DCA

A federal program designed to help workers access training opportunities in order to enter or advance in the workplace, the Workforce Investment Act (WIA) offers limited but significant opportunities for people who are interested in becoming direct-care workers in long-term care.

Congress passed WIA in 1998, partly in an attempt to create one-stop career centers for people who are entering or reentering the workforce. In accordance with WIA, states and localities have developed one-stop job centers fed by a system of access points. The goal is to ensure that job seekers face “no wrong door” when searching for any local employment or training services funded through the departments of Labor, Education, Health and Human Services, or Housing and Urban Development.

Core services, which include self-service access to job listings and information about careers and the labor market and limited staff assistance.
Intensive services, which include life-skills workshops, case management, and comprehensive assessments leading to the development of an individual employment plan.
Training services, which include employer-linked programs and classroom-based skills training leading to a specific occupation. These services are reserved for those who have failed to obtain or maintain employment through core and intensive services.

To increase consumer choice and trainer accountability, training services are funded primarily through Individual Training Account (ITA) vouchers. Job seekers in need of training are given ITAs to purchase services from any organization included in the local Workforce Investment Board’s “eligible training provider” list.

WIA one-stops have considerable latitude in deciding how to implement the program’s mandates. Some have expanded the range of labor market information available to job seekers, granted access to help in the local workforce development planning process to a wide range of private-sector organizations, and set new performance expectations intended to reward strategies that encourage worker retention and on-the-job advancement.

However, more systemic improvements are needed nationwide, including better coordination between regions, long-term training to prepare job seekers for more skilled positions, and adequate funding to meet the growing demand for training.

In addition, more coordination is needed between WIA and other federal programs. The “work first” requirements of the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program, for instance, funnel TANF recipients into low-paying jobs that offer little long-term economic security by refusing to count the longer training sessions needed for more skilled positions as a form of actively seeking employment. If such training met the work requirement, more TANF recipients could attain economic self-sufficiency through WIA.

In general, less training has been provided under WIA than was available through the federal job training program that preceded it, in part because a substantial amount of the funds allocated to the program at its onset were spent to create the one-stop centers. In addition, WIA’s three-tiered service delivery system, coupled with unclear guidance by some federal agencies, has led many states to adopt a “work first” approach to WIA similar to that mandated by TANF. One-stop centers in these states have presented training only as a last resort for clients who can’t find a job that does not require training.

People in the field workforce development have also expressed concern about the following:

Disincentives keep effective training providers from participating . Many effective training providers have opted out or been forced out of the WIA system because of burdensome and inflexible federal reporting requirements.
Lack of coordination among agencies . Although WIA has stimulated information sharing among agencies, many remain confused about their roles and responsibilities within the system. When individual agency goals, target populations, reporting requirements and funding streams don’t mesh easily with WIA’s, it is not always clear how to streamline and coordinate services in accordance with WIA’s mandate.

WIA one-stops represent a promising entry point for new members of the long-term care direct-care workforce. However, some changes are needed to make it easier for candidates to access the training they need. To that end, there are some efforts to improve the system with some of the WIA reauthorization proposals currently being considered by Congress, particularly by the Senate.

The Workforce Alliance is a diverse coalition of leaders from the field of workforce development advocating for effective federal education and training policies. Its mission is to help workers get the skills needed to advance and help local businesses get the skilled workers they need to compete.

The Direct Care Alliance provides a national forum for long-term care’s three primary state-based stakeholders — workers, consumers and employers — in order to promote quality jobs for direct-care workers and quality services and support for consumers.