Co-Chairs: Sharon Hall, Stan Cavendish

Membership:

Council: David Stewart, Judi Almond, Robert Brown, Les Melton, Lydotta Taylor, Frank Scafella, Jerry Mezzatesta.

Non-Council: Kathi D'Antoni, Stan Hopkins, Jim Skidmore

Background:
Recommendation #1 from The Mercedes and the Magnolia is, "Create seamless workforce systems that maximize client control over the outcomes. Clients are 'the businesses that create the jobs and the people who need education and training to work for a business or become an entrepreneur'. Implementation of this recommendation requires an entirely new view of workforce development. We must see the system whole, including P-12, vocational-technical schools, community colleges, universities, specialized training institutions and the support mechanisms that allow people to access the institutions. We must take charge of and manage the multitude of funding streams that pay for the system. It means organizing workforce development efforts around clients, not around the institutions providing the education and training.

These are hallmarks of a successful system. In order to accomplish a system that supports life-long learning, it is important to begin with career awareness in P-6, career exploration in grades 6-8, with appropriate testing for skills and interests, and curriculum tracks that prepare students by grade 12 for further education and for careers. This student preparation will lead to vocational programs and post-secondary education. It will be consistent with the skill measures used in adult and continuing education for on-the-job and displaced workers. There will be a seamless system of vocational and technical training between P-12 and community colleges. Curriculum and certification between these institutions will be coordinated; courses will be capped by testing and certification; course sequences will lead to mastery of disciplines, and certifications will serve as a building block for continuing education. Mentoring and internships will be part of the training. Education credits will be universal within all institutions in WV, as well as regionally and nationally. This means that students can port that achievement to other school and to the workplace, in WV and elsewhere. Workforce training programs are flexible - available in campus settings, in the workplace, in non-traditional classes, as well as at home via the Internet. We must encourage businesses to become their own "learning organizations." This design allows self-paced instruction and certification for workers upgrading skills, as well as displaced workers and those re-entering the job market.

Focus Topic Areas:

• Current practices supporting, and blocking, seamless curriculum throughout the formal education systems.
  
  
• The state of transferability and articulation agreements among and across the formal education systems.
  
  
• Review educational systems from various "customer" perspectives (e.g., students, parents, employers,) as to seamless curriculum, transferability, cost, time, paperwork, etc.
  
  
• Assess the present continuum of education/learning against the hallmarks describes above and identify gaps and duplications.
  
  
• Review the system described here from the perspective of how Workforce Investment, including WIBs' program areas and One-Stops, might realign its efforts to state programs for efficiency.
  

Suggested Tasks:

1. Interview key people responsible for the implementation of workforce development to more fully understand how the issue relates to the work of the Council and impacts the overall workforce development system.
   
   
2. Benchmark successful models or promising practices working in West Virginia and other states.
   
   
3. Develop a specific list of barriers or challenges in the current system(s) that hamper change as to a seamless education system in West Virginia.
   
   
4. Identify the few most crucial steps we might recommend for executive or legislative action that would help achieve the seamless system described here.
   
   
5. Keep the Council informed of progress and provide recommendations for Council to consider.