Adult, Dislocated Worker, and Youth Activities

Wisconsin has the following six strategies to help support improved outcomes of out-of-school youth (OSY) and in-school youth (ISY) participants:

Leveraging and Aligning Resources

Efforts are currently underway that involve increasing cross-program alignment, collaboration, and coordination of core and partner programs — from common intake to more effective cross-program referrals, training, and co-enrollment. Wisconsin Department of Workforce Development (DWD) hosted a WIOA Roundtable event in May 2023 to bring together partners from across the state to increase communication and collaboration in the workforce system. At this event, multiple WIOA 101 sessions were held, which introduced attendees to the basic structure and expectations of WIOA. Due to the success of the WIOA Roundtable, DWD is considering hosting future WIOA events. To share WIOA information across partners, DWD has created (and is actively updating) a WIOA webpage that functions as an integrated service delivery tool. Users of the webpage can access trainings including the Introduction to WIOA 101 video, view upcoming events, learn WIOA basics, and access communication pertaining to WIOA service delivery. Training partners associated with other programs can grow their partner knowledge of WIOA with the intent of increasing cross-program referrals and subsequent increase in co-enrollment. Progress with respect to these efforts is anticipated to result in improved outcomes for out-of-school youth (OSY) and in-school youth (ISY) participants, especially those who need Title II adult basic education and/or Title IV vocational rehabilitation activities.

Partnerships with other youth programs are available outside of the Job Center of Wisconsin (JCW). These partners include YouthBuild, Job Corps, Department of Public Instruction (DPI), and Wisconsin Challenge Academy. Job Corps has two locations in Wisconsin (Blackwell (Laona) and Milwaukee) and provide no-cost education and vocational training to youth. YouthBuild gives youth access to hands-on experience working on construction sites. The program is available in Madison, Elkhorn, Milwaukee, and Beloit.  DPI leads a Wisconsin General Education Development (GED)/High School Equivalency Diploma (HSED) Program that provides youth the opportunity to earn a GED diploma and HSED through partnerships with the Wisconsin Technical College System. The Wisconsin Challenge Academy (sponsored by the Wisconsin National Guard) uses targeted outreach to 16 to 18-year-old OSY to provide skill development and educational opportunities.

DWD's Division of Employment and Training (DET) is developing a strategic training plan for WIOA Title I frontline staff and service providers related to WIOA Title I policy and best practices. DET began implementation of this plan with the delivery of a two-day, in-person career planner training event in the Fall of 2023. This training event included several hours of content designed to improve outcomes for OSY and ISY. Evaluation of this event is underway and will be used to inform the development of future trainings, including a training video series that will be available to frontline staff on-demand for onboarding and review purposes.

Virtual Reality for Training Delivery

Virtual reality (VR) is being used with increased frequency to improve access to vocational training. For youth, access to training can be inhibited by lack of transportation or the available hours for on-site training. The ability to pursue VR training options is pivotal to increasing opportunities for youth. DWD is exploring options to use Governor's set aside funding to support VR training initiatives. Evaluation of these initiatives will include determining if the VR improves employment and training outcomes and will provide a feedback loop to improve the use of VR training to meet Youth employment needs.

Improving Wages Through Co-Enrollment

A demonstration project evaluating youth with disabilities receiving Supplemental Security Income (SSI) found that youth who were co-enrolled in WIOA Title IV (Division of Vocational Rehabilitation) and WIOA Title I and/or Title III services were 5.5 times more likely to be employed and earned an average of $740 more per quarter. Specific services which were associated with increased employment outcomes include: JCW basic career self-information; Title I youth services (specifically ones related to case management and assessment). Youth receiving Title IV services and an apprenticeship were 5.6 times more likely to be employed and earned an average of $2,000 more each quarter.

Given this information, co-enrollment opportunities will be a priority for staff training in the WIOA 101 training, training videos, and career planner training mentioned above. DWD has established a co-enrollment dashboard as a tool for program administrators and local partners to track co-enrollment. This will assist DWD in collaborating with, and supporting, local workforce boards to develop strategies to improve co-enrollment. DWD is currently in the process of streamlining referrals between DWD programs and the potential to expand this to other WIOA programs may be explored. DWD's Workforce Data Integration System (WDIS) team will continue to evaluate co-enrollment and its impact on employment outcomes.

Emphasizing Earn as You Learn

Registered Apprenticeships may be an appropriate fit for OSY participants who have struggled with traditional classroom-only learning and/or who would benefit from a reliable income while completing training. DET is responsible for the oversight of the WIOA Title I Youth Program, the state's Registered Apprenticeship program, and the Youth Apprenticeship program. DET will assess how to bridge these programs, including cross-program training of state-level and frontline staff and developing and implementing innovative approaches to help more effectively connect OSY with apprenticeship sponsors.

Youth apprenticeships are designed to give ISY an opportunity to explore career pathways while they are high school juniors and seniors. Youth Apprenticeship further helps employers develop a qualified and committed workforce. Youth Apprenticeship Pathways consists of 11 program areas. These program areas include Agriculture, Construction, Visual Technology & Communication, Finance, Health Sciences, Hospitality & Tourism, IT, Manufacturing, Marketing, STEM, and Transportation & Logistics. Like Registered Apprenticeships, Youth Apprenticeships emphasize "earn while you learn" with obtaining a certification in one or two years at program completion. DET is actively working to develop engagement between its Youth Apprenticeship programming and its WIOA Title I Youth programming to maximize co-enrollment between the programs, starting with cross-functional staff education.

Integration of Technology in the Service Delivery Model

DET has made significant strides in modernizing the way participants engage and interact with the public workforce development system. The result of the modernization efforts has been the implementation of a case management application (referred to as "CEPT") that interfaces with several online tools that participants may access through their MyJCW portal on www.jobcenterofwisconsin.com. The modernization efforts are not intended to replace face-to-face interactions between participants and their career planners; rather, to enhance the service-delivery process by allowing participants and career planners to exchange information and engage in effective asynchronous communication. The online tools that DET has developed include a Budget Planner, Economic Self-sufficiency Calculator, Community Resources Search, Action Steps, and Employment Plan development (which includes Individual Service Strategies for youth program participants). Program designing resulted in the CEPT application and its five associated tools being merged into the Automated System Support for Employment & Training (ASSET) application. This merger allows case management computer systems to be centrally located in a single application and the opportunity for future additions of new planning tools. DET anticipates positive engagement from ISY and OSY participants because youth tend to prefer engaging through technology.

DET is continuing to lead efforts to further enhance the CEPT application and the existing online tools. Current efforts include hosting a monthly ongoing Technical Assistance meeting where local boards can actively exchange ideas for CEPT improvements with DET staff. DET is continuously engaging in ways to update the current CEPT tools and develop new tools to improve the way customers, including ISY and OSY participants, engage with the public workforce development system.

Equitable Service Delivery

DWD's Workforce Data Integration System (WDIS) will consult in an evaluation of equitable service to ISY and OSY. This will include comparing the proportion of ISY and OSY served with local population estimates of comparable groups. It will also explore linking administrative data to facilitate targeted outreach to improve connecting underserved youth populations to employment programs. Ongoing evaluation efforts will be related to verifying that both the participant OSY and Opportunity Youth populations are representative of estimates of the Labor Force. Further, longitudinal data on both ISY and OSY program participant's employment outcomes will contribute to evaluation efforts to continuously improve these promising practices.

Bridging DWD-DET Worker Advancement Initiative Grant with WIOA

Through the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) Governor Evers established the Worker Advancement Initiative (WAI). The foundation of the initiative was modeled after WIOA by assisting participants whose employment was negatively impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, through career services, training services, and supportive services via case management. However, one key difference from WIOA was the ability to provide cost-of-living stipends to participants while engaged in classroom-based training. This service better allowed participants to fully engage in training programs without needing to simultaneously engage in the workforce. WAI also established expectations for grantees to conduct targeted outreach to specific barriered populations. Collectively, this expanded service delivery model and mandated targeted outreach led to the development and/or strengthening of partnerships that increase equitable outcomes for youth. Such partnerships include working with local businesses that provide apprenticeships and trainings to youth such as She Slangs Wood (Milwaukee), All Hands Boatworks (Bradley Tech High School), CNA classes (Superior Senior High), African Heritage, Inc. (Appleton Area School District), and Apprenticeship Advantage (Green County). Due to the success of these partnerships with WAI, DET is exploring whether there are flexibilities in WIOA, such as the provision of needs-related payments, that may be used to continue these services.