like.

Joining this effort with the WDQI grant awarded to the Idaho Department of Labor will do much to improve the state’s ability to automate data exchange processes within Idaho’s workforce development system.   Additionally, this data will feed into IDOL’s Labor Market Information (LMI) tool known as JobScape. JobScape is an easy-to-use, mobile-friendly career and educational training search tool that provides occupation descriptions, wages, worker demand, current employment, and the number of certificates and degrees awarded from Idaho’s public postsecondary for-credit programs. Users, Idaho students and job seekers, can search by keywords, occupation/job titles, military occupation titles or codes, or commonly used job title acronyms. JobScape enhancements would include non-credit program and aggregate ETP participant rates of wages, employment, graduation/program completion, and credential attainment. With this easily accessible data, customers can make more informed career and educational training decisions.