10 Transformational Pathways for States

To increase Iowa’s talent pipeline, Governor Reynolds set a goal of 70 percent of Iowa’s workforce to have education or training beyond high school by 2025. In August 2016,  Executive Order 88 created the Future Ready Iowa Alliance, a collaborative approach aimed at highlighting best practices and nurturing high-quality partnerships to meet the state’s attainment goal and workforce needs. Funding from an NGA grant supported staff to develop short- and long-term metrics and reporting benchmarks on this goal, which state leadership used as evidence to request an $18 million increase in workforce training programs targeted at proven and promising training models in high-demand occupations. To build on this goal, the legislature later enacted Senate File (SF) 2353, which requires local workforce boards to develop and implement career pathways aligned with statewide workforce goals. Since then, the Alliance has established three programs including the Last-Dollar Scholarship, Employer Innovation Fund and resources to help employers prepare their future workforces.

In 2017, the Oregon Legislature enacted House Bill 2311, revising the state postsecondary attainment goal to include working-age adults not currently enrolled in an institution of higher education or another post-secondary training program. The bill also requires the Higher Education Coordination Commission in conjunction with the Oregon Workforce Investment Board to develop this goal in alignment with statewide with career trajectories, education interests, and job opportunities. 

In 2019, Alabama’s Governor Ivey first established the Governor’s Office of Education and Workforce Transformation (GEOWT) to help the state surpass its statewide postsecondary attainment goal of adding 500,000 credentialed workers to the workforce by 2025. The Office then identified specific sub-population attainment goals for each special population with barriers to entering the workforce and by geographic region. These goals roll into their statewide attainment goal and are being used to target investments and market-driven program development and close postsecondary attainment gaps that exist among populations with barriers to employment and between rural and urban population.

Under Governor Northam’s leadership, Virginia’s workforce development system has been reoriented to specifically target historically underserved populations and advance the cause of economic equity. The Virginia Board for Workforce Development, the state board that advises the Governor on workforce policy, reorganized its committee focus to include a substantial look at Virginia's workforce policy and programs through an equity and access lens. This business dominated advisory board is made up of 40 leaders from private industry, the Governor's cabinet, workforce training professionals and representatives from labor unions. To strengthen the partnership between each local workforce development area and their Department of Social Services district offices, the Governor awarded $1.3 million in grants to facilitate easier access the full spectrum of services aimed at increasing employability. According to the Governor, “these grants will ensure every Virginian has an opportunity to participate in our growing economy, support their family and hold better futures in the state.    

Colorado’s Workforce Development Council (CWDC) released the 2020 Colorado Talent Equity Agenda which proposes targeting resources toward, raising awareness of, and accelerating shared strategies to close racial economic disparities and measure the results. The agenda includes statistics on racial inequities in Colorado’s workforce including in wages, unemployment rate and labor market participation rate. The agenda also outlines indicators the state can use to measure progress towards addressing those gaps. Suggested indicators include the number of career coaches utilizing multicultural-relevant practices and the rate at which people of color participate in work-based learning and earn credentials in high-demand skills.  

Every state is permitted to use up to 15 percent of its WIOA Title I funds for specific statewide projects at the governor’s discretion, including systems improvement. In 2018, Governor Northam allocated $5 million of Virginia’s discretionary funds to support the Virginia Community College System in redesigning statewide career pathways to better prepare students with skills they will need for high-demand, well-paying jobs. With this funding, the Virginia Community College System has restructured almost all workforce programs to help students access in-demand skills from day one. This restructuring is first of its kind across the country and is especially applicable during times of national labor shortages. Program success is measured not by academic completion but by job placement.

In January 2021, Wyoming Governor Mark Gordon established the Wyoming Innovation Network which is made up of the University of Wyoming and the state’s community colleges and is focused on developing strategic programming to meet the state’s evolving workforce needs. The network is led by the University of Wyoming President, in collaboration with leadership of other institutions of higher education across the state, to build partnerships with industry leadership and develop solutions that translate to a more diversified and sustainable Wyoming economy. WIN has several key objectives: expanding workforce development in high-growth occupations, promoting entrepreneurs and new business startups, establishing a research and market analysis agenda aimed at technology transfer and commercialization, and developing revenue sources such as corporate partnerships to provide new opportunities for students.  The state leveraged federal funds allocated through the 2020 CARES Act for initial funding; future funding may be sustained by corporate partnerships.   

Colorado Governor Jared Polis signed an Executive Order in 2019 establishing the Office of the Future of Work within the state’s Department of Labor and Employment. The Office serves as the central point for the state’s efforts to respond to Colorado’s rapidly changing economy and workforce and is responsible for submitting annual recommendations to the governor. Specific areas of focus include modernizing worker benefits and protections; including exploring portable benefits capable of supporting workers in the on-demand, or ’gig’ economy; developing resources to aid individuals and businesses in managing the changes the future of work brings; and aligning resources to prepare target populations most likely to be impacted by technology.

Through a combination of state legislation and a waiver from the USDOL, Indiana replaced the state’s federally-mandated workforce development board with the Governor’s Workforce Cabinet in 2018. The waiver requested a smaller and more nimble cabinet with the authority to align resources, programs and partners, more direct employer engagement and added an expressed mission to prepare Hoosiers for jobs more efficiently, effectively and quickly. The Cabinet brings together state agency leaders from K-12, postsecondary, family and social services, economic development, workforce development, and corrections—along with employers, lawmakers and community leaders.  The Governor’s Workforce Cabinet recently submitted a new WIOA plan for public comment that will serve as the Cabinet’s strategic plan, guiding action for the next several years. The plan shifts Indiana’s talent development focus from programs to people, meeting all Hoosiers where they are to provide the right fit of services and supports to improve the quality of their lives—whether they are a young adult graduating from high school, an underemployed adult who needs to skill-up for a better career, a disabled Hoosier, or someone on state assistance. The plan considers all types of Hoosiers and aligns programs to support individual needs. One of the subcommittees dedicated to advising the development of the plan is the Industry Committee. The Industry Committee will review and determine the current and future needs of the economic drivers in Indiana. This includes specific skills and credentials (industry-recognized certifications, technical certificates, associate degrees, bachelor degrees, etc.). This also includes housing, transportation, labor supply, automation, talent attraction and recruitment, and other factors that will contribute to the success of Indiana’s economy. There is a particular focus on the Future of work and will also inform the State Plan in tackling Indiana’s industry challenges. The Industry Committee will continue to convene after the plan is submitted to provide feedback regarding local- and state-level systems and processes to be updated to ensure successful implementation. This Committee will also assist with monitoring the progress of the plan.

In 2018, Washington became the first state to mandate the creation of a Future of Work Task Force, with accompanying state funding. 6544 SSB charged the 16-member Task Force with creating a statewide policy framework that supports a talent development pipeline and lifelong learning. To increase the capacity of the Task Force, the Workforce Board was also allocated funding for two FTEs to oversee the Future of Work Project, including developing a set of annual recommendations to the legislature.

Governor Newsom identified workforce preparation and equitable economic growth as a shared priority across the Administration, in response, in 2019 he signed an Executive Order to create a Future of Work Commission. The order tasks the group of 22 gubernatorially appointed commissioners to, among other things, “identify policies and practices that will help California’s businesses, workers, and communities thrive economically, while responding to rapid changes in technology and workplace structures and practices.” The governor also stipulated full state agency cooperation with the Commission’s work.

In 2018, the Vermont Legislature passed a law requiring the creation of a fourteen-member Artificial Intelligence (AI) Task Force. Over a series of 15 meetings and public forums, the Task Force developed recommendations on the growth of Vermont’s emerging technology markets, and the use of artificial intelligence in State government. The Task Force released its report to the Final Report to the Senate Committee on Government Operations and the House Committee on Energy and Technology in January 2020.

New Jersey Governor Murphy signed in 2018 an Executive Order creating the Future of Work Task Force. In addition to industry and education partners, the Task Force is a partnership of the Governor’s Office, the Department of Labor and Workforce Development, the John J. Heldrich Center for Workforce Development at Rutgers University, and the State’s Chief Innovation Officer. The Task Force is chaired by the Chief Innovation Officer, and is comprised of 25 state leaders across labor, industry, research, education and community organizations. One of the first actions of the Task Force was to announce a Request for Proposals soliciting original, data-driven research and analysis about the future of work in New Jersey, with a specific focus on four topics including: data on technologies impacting New Jersey, information on the populations most affected, anticipated effects on communities and transportation, and proposed opportunities to leverage technology to increase economic opportunities statewide.

In 2020, states are required to submit WIOA two-year plans for 2021-2023 to outline their planned delivery of programmatic resources across all WIOA programs. Louisiana prepared a relatively comprehensive WIOA 2021-2023 combined plan that aligns WIOA, Perkins V, TANF, SNAP E&T, JVSG, CSBG, SCSEP, and work programs under Section 6(d)(4) of the Food and Nutrition Act of 2008. Leadership for this combined state planning came from the Office of Governor Edwards.