Workforce Development in Florida: Creating a Culture of Innovation

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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

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The New Model

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Workforce Florida Policy, Planning Performance
Accountability 45 board members



Performance Contract



Agency for Workforce Innovation Consolidated
Administrative Structure



Regional Workforce Boards Local Control and
Accountability 24 RWBS




One Stop System Service Delivery 200


Service Providers
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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

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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.

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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.

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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.

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Keys to Floridas INNOVATION CULTURE

• Diversify Decision-Making
• Give Real Power to the Private Sector
• Use State Innovation Money to Redirect Resources
• Use the SunshineDo Business in Public
• Keep Focused on Outcomes

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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?

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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 dont participate if
  they have no power.

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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 needednot in
  implementing the law.

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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.

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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

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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

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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).

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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 contributionsincluding
  training wages.