Wor k Ready Communities and Work Ready Regions – Working Together

1. Work Ready Communities and Work Ready Regions – Working Together Fred R. McConnel Deputy Director – External Affairs March 10, 2011

3. 151 Certified Work Ready Communities – In Progress April 2007 Launch (1st round): • 73 Accelerated andCertified Work Ready Communities April 2008 Launch (2nd Round): • 36 Accelerated and Certified Work Ready Communities April 2009 Launch (3rdRound): • 34 Accelerated and Certified Work Ready Communities April 2010 Launch (4thRound): • 8 Accelerated and Certified Work Ready Communities Total CWRC’s – In Progress • 91Certified Work Ready Communities • 8 Counties not participating

4. How communities earn certification • Specified percent of county residents successfully attain Work Ready Certification (S-3%/25%)(M-2%/20%)(L-1%/15%) (XL-.5%/5%) • percentage of existing workforce (private and government) • percentage of available workforce (unemployed, high school seniors, GED and college) • Public high school graduation rate increase • Rate increase is determined by current HSGR and class size • Counties achieving a 70% HSGR or higher will earn a CWRC of Excellence designation • Must accomplish goals in 24 – 36 months • Demonstrate county-wide commitment to earning certification

5. Establish local partnerships… • County based teams • Local leaders – county and municipal • Technical College and Adult Education • Local School Board(s) • Local Workforce Investment Boards • GDOL regional reps • Chamber of Commerce • GDEcD representative • Local businesses • High School Graduation Coaches • Others

7. CWRC Responsibilities • How to increase the HSGR? • How to reach targeted audiences? • How do the county teams work together to accomplish their goals? • What is the Governor’s Office of Workforce Development (Fred) going to do to ensure that we are successful in becoming a Certified Work Ready Community?

8. CWRC Team Work Plan How to increase HSGR? • Determine how many additional students must graduate each year to achieve HSGR goal (use the cheat sheet) • Target the at-risk students who with intervention will be able to graduate • Use High School Graduation Coaches to identify at-risk students in all HS grades

9. CWRC Team Work Plan How to reach targeted audiences? • Existing Workforce: • Private (%)  Responsibility of the Chamber of Commerce, Technical Colleges, Economic Development and Incumbent Worker Training • Government (%)  Responsibility of local leaders (County Commissioners / Mayors). The government audience includes Federal, State, Local and Technical College workers.

10. CWRC Team Work Plan How to reach targeted audiences? • Available Workforce: • High School Graduates and Current HS Seniors (%)  Responsibility of Tech Prep Coordinator, High School Grad Coaches, counselors, principals… • Technical College Graduates (%)  Responsibility of VP’s of the Technical Colleges • GED Graduates (%)  Responsibility of local Adult Education • Unemployed (%)  Responsibility of Local Workforce Board, DOL representative, DFACS and Family Connections

11. CWRC Work Plan How do the county teams work together to accomplish their goals? • Most CWRC teams already hold meetings • Conduct county conference calls • Assign responsibility and hold team members accountable • Celebrate county milestones and talk about success in order to build support

12. CWRC Team Work Plan What is the Governor’s Office of Workforce Development going to do to ensure that we are successful in becoming a Certified Work Ready Community? • Conduct monthly conference calls with team leaders • Quarterly face to face regional meetings • Exchange best practices • Help communities solve problems • Fund initiative and support implementation • Available for additional meetings/support

13. ACWRC Best Practices • Gas Cards awarded to individuals who earn certificate • Additional cards awarded to individuals who improve their skills to Gold • Recognizing Work Ready HS and TC Grads with WR pins at graduation ceremonies • 12@12 Meeting with Business and Industry to educate on the benefits of WR employees and profiles • Advertisements using the testimonials of local elected officials, industry leaders or community leaders who have taken WorkKeys assessment • Parking WIB assessment vans outside of job fairs and career days

17. Trademarked Logo

18. Road Signs…

19. In order to sustain and institutionalize Georgia Work Ready, a post-certification plan has been put in place to sustain a successful county’s Work Ready Community team. Including: • providing $10,000 grant funding for Work Ready Community teams to continue to encourage their available workforce to earn Work Ready Certificates • maintain or increase their high school graduation rates • strengthen the initiative through greater ties with the local chambers, • encourage businesses to solidify their support in recognizing and using Georgia Work Ready.

20. CWRC Recertification Criteria • Once the county attains Certified Work Ready Community status, the counties will be required to meet new criteria within a two year period to maintain the certification. • Counties will be encouraged to voluntarily change CWRC Team leadership during transition to recertification status

21. CWRC Recertification Criteria • Re-certification criteria to be completed within two years: • Maintain HSGR if at 75% or increase step level if below 75% • Set county available workforce Work Ready Certificate goals at 1/3 of initial criteria • Private and Government sector will not have set goals in recertification process

22. CWRC Recertification Criteria • Secure county business support for Georgia Work Ready – such as a certain number of county businesses recognize, prefer or require Work Ready Certificates as a part of their hiring process  • Small – 5 businesses sign up to recognize, and 1 profile • Medium – 10 businesses sign up to recognize, and 2 profiles • Large – 15 businesses sign up to recognize, and 3 profiles • Very Large – 20 businesses sign up to recognize, and 4 profiles •  Business Recognition form can be found on CWRC WIKI page

23. CWRC Grant (met certificate goals only) • Counties that have met their WRC goals but are awaiting HSGR goals will be recognized in the Governor’s Press Release and on the CWRC Map • These counties will also receive the $10,000 grant to continue CWRC efforts • These counties must spend 70% of funds on helping HSGR or HSG Coaches • Counties also have the option of working through GOWD to have a Gap Analysis performed by the GaDOE • Counties will be certified once HSGR goals are met

24. How Communities and Regions best work together • CWRC TL’s on home Teams • Assign responsibility and define roles • Identify problem areas in counties working to become certified and how can WRR Team help • Private Sector • HSGR • Assist in business buy-in • Help in creating partnership that would benefit the county and the WRR as a whole • Have CWRC teams help establish Gap Training on a local level

25. Skills Gap Overview • 250,196 assessed individuals • 201,350certified Georgians • 1,508 certificate levels have improved since June 2010 • 29,518 students have completed a level (Jan ‘09-present) • Average of 2,400 active students per month since January 2010 • 1,943 active students in January 2011 • Since June ‘10: 1,342 increased WRC level / 53,178 certificates earned = 2.5% of WRC earners improved WRC level

26. Be Work Ready Results • Be Work Ready incentivized unemployed Georgians who earned or improved their certificate level with pre-paid VISA cards • $100 for earning certificate • $200 for improving certificate level • 26,145 have earned pre-paid VISA cards through Be Work Ready since July 2009 • 940 of those Be Work Ready recipients improved their certificate score and earned the $200 incentive

28. Skills Gap Training Service Delivery Providers • KeyTrain and WIN • Split services between technical colleges, high schools and WIAs • Gap training consists of online pre-tests, drills and lessons to better equip individuals before or after taking the Georgia Work Ready Assessment • Gap Training is self-paced training that can be taken anywhere internet access is available • Individuals receive log-in information from TC administrators • Average time to improve certificate level in HS students • Bronze to Silver: .35 hours • Silver to Gold: 2.6 hours

29. Why so few improving skills? • Additional time to take Skills Gap Training and then retake assessment • Could be satisfied with original certificate level • Lack of Work Ready Skills Gap Training awareness • Lack of incentive to improve certificate level • Lack of high-speed internet access in local areas • Transportation issues to re-take WRC

30. What can be done to increase activity? • Better communication of benefits to improving WRC scores • WR administrators put more emphasis on additional training • More incentives to improve WRC levels (more WR job openings with higher level profiles) • More WR companies advertising higher level job openings • Additional monetary incentives to all WRC earners who increase levels

31. Other States’ Activities… • Introducing gap training into curriculum at high schools to increase confidence and familiarity with material • Established statewide contracts with service delivery providers so that they can provide unlimited access at One Stops • Things GOWD has tried… • Opening access to training at LWIBs, libraries, TCs and high schools • Golden Opportunity grant • Cash incentive to increase