US bills could affect Alabama training programs, says education and workforce director
The Alabama Workforce Development Board is keeping an eye on congressional bills that could affect workforce training in the state.
Nick Moore, director of the Governor’s Office of Education and Workforce Transformation, provided members of the board’s policy committee with an overview of the Short-Term Pell and Stronger Workforce for America Act on Tuesday.
The two bills, which cleared the House Committee on Education and the Workforce last week, are meant to address workforce shortages that have continued since the start of the coronavirus pandemic.
The first bill would modify the Pell Grant program, which provides almost $7,400 annually for lower-income students for postsecondary education, allowing students to use their Pell Grants to fund short-term, job-specific, training for occupational licenses and industry certificates.
“There would be a stronger role for the state board,” Moore said. “Really, the first time being involved in something like this, determining whether a program is aligned to an in-demand, high-wage, job in the state. The good thing for Alabama is that we have already got the process: our local, regional statewide list of in-demand jobs, so we are actually going to be in good shape if that were to pass to make those determinations.”
The second bill reauthorizes the Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act. The bill covers federal workforce programs meant to upgrade the skills of American workers for jobs in important industries; help formerly incarcerated people transition into the workforce and enhance workforce training opportunities at community colleges.
The proposed bill would provide $5,000 to displaced workers for individual training accounts, allowing them to enroll in skills training programs. It will also place a greater focus on work-based learning for youth and enhance summer and year-round employment opportunities.
“There are some new definitions included,” Moore said. “The work-based learning definition that we already codified at the state level, including Perkins V, there is a requirement that local areas would spend at least 50% of funds on training through individual training accounts, and there is a process for redesignating local areas, and for making a state a single local area.”
Training programs must also be more aligned to continuing technical education programs, Moore said.
More also touched on changes that the U.S. Department of Labor is considering when it comes to apprenticeship programs.
“This notice of proposed rule making would require the state to submit a state apprenticeship plan, much like a state WIOA plan, and would put a lot more rules on how apprentice ability is determined, and what occupations are apprentice able,” Moore said.
Moore said the proposal could change the rules. The rule would create a new type of apprenticeship program called a continuing technical education apprenticeship. It would also formalize that a person receive 2,000 hours of training instead of one year of training and 144 hours of technical instruction.
Staff and partners are also compiling information and beginning to write the draft for the 2024 Workforce Innovation and Opportunity Act that the state will submit in the spring. The state is responsible for updating the plan every four years.
The assignments designating who is responsible for writing specific portions of the plan were sent out last week. Staff and partners of the Workforce Development Board will continue working on the plan until February, which will then be followed by public comment.
The plan is due by March 4.
Alabama Reflector is part of States Newsroom, an independent nonprofit website covering politics and policy in state capitals around the nation.
This article originally appeared on Montgomery Advertiser: Congressional bills could affect Alabama workforce training programs
