The Workforce Investment Act (WIA)

When President Clinton, Vice President Gore and Secretary of Labor Reich visited the City of Sunnyvale and the NOVA program in 1993, they expressed their commitment to work with Congress to pass new legislation that would revamp the Nation's workforce development system to mirror many of the values they found at NOVA. In particular they identified: customer focus, orientation on results, services to employers, continuous improvement mechanisms, and a "one-stop" delivery system. The Workforce Investment Act (WIA), which the President signed into law on August 7, 1998, embodies these values.

This new law became operational on July 1, 2000. It consolidates a number of existing job training programs into three State block grants: employment and training for adults, for youth and for dislocated workers. These block grants replace the JTPA-funded programs.

In addition, the new Act incorporates other federal grants into the workforce system including education and adult literacy, vocational rehabilitation and the former Wagner-Peyser programs. (In California, the Employment Development Department provides the employment services, including labor exchange and unemployment insurance, with Wagner Peyser funds.)

Improving coordination and outcomes is a major emphasis of this legislation. Under WIA, each local area must establish a "one-stop delivery system" similar to the services currently provided by NOVA and its partners. This includes core employment-related services being made directly available to the customers, and access to other employment and training services funded under WIA and other federal programs.

One-Stop Career Centers serve as the cornerstone of the new system and become the "front door" for all workforce services (except those provided to youth aged 14-18). These centers are also the front door for all the new partner agencies to define and provide their unique services.

Features of the Workforce Investment Act

• Universal Access: Everyone is the customer in this new system, not just selected population groups.
   
• Local Workforce Boards (WBs), appointed by the Chief Local Elected Official, become the central planning authority for all workforce investments. The WB will focus on building the system and ensuring its quality, rather than running the programs.
   
• Local Youth Councils are created as a subgroup of the local board to develop and recommend a strategy for providing services to youth. WIA also requires nearly one-third of all youth funds to be earmarked for out-of-school youth.
   
• Individual Training Accounts: Similar to a voucher, Individual Training Accounts create an empowering, market-driven system for job seekers by providing them with a structure to select the training they deem appropriate to meet their own unique needs.
   
• AConsumer Report Card promotes customer choice and provider accountability by publishing information on the success of all training providers in producing successful outcomes.
   
• An Eligible Provider List establishes a certification process for all training providers before they are able to contract with the local board. This list will provide performance history and customer satisfaction reports for each training provider.
   
• Performance Goals are established by the WB to set local, relevant standards for job placement, job retention, earning gains, and customer satisfaction for one-stop centers.
   
• Continuous Improvement and customer feedback processes must be incorporated into the framework of day-to-day operations.
   

For more information on WIA, check out these websites:

• California Employment Development Department (EDD) / WIA Services and Eligibility Requirements
  www.edd.ca.gov/WIAREP/wiaind.htm
   
• Workforce Investment Boards of Silicon Valley: Bay Area Workforce Investment Boards
  www.onecosmicway.com/SVWIB/index.htm
   
• California Employment Development Department (EDD) / California State Local Workforce Investment Areas
  www.calwia.org/lwia/index.cfm