Report 2011-111 Recommendations and Responses in 2015-041

Report 2011-111: Federal Workforce Investment Act: More Effective State Planning and Oversight Is Necessary to Better Help California's Job Seekers Find Employment

Department Number of Years Reported As Not Fully Implemented Total Recommendations to Department Not Implemented After One Year Not Implemented as of 2014-041 Response Not Implemented as of Most Recent Response
California Workforce Development Board 3 2 2 1 1
Employment Development Department 3 4 2 1 1

Recommendation To: Employment Development Department

To assist the state board and other workforce investment partners in the development and implementation of state-specific performance measures, EDD should ensure that it works with the state board to develop procedures for approving the addition of data elements to its Web-based system and for the exchange of data between EDD and the state board.

Response

The EDD launched an upgrade to the California Job Opening Browse System (CalJOBSSM), which included the Workforce Investment Act (WIA) module on May 5, 2014. CalJOBSSM is currently capable of collecting all of the required federal data and the majority of the data needed for the previously approved State-specific measures.

Additionally, EDD is partnering with the California Workforce Investment Board (State Board) to implement the State Workforce and Education Alignment Project initiative which will capture the remaining data needed for the State-specific measures. The objective of this initiative is the development of an annual workforce metrics dashboard to measure the State's human capital investments in workforce development. The initiative will implement new State-specific performance measures.

This initiative has the secondary purpose of implementing the provisions of Assembly Bill (AB) 2148, which was signed into law September 2014. This bill requires EDD to aggregate workforce development data provided by participating workforce program partners, including performance measures, and report this data to the State Board to assist them in producing an annual workforce metrics dashboard report. This annual report will include data on credential attainment, training completion, degree attainment, and participant earnings from workforce education and training programs. We have attached the AB 2148 text (see Attachment).

We plan to modify CalJOBSSM to include the collection of the workforce performance data required by AB 2148. However, before this can be accomplished, DOL needs to provide states with the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act performance requirements which it anticipates will occur in Program Year 2015/2016. After DOL provides the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act performance data and the CalJOBSSM program modifications are made, we will then work with the State Board to develop the procedures specified in this recommendation.


Recommendation To: Workforce Investment Board, California

To assist the governor in the development, oversight, and continuous improvement of California's workforce investment system, the state board should collaborate with state and local workforce investment partners to promptly develop and implement a strategic workforce plan as state law requires. The strategic plan should include, at a minimum, the following elements: clear roles and responsibilities pertaining to the state board, EDD, and other state and local workforce partners; clear definitions for terminology used in the strategic plan, such as quality services; performance measures that are specific to California for evaluating the efficiency and effectiveness of WIA-funded programs and activities; and procedures for approving the addition of data elements to EDD's Web-based system and for the exchange of data between EDD and the state board to facilitate the development and implementation of performance measures that are specific to California.

Response

Since the September 2014 response the CWIB has continued to implement its 5-year strategic workforce development plan, which was approved by the US Department of Labor (DOL) in 2013. (The plan can be downloaded from the CWIB website: http://cwdb.ca.gov/plans_policies_state_plans.htm).

WIOA requires states to develop a new state plan that must be submitted to DOL in March 2016. The new state plan will implement the additional state measures approved by the CWIB in 2013 as part of new WIOA performance reporting beginning July 1, 2016.

CWIB's full response explaining the reasons for the delay can be viewed at the following link: http://cwdb.ca.gov/res/docs/reports/Audit%20Report/BSA%20response%20to%20recommendation%20number%202%20on%209-22-15.pdf


Current Status of Recommendations

All Recommendations in 2015-041