The state agency responsible for administering federally funded work force investment programs in Rhode Island released its plan for the next couple years.
The two-year strategic plan for work force development throughout Rhode Island was published on May 31 by the Department of Labor and Training’s State Workforce Investment Office, which oversees funds received under the federal 1998 Workforce Investment Act.
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Although Rhode Island’s unemployment rate is relatively low, workers in the state are older than average and the work force has not experienced much growth in recent years. There is still a need to develop and maintain a skilled work force in the state.
The strategy for doing so in the next couple of years is laid out in a 119-page document, “Constructing the Demand Driven Workforce,” a detailed, complex report that defines objectives, establishes ways to coordinate activities among employers, economic development organizations, public agencies, the educational community and creates mechanisms for accountability.
The plan builds on an initial Five-Year Workforce Investment Act Plan, tweaking the strategy for maximizing the potential of the state’s entire work force. State Workforce Investment Office staff who drafted the two-year strategic plan consulted with work force development stakeholders throughout Rhode Island, including the Workforce Partnership of Greater Rhode Island and the Workforce Solution of Providence-Cranston, the two local work force investment boards responsible for delivering services through the Workforce Investment Act.
In particular, work force development officials hope to create a more “demand-driven” work force system, which prepares workers for new jobs being created in emerging sectors of the Rhode Island economy. Becoming demand-driven represents a major transformation for the work force development system, which for decades was primarily supply-side driven – geared to feed industries already well-established in the state.
In addition, the old work force development system was considered by some to be fragmented and confusing, which duplicated services, wasted resources and lacked clear accountability.
In the 1990s, recognizing that the system of job training and employment services did not address the needs of either the state’s employers or its job seekers, Rhode Island work force investment officials drafted the initial Five-Year WIA Plan and established netWORKri, a uniform system of one-stop career centers throughout the state.
Gov. Donald Carcieri is currently in the midst of a push to reorganize work force investment under a new State Workforce Investment Board, which would take over the job currently performed by the Human Resource Investment Council. The effort comes after a panel of experts last year recommended that the HRIC be downsized or reorganized to ensure the development of a demand-driven work force system.
Last July, these recommendations were enacted by the General Assembly and signed into law by the governor. But implementation of the new system was stalled in November by passage of the Separation of Powers amendment to the Rhode Island Constitution, which prohibits members of the state Legislature from serving on state boards with executive functions.
The HRIC statute is currently being amended to conform to the state’s constitution.
