Wagner-Peyser Act

(a) Employment Service (ES) Staff.

Maryland is reviewing the new flexible regulation, as released in Training and Employment Notice 13-19, “Announcing the Release of the Wagner-Peyser Act Staffing Flexibility Final Rule and Amended Information Collections Associated with this Rulemaking,” released on January 13, 2020. Maryland will make any changes the state deems appropriate after July 1, 2020.

(1) Describe how the state will staff the provision of labor exchange services under the Wagner-Peyser Act, such as through state employees, including but not limited to state merit staff employees, staff of a subrecipient, or some combination thereof. (Note – States not seeking to utilize the staffing flexibility in the final rule as part of their 2020 State Plan submission can answer this question by entering that the state will continue to utilize state merit staff employees)

In previous iterations of the State Plan, WIOA partners dedicated “with every regulation promulgated pursuant to the federal Act, with every guidance issued by the federal agencies charged with oversight of the programs included in this Plan, with every technical assistance and training received, Maryland dedicates to learn together.” In the past four years, the State has established a WIOA Professional Development work group and in October of 2019, a Chief Learning Officer joined the MD Labor staff.

The key goals of the Professional Development work group are to develop a systems approach to professional development needs, determine best practices for the administration of professional development, and ensure partner integration and cross-training opportunities. The group aims to build a competent, cross-functional team capable of operating in a number of disciplines and able to move flexibly between roles, locations, and funding streams to provide seamless delivery of services. Recommendations generated by the work group include opportunities for WIOA partners, including Wagner-Peyser, to promote professional development. After a brief hiatus, the group will reconvene in 2020 under the leadership of the new Chief Learning Officer.

Recognizing the need for coordinated developmental opportunities across departments, Maryland’s WIOA partners agreed to collaboratively invest in a Chief Learning Officer. The position is housed at MD Labor in the Office of the Assistant Secretary for the DWDAL. The Chief Learning Officer will support all WIOA partner staff, including those conducting Employment Services.

Maryland will utilize the “The Hub” for virtual training and workforce system resources. “The Hub” is a learning management system available to all Maryland State agencies that is maintained by Maryland’s Department of Budget and Management (DBM). In 2017, MD Labor utilized WIOA implementation funds to purchase licenses for this state learning management software for the benefit of local partners. The WIOA partners will use the Hub as the platform on which state and local partners, including Wagner-Peyser staff, will be able to access a variety of training modules and resources. “The Hub” has the capacity to create two home pages: one for MD Labor-DWDAL internal training content and a second for content added by external partners. The external home page presents an excellent opportunity to facilitate improved service integration across the system. For example, each partner can post a “101” module that provides other partners with the basics on that organization’s mission, target audiences, resources, key initiatives, etc.

Maryland is committed to the professional development of its staff and all WIOA partners. Leveraging “the Hub” and other resources will allow the partners to learn from each other and better assist their common customers.

Maryland will continue to utilize state merit staff employees to provide Wagner-Peyser services at this time. However, the State will review opportunities to utilize the flexibility as it fit the needs of our workforce system.