Workforce Development in Florida: Creating a Culture of Innovation

Curtis Austin, Workforce Florida

Susan Simpler, Agency for Workforce Innovation

Rusty Skinner, Citrus, Marion, Levy

Workforce Board

The New Model

.

One Stop System Service Delivery – 200+

Workforce FloridaPolicy, Planning & Performance Accountability

45 board members

Regional Workforce BoardsLocal Control and Accountability

24 RWBS

Performance Contract

Agency for Workforce InnovationConsolidated Administrative Structure

Service Providers

Responsibilities of Workforce Florida, Inc.

Policy Direction for the System– Business Directed Board

Planning for the System– Board includes Business Leaders, Service

Providers (Educators), Labor, and appropriate Agency Heads

Performance Assessment

Responsibilities of the Agency for Workforce Innovation

Disburse funds to local boards, educational institutions, etc., and account to the federal government for the use of such funds.

Monitor contracts/grants for workforce services for compliance with federal and state requirements.

Run specified programs, such as Unemployment Compensation, determined to be best done at a state level

Provide technical assistance to the system.

Responsibilities ofRegional Workforce Boards

Align the use of funds to local priorities of business and economic development

Provide a robust competitive market for the providing of workforce services (labor market exchange, training, placement, etc.)

Maximize the use of the taxpayer dollar in providing workforce services.

Responsibilities of Educational and Training Providers

To provide education and training for jobs in demand in the market

To be able to respond quickly to changing market situations

To provide training in the manner most useful for Florida businesses.

Keys to Florida’s “INNOVATION CULTURE”

Diversify Decision-Making Give Real Power to the Private Sector Use State Innovation Money to Redirect

Resources Use the Sunshine—Do Business in Public Keep Focused on Outcomes

Diversify Decision-Making

Why have business driven boards without taking advantage of the intellectual capital?

Why not take advantage of the expertise of local board staffs and volunteers?

Why not really join in partnership and use the ideas of system partners?

Diversify Decision-Making

Get beyond who controls the money. There are lots of ways to control the agenda.

Hire some people who will fight (be willing to deal with) with the bureaucracy.

People worth listening to don’t participate if they have no power.

Give Real Power to the Private Sector

Make the bureaucracy answer the business questions (not the other way around).

Determine what matters now (business is much more attuned to markets).

Innovation is the outcome of doing what the business leaders determine is needed—not in “implementing the law.”

Use Innovation Money to Redirect Resources

Requiring matching resources can change the agenda of partners.

Innovation costs; Be willing to pay the price In a tight economy, someone will be willing to

figure out the answer. Let others compete to find the answers.

Example No. 1 Biotech Training

Biotech Training Curriculum– Consortium of Education Institutions

(FCCJ,SFCC, UF, etc.), Industry (BioFlorida), Training and Technical Experts

– Internet Platform to deliver training in a variety of settings

– Industry control over the uses of the training

Example No. 2: CHOICES

Build on Education Changes (make high school more than a final exam)

Provide Industry Certification to Completing Students

Provide College Credit to Students Provide Practical Job Skills to Students Solution focused on Politics not Training

Example No. 2: CHOICES

Parents have children in a college program Students get to be on football team and stay

with friends Principals keep revenues for the students Industry gets students (contributes to do so) Students get industry certifications, college

credit, and a diploma.

Use the Sunshine—Do Business in Public

There is a lot of incentive to look good in front of your peers. True from state and local perspectives.

You get a robust debate and information necessary to make good decisions.

Politics and pragmatism get a much more even play.

Keep Focused on Outcomes

A on-line, simulated environment was developed with state workforce dollars at the Florida Space Research Institute and more than 1,700 Aerospace workers were trained in the first year of the training.

7,376 employees of the Bio-Medical Technology

Sector have been trained and the current High Skill/High Wages Committee is devoting up to $4 million this year for training in this sector. This compares to 36 people who completed training by Florida Community Colleges in 2001.

Keep Focused on Outcomes

884 Plastics manufacturing workers were trained in Florida over 3 years. The training resulted in industry recognized credentials and provided an average wage increase of 10% for those receiving training.

Since the creation of Workforce Florida, nearly 11,000 Information Technology workers have been trained with state level workforce funds (not including Operation Paycheck participants).

Keep Focused on Outcomes

9,178 workers in the Business Services/Financial Sector were trained with state level funds alone last fiscal year. Community Colleges reported 4,138 completers in 2001 in this sector.

In 2003, $27 million in state provided support was matched with $149 million in industry support in the form of in-kind contributions—including training wages.